Chapter One: The Mirror Remembered Him Before the Applause Did

Shen Yan's voice drifted beneath it, as if from underwater. “Don't win,” he said. “Someone else will disappear next round.” Silver words seeped across the bottom of the mirror: TO RETRIEVE YOUR PARTNER, BRING YOUR NAME TO 17 LUJIANG ROAD BEFORE SUNRISE. As the writing vanished, someone laughed softly in the darkness behind her. “So it still remembers how to invite the living.” At the highest tier of the empty auditorium sat a young man holding a black umbrella. There was no rain indoors, yet water dripped steadily from its rim. “Who are you?” Lin Wu demanded. He closed the umbrella, revealing eyes that reflected almost no light. “A collector of names,” he said. “And the only person tonight who still remembers Shen Yan—apart from you.”