Chapter Two: The Shadow Performs Only Once

“Someone hid something inside the shadows,” Lu said. For the first time, Isabel looked directly at him. “And now it's falling into reality.” They entered the sealed plaza and launched Lu's mapping drone. Thermal imaging found a zone of absolute cold beneath the rig, shaped like a curled human body. As the drone approached, two white eyes opened. The drone dived. Lu twisted aside. A propeller sliced his arm. Blood struck the pavement, but before it could stain the stone, the droplets' shadows slipped into the cracks. Darkness across the plaza boiled. Shadows belonging to chairs, fences, and statues lengthened into arms and seized at them. Isabel flung her silver disk. Cold light pinned the nearest arm to a wall. “Run!”