Chapter 6000

Warm sunlight spilled across the step outside the lodge. Bamboo leaves swayed, casting thin slats of shadow over the flagstones.

Lyza squinted into the glare. A heartbeat ago, Jared and Luther had been standing beside her. Now their outlines shimmered, slipping between light and shadow, and were simply gone.

Her fingers curled into her palm. Holding her breath, she formed a prayer she didn’t dare speak: Come back alive. Both of you.

She turned sharply to Panther and Monkey. The sunlight slid off her face, leaving only hard resolve.

“Pack everything,” she said, her voice low but edged with steel. “We move to Number Two safehouse exactly as the elder ordered. Fast. No trace.”

Roof tiles flashed beneath Luther’s boots as he followed Jared across Jade Immortal City. They were nothing more than wind-blurred shadows skimming over tangled alleys and slanted eaves.

Jared never moved in a straight line. He cut left into a deserted lane, dropped behind a collapsed courtyard wall, then disappeared through a drain opening that reeked of moss and rust.