Sixteen-year-old Silas Hogwood is in the stables brushing his horse when his father returns. Using magic, Silas’s father pushes him into a stall. He is angry because he’s been dismissed from the King’s League of Magicians. Silas’s father begins beating Silas, worse than he’s ever hurt him before.

Using a blast of kinetic energy, Silas pushes his father away. His father threatens to kill him, and Silas feels his magic, necromancy, gathering and growing. He suffocates his father and vows that no one will have power over him again.

Merritt Fernsby, 31, was disinherited by his father 13 years ago and has not spoken to his family since. He is therefore surprised when his maternal grandmother leaves him property in her will: Whimbrel House and Blaugdone Island in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. Merritt worked as a journalist but is now writing his second novel. The house has been uninhabited since 1737, so Merritt imagines that many repairs will be necessary.

The lawyer warns him that the previous tenant claimed that the house was haunted. Merritt needs a place to live, so he travels to the island. From the outside, the house appears to be in good condition, and inside, all appears to be in order until he notices that the furniture is melting.