If spirits are drawn to strong emotions, Cade is blood in shark-infested waters. There are mages coming up the stairs as he descends: young ones, fresh-faced and happy, but they wince and grimace when they turn to look at him, hurrying past, the skin disintegrating in gruesome chunks off their faces and arms before they vanish again. Dead, all dead.

Something scuttles by in the darkness when he reaches the bottom, and he stumbles artlessly to catch himself against a wall. Only then does he notice Inessa, looking at her with haunted eyes, perhaps not even fully convinced of her reality.