falling . . . into endless night and boundless silence . . . into nothing . . . I screamed but no sound reached my ears. Without touch or hearing, sight or taste, my body was vanishing, shredding into flakes like flying ash. But senses returned in a rush when the darkness of nothing was replaced with the darkness of the deeps—cold, black water. Limbs thrashed against its unrelenting weight. Eyes and wounded back stung. After the terrifying fall, I would have welcomed any sensation were my unprepared lungs not threatening to burst. Still! Slow! Cast! Evanide’s training lashed through mortal panic like the Disciplinarian’s favored whip. My body hung limp in the water like sea wrack tethered to a rock, my arms its floating fronds. My heart slowed to an undetectable pace. The magic that had flowed into the bronze door now arrowed through the frigid water seeking air. Assuming, of course, that the end of the world was not entirely water.
