Chapter Three: Light Sent Seven Years Ago

Li Wu urged him to choose, but Shen Yan remembered the seven stars in his photograph and the reflected path from Xingyao’s silver disc. They had not been the number seven. They were the Big Dipper. Its handle pointed east, toward spring. He opened the third door on the eastern side. Beyond it lay the observatory roof. The two cities overlapped completely below. Glass towers passed through black-tiled roofs. Cars drove through ghostly crowds. The aurora crossed the heavens like a shining wound. Xingyao stood at the center of the dome. She was so real that Shen Yan was afraid to move. “Sister.” Her eyes reddened. She raised a silver pistol and aimed at him. “You should not remember that word.” “What happened seven years ago?”