Chapter Four: The One Who Came Back

The shame has been mine for twenty years." The word mine burned the mouths away. Belonging was not evidence, Shen Yao understood. It was an act. "Yesterday may belong to a dead woman," she told the body in the mirror. "But I lived today." "Three." The ring cracked. The red-coated Shen Yao struck the glass from behind, her body covered in white bite marks. "It doesn't want your body," she cried. "It wants you to admit you don't exist. Only when you surrender the name can it cross completely." Gu activated the Ebbtide door. Darkness like seawater opened behind locker seventeen, and the fog city's lights shone far below. "Two." The Shepherd lunged. Shen Yao raised the mirror.