Magic has a cost. Sarah Beauhall, blacksmith and dragon slayer doesn't know just how high. Her lover, Katie Cornett, has finally been overwhelmed by this spiraling cost and her spirit is blasted from her body and flung into a world of nightmares and monsters. As Katie's coma deepens and her chances of survival fade, Sarah's spirit must make a journey of its own through a world of crystalline eaters and malevolent spirits who exist only to hunt and to consume. Night after night Sarah delves beyond the hidden paths, going from crystalline landscapes into the wild lands and lost worlds far beyond the great sea of dreams. When the spirit of a long dead murderer-known only as the Bowler Hat man-begins gathering an army in the forgotten lands, Sarah discovers that more than eaters and feeders pursue her.