Adele's wedding dress - bone white and scalloped along her breastbone - caught on rubble, sending her tumbling to the ground. She lay among the detritus, listening. From behind her came the scrabbling sounds of claws on stone, tha-thumps of wings too large for the low ceilings. She ripped the offending piece off her dress and struggled to her feet.
The study was 'the safest place on the manor grounds', and those were Edward's words - those you knew you could trust. She heaved the reinforced door closed and put her back against it, slumping to the ground. Through the windows behind Edward's desk, she could see the creatures in their hundreds - blotting the bruise black sky.
They were called rakshas. They were from the other side. And they had taken all that mattered to her in this world.
A simple thinning of the veil, said Edward's notebook, allows humans and rakshas to cross over. Deities, being bound to their territories, must stay behind. Her husband studied rakshas for a living but, despite his experience, had fallen through during a summoning ritual.
Adele pressed her lips to her wedding ring. She would bring him back.
With renewed determination, she turned back to Edward's notes. Knocked over the lantern, which rolled across the floor, then came to rest against the wall. When she leaned down to pick it up, she realized there was an abnormally large gap between the bookshelf and the floor.
The bookshelf swung outwards to reveal a secret chamber, with tomes and notebooks she'd never seen before. She knew she shouldn't invade Edward's privacy, but - what if they contained something that could help?
One notebook held pentagrams and wild sketches, whirling infernos with figures in the flames. Deities which are brought across can be tamed, said another, and their rakshas will flock to you. She pressed her lips to her ring, no, clearly, this wasn't his work, it must've been one of his dreary peers from the Institute, the ones who ogled her with brandy in hand when they visited, no, Edward wasn't like them, his eyes were kind.
She turned the page and the next sketch was of her.
She'd always wondered why she had no family at the wedding. No memories before her time with Edward. Shortness of breath, blurry vision, devotion to the man that bordered on insanity. But there was only one way to know for sure.
She could sense them from here, on the other side of the door, warm as a hearth. The dead spirits, eek-eek-eek, roosting close as they could get to their Queen. She took off her ring, and felt her mind unfold to accept them.
Trim the wick. Light the candle. Her rakshas loped about the study, taking care not to step on the iron-filing pentagram.
Mages did not die easily. Even better - Adele did not intend to make Edward's death a quick or merciful affair.
The world shifted, red light bleeding beneath the study door. She reached the threshold. Stepped through.