Selene crouched, hugging her knees tightly. No, this couldn’t be real. She couldn’t be here. Only two points kept her from completely collapsing in despair. The first, she’d never given into despair and didn’t see the point in starting now. Second, the rocks were hot enough through her boot’s thick soles. She didn’t want to feel it through cloth.

The Ageless One’s life was ending. Unlike the rest of Eldanith Kingdom, Tristine watched him standing at edge plains, waving his hands as if conducting an orchestra instead of awaiting his doom.

Of all the times Linus could start believing in ghosts, he hadn’t considered during brilliant daylight. Ghosts were of darkness. Of shadows and chancery. They were tricksters and mirrors, not the inhabitants of a sun-swamped canyon in the middle of nowhere. Too bad no one had told the ghost that.

Something was wrong. She felt it the instant she swung open the door to the metaphysics department. The normal crowd bustled about inside the room. Mostly grad students hoping for an early response on their papers. However, they had fallen atypically silent when she entered. Sharon swallowed and strode into the room.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Belinda’s shrill voice cut over Donnan. Clenching his teeth, he bit back his irritation and turned toward the woman. She rushed him, flapping her skirts. “Don’t you know sweet words work better than fierce?” She placed herself between Donnan and his latest charge.

Roberta stood in the middle of chaos, feeling nothing and everything. Her body screamed, wanting to react viscerally, but her mind couldn’t grasp enough to react. The stalls from the market lay splintered. Fruit, cloth, and trinkets all lay liberally mixed together.

Dangling from the rope, Robert pondered how he’d gotten into this predicament. He didn’t like heights. He didn’t even enjoy the four stairs to his rowhouse stoop. Yet, he there he was, clinging to a rope off from the tower.