I looked at his face. He was still, accepting my scrutiny.

“Your eyes.” I looked right into them, mesmerized and repelled at once. “That’s why they change.”

He didn’t deny it. His eyes were no longer yellow, but a dark, softly glowing red. The color of my aura. “I meant no offense,” he said, “but it must be this way.”

“Why? Because you said so?”

Without responding, he walked on. I followed. It made me sick that he could feed on me.

After several minutes of walking, Warden stopped. A thin, blue-tinged mist hung around us. I turned up my collar. “You feel it,” Warden said. “The cold. Have you ever wondered why there is frost here, in early spring?”

“It’s England. It’s cold.”

“Not this cold. Feel it.” He took my hand and peeled off one of my gloves. My fingers burned in the bitter air. “There is a cold spot nearby.”

I took my glove back. “Cold spot?”

“Yes. They form when a spirit has dwelled in one place for a long time, creating an opening between the æther and the corporeal world. Have you never noticed how cold it becomes when spirits are near?”

“I suppose.” Spirits did chill, but I’d never given it much thought.

“Spirits are not supposed to dwell between the worlds. They draw on heat energy to sustain themselves. Sheol I is surrounded by cold spots—ethereal activity here is much higher than it is in the citadel. That is why the Emim are attracted toward us, rather than the amaurotic population in London.” Warden indicated the stretch of hard earth in front of us. “How do you think you might find the epicenter of a cold spot?”

“Most voyants could see the spirit,” I said. “They have the third eye.”

“But you do not.”

“No.”

“There are ways for the unsighted to do it. Have you heard of rhabdomancy?”

“I hear it’s useless,” I said. Jax had told me so, many times. “Rhabdomancers say they can find their way back from anywhere. They say they can make numa fall when they get lost, and that spirits will point them in the right direction. Doesn’t work.”

“That may be true, but it is not ‘useless.’ No type of clairvoyance is useless.”

Warmth rose in my cheeks. I didn’t really believe rhabdomancers were useless, but Jax had always told me that they were. You couldn’t work for Jaxon Hall and not share his opinions on such things.

“Why is it useful, then?” I asked. Warden looked at me. “You’re supposed to be teaching me. Teach me.”