Chapter 8 · The Survivor Without a Shadow

The wet footprints stopped three steps from the platform.

Lin Lan held her breath.

Behind her, the abandoned ferry station groaned beneath the rain. Water dripped through holes in the iron roof and struck the cracked ticket windows with a soft, patient rhythm. Somewhere below the platform, the underground rail line shuddered. No train emerged. Only a long breath of cold air crawled out of the tunnel, carrying the smell of river mud and extinguished candles.

Nara leaned against Lin’s shoulder. Her skin was cold enough to burn.

“Don’t look at the footprints,” Tavi whispered.

Lin kept her eyes fixed on the black mouth of the tunnel. “That advice would have been more useful before you said it.”

“I’m not good at timing.”

“You’re not good at much.”

“Still alive, aren’t I?”

“For now.”

The last word fell between them.

Nara’s fingers tightened around the sleeve of Lin’s coat. Her hand was almost weightless. The rain had taken pieces of her. Along her jaw, the skin had become translucent, threaded with thin silver currents that moved as if a tide were trapped beneath it. Every time the station lights flickered, Lin could see the darkness behind Nara’s ribs.

Not bones.