Chapter Four: The People Taken by Light

Neither the child nor Xu Ning's departure appeared on surveillance footage. At the plaza, Qichen's new “Starvault” lamps shone even in daylight. Li Wu frowned. “They are calling names.” Shen Yan heard nothing, but saw silver powder inside the shades. Through his camera, wet black paving overlaid the square. The umbrella child beckoned from the window. “A Shadowkin,” Li Wu said, holding down his lens. “They have no stable bodies. They travel inside the shadows of those who see them.” “Is Xu Ning alive?” Li Wu searched the moving script on her neck. “Her name is still here, stretched along these lights toward the eastern bank.” The lamps lit one after another, as if they had heard.