A priestess broke free of the carnage and ran across the grove, jumping over roots as branches slapped her face, racing for the gate. Cassi didn’t even see the creature move, but there it was, standing before her in the shadows. It used one sharp claw to slit her throat. Another priest ran and another died, on and on, until the sacred nest fell completely still. The beast opened its mouth, revealing white teeth and pink gums. Its forked tongue darted out to lick the blood from its fingers. The black eyes surveyed the room, shifting between the bodies littering the floor. Power leaked from its pores as though it searched for something. By its feet, the god stone was nothing more than a broken shell, hollow and emptied of all it contained.
An egg, Cassi realized with a mental gasp, studying the oval shape and the fissured edges, the delicate fragility now on display. It was never a stone. It's an egg. They're all eggs.
Her mind raced down this new path.
The prophecy played across her thoughts.
Beasts will emerge, filled with fury and scorn, fighting to recover what from their claws we have torn.
It was the piece of the puzzle they'd always been missing—what had they taken from the dragons? What did they want? Why did they keep coming back to this world?
Eggs. We took their eggs.
Cassi stared at the creature, its back to her as its head continued a slow perusal of the cavernous grove. Those wings. Those scales. Those claws. They belonged to a dragon, and yet not. Malek's face flitted across her thoughts, the hard, determined edge of his jaw as he marched Rafe inside the warehouse to where a dragon awaited. A sick feeling stirred in her spirit.
Soul joining.
The answer was as obvious as it was cruel. She didn't know why or how, but five hundred years ago, before the isles were lifted into the sky, dragon eggs had been fused to human souls, and this was the result—a creature stuck somewhere between the two.
I have to warn someone. I have to—
Cassi froze as the creature spun, its bottomless gaze landing on her.
It's not possible.
She was invisible. She was nothing but air. Grasping the tether to her body, Cassi pulled on that string to throw her spirit from the nest. Before she even moved, the beast was there, traveling with the speed of darkness. Claws stroked her soul, latching on as she fought to break away. Sharp edges cut, burning as they passed through her, but she didn't have a neck it could snap or a throat it could slice. It held her as though she were tangible, but she wasn't. In this form, she was nothing but a dream.
Cassi yanked on the tether, trying to slip free by using the connection to her body. She imagined the cell where Xander had left her, imagined her limbs sprawled across the floor where she’d fallen, imagined her speckled wings flared across the stones. If she concentrated, she could feel the damp cold against her cheek and the tickle of soot covering her feathers.
It was working.
Her spirit was like water, slipping through the creature's fingers. Her heartbeat pulsed down that line, thump, thump, thump, drawing her closer. That was the connection. That was the tie. That was her freedom. Thump, thump, thump.
The creature released her.
Cassi flew across the sacred nest, her spirit passing through branches and leaves as she raced for the protection of the rocks. If she could just reach the wall, nothing would catch her. The trees gave way to empty air.
She was almost there.
Almost there.
The creature stepped from the shadows, blocking her path. It lifted a sharp claw, the point catching some unseen source of light as it gleamed across the darkness. With one swift jerk, it cut through the tether to her body and Cassi went tumbling into the wall at full speed. Her spirit rolled through the rock like a ship lost at sea, no anchor to hold it steady as the waves crashed and the wind howled.
Lost and adrift, she careened through the cliff and emerged at the splashing waters of Taetanos's Gate, her spirit coming to a stop in that wet, moist air as the falling river roared. No heartbeat stirred in the back of her thoughts. When she reached for the familiar warmth of her body, no matter how far she pushed her magic, nothing was there.
Cassi sped across the night sky, an arrow racing for a target. She didn't stop until she was back in that lonely cell at the base of the castle. Her body lay against the cold stone floor, as immobile and lifeless as an empty shell, nothing but mechanistic organs. She tried to touch her spirit to her skin, but they wouldn't connect. Like oil on water, the two refused to meet.
Was she alive?
Was she dead?
The horrible realization struck as swiftly as a hidden attacker, like two hands coming around her throat and cutting off air.
She was neither.
She was stuck, just like that creature, in some impossible in-between.
49
Xander
That was the worst one yet, Xander thought as he stood on the castle wall and stared out at his broken city, surveying the damage as best he could beneath the moonlight. Thank the gods it finally stopped.
Pylaeon was in ruins. The river ran wild through the streets, glistening silver as it flooded over rock. Buildings were little more than rubble. A fire had started in the wooden sector where the peasants lived. Half his people had taken to the air. In the distance, ashen dove wings fluttered beneath the night sky. Xander wanted to help them, to save them, but what could he do to fix a magic spell he didn’t even understand? What could he do when he could hardly think of anything except Cassi and all the things she'd told him? What could he do when he wanted to leap from this wall, dive over the edge of the isle, and see this world beneath the mist for himself?
Rafe.
His brother was alone right now in a foreign world, held hostage by some hideous king, abandoned and left to rot. And while Rafe had been down there, Xander had been up here letting the very person who'd condemned his brother to that gruesome fate wriggle her way into his heart.
How many lies had she told?
How many lives had she ruined?
All for what?
Xander tightened his hand around the ancient text he'd found in her rooms, buried at the very bottom of her trunk. It was bound by a thick leather string, the cover soft and worn, the text inside so old he couldn't read it. She'd stolen it, he knew, on the same night she'd pressed that gentle kiss to his neck. She'd looked into his eyes and lied through her teeth, the same way she'd done countless times before. His anger was a palpable thing, a bubbling, boiling fury he wasn't sure how to cool, but beneath that was a bottomless pit of hurt. He'd trusted her with his life, with Lyana's life, with his kingdom, and she'd betrayed everyone.
But she hadn’t killed him.
In the end, she'd confessed.
Despite everything, he couldn't help but hope that might mean she wasn't beyond redemption after all. What sort of fool did that make him?
"My prince," Helen said as she landed by his side, pulling him from his thoughts. He hastily stuffed the stolen book into the folds of his jacket, pocketing it out of sight. "You should return to the safety of the castle. Too many dangers lurk under the cover of chaos."
"Is there anything more we can do to help them?" he asked, not taking his eyes from the city.
"Every guard is helping to clear the streets. Every healer is searching for more wounded. All the stores have been emptied and the servants are delivering food as we speak. There's nothing left to do until morning."