Magnus rose from his chair and went to a gilded cart on which an array of bottles and decanters was arranged, and selected a bottle of deep gold spirits. “Would anyone care to join me in a bit of port?”

Matthew drew his empty flask from his pocket and held it out. The bandage on his hand seemed to glow whitely in the lamplight. “If you wouldn’t mind, I could use a top-up.”

Magnus gave him a look that said expensive port didn’t belong in pocket flasks, but he complied. He poured himself a measure and sat down again, the glass of rose-gold liquid balanced between the fingers of his left hand. “You know the ways of shadows, James. Did Belial show you his new realm of Edom, or did you somehow force your way into it? Do you remember?”

“Not consciously,” said James. “I was—upset at the time.” I made a promise to Daisy, and I will keep that promise. If you wanted to prevent me from doing the right thing, you should have started the campaign quite a bit earlier than the night before my wedding.

“If you are suggesting he enter the shadow realm of his own will, the last time he did that, he nearly destroyed the Institute ballroom,” said Matthew.

“And I almost shot him with an arrow,” said Christopher sorrowfully.

“Surely you could refrain from doing that again, er, which one are you? Cecily’s son? Try not to shoot arrows at James,” said Magnus. “Look, when he went into the shadow realm from the ballroom, did he disappear, or was his body still present in this world?”

“I can answer that,” said James. “It was the former. I disappeared.”

“But earlier, when you envisioned Edom,” said Magnus. “Did you actually travel there?”

“No,” Matthew said. “He remained in the room with us. Quite present.”

“I have spoken about this with Jem,” said Magnus. “Most of your travels, so to speak, James, have taken place within a dream-realm. Only when you have physically removed yourself to a dimension controlled by Belial has Belial been in a position to hurt you. He is spying on you, in his nasty little way—I say spy on him right back. In dreams.”

“Dream-magic,” said Christopher, pleased. “I told you those oneiromancy books would be helpful.”

“You saw Edom once in a dream,” said Magnus. “You can see it again.”

“But what is the importance of seeing Edom?” said Cordelia. “What will it tell us?”

“Whether Belial is indeed there,” said Magnus. “Even what his plans are. Is he building an army? Hiding and licking his wounds? What demons follow him? What are his vulnerabilities? Think of it as spying on the camp of the enemy.”

James shook his head. “I have never done anything like that before, in practice with Jem or by accident,” he said. “I am not sure I would quite know how.”