Their fading psychic powers signal to the three point-of-view characters, who trade off quick chapters, that the magical gateway—through which a flood of the blitz, gargoyles, and other mythological creatures has appeared—might be closing. Zora seeks to escape the ruthless militia who have captured her. Cassie resolutely sets out on the back of a (more or less) tamed blitz to rescue a young friend with extraordinary animal-communication powers who has been kidnapped. And Thomas negotiates with a demonic, corpse-eating ghoul for access to the godlike elders of the magical world. The frequent shifts in perspective and locale lead to choppy pacing rather than growing suspense, and an eventual, indecisive battle between the blitz and ghouls comes off more as a contrived climax than a necessary development. Still, there’s plenty of action, some of it involving dragon riding, and the author does tuck in a few nifty ideas, like a ghoul-given grave-sight that tells Thomas how soon people will die by how fast their faces seem to rot, and a talking mushroom that dispenses healing (but ominously infectious) spores. The human cast largely presents white.
