The creature hit the church floor like a falling mountain.
Stone shattered.
Dust exploded through the air.
Seraphine barely had time to react before instinct took over.
Silver light burst from her palms and slammed into the monster’s chest.
The blast pushed it backward—but only a few steps.
It barely slowed.
The thing was massive.
Twisted limbs of black bone and shadow stretched from its body. Its skin looked like burned stone, cracked with glowing veins of ancient power.
And its eyes
Empty pits of dying starlight.
Seraphine felt the wrongness of it immediately.
“This isn’t an Ancient,” she said sharply.
“No,” the immortal replied calmly behind her.
“It’s older.”
The creature roared again, the sound shaking dust from the broken ceiling.
Its claws ripped through the air towa
