Chapter Three: Light Sent Seven Years Ago

Li Wu could not see the words in the mirror. Shen Yan did not tell her. He raised his camera. In the viewfinder, Xingyao vanished, leaving the observatory dome and a road paved with starlight. Behind them, the paper birds screamed as the masked figures approached. “Stay close,” Li Wu said, pressing her palm to the frame. “A shadow remembers more roads than its owner.” The glass rippled. They stepped through and landed in the last car of Linjiang Metro Line Two. The train moved impossibly fast. Through the left windows passed the real city: convenience stores, emergency-room lights, sleeping apartments. Through the right lay Qiyao City: black towers hung upside down in the sky, and antlered vendors folded signs that breathed.