Bali opened her eyes but didn't sit up, even though she could tell the chain was missing from her ankle. There was a weight in her bones that made them feel like lead, and she did not have the energy to move. Wordlessly she let her eyes roam around to see where she was, and she saw that they had brought her into a large stone room with tall vaulted ceilings and archways encompassing a center stone table. The room was lit by lanterns covered in purple sheer cloth to dim the light, making the darkness feel even more all-consuming than it already did, and Bali couldn't help but shiver. There was evil in this room, and she could feel it in her bones like a poison that she was starting to believe was slowly killing her.
"But father, if you don't need the girl any longer, why keep her?" Bali could hear Milos' voice, almost pleading as if he were trying to keep his emotions in check but failing.
"We may need a fresssh ssshadow yet! Sssshe sssstaysss!" The hissing voice replied, no false affection in his voice now.
"But father…"
There was the sound of someone being hit hard across the face, the noise echoing across the stone walls and making Bali wince. Then the slithery voice of the witch said, "If you dare to quessstion me again, it isss your ssshadow we ssshall be usssing tonight. Now do asss you are told, boy!" There was the sound of assent, and a figure came into view from around the stone table. It was Milo wearing a cloak again; the hood had fallen back, and he was wiping his nose with the sleeve where blood was smeared.
Bali closed her eyes as he drew closer to her, pretending to be asleep, and it wasn't until he reached down and carefully picked her up that she opened her eyes and whispered, "Are you ok?" as he carried her across the chamber. He didn't say anything as he set her against one of the archways where a chain had been placed to secure around her ankle. Milo clipped the iron around her ankle without looking her in the eye, but as he got up to leave, she reached out and grabbed his hand.
"Milo?" she said, a questioning look in her gaze, which he met with a defeated look of shame.
"It's better that we don't talk. Better for you," he whispered back, gently pulling his hand out of hers, though Bali could feel his hesitation before he walked away into the darkness. Bali was alone for what felt like a long time after that, and the adrenaline of not knowing what was about to happen kept her awake despite her fever. She sat in silence looking at the dimmed lights and wondering what had happened to her friends when mumbled voices caught her attention. It sounded like the witch talking to a human man under one of the archways not far from where Bali lay against the stone.
"And was the missssion a success, captain?" The witch asked in a bemused voice as if he already knew the answer.
"We have the girl secured, en route. She should be here any moment," the man's voice replied triumphantly.
"And what of the other missions?" The witch asked.
"Not as successful. We were unable to apprehend the man called Maverick or any of his companions. They managed to destroy our level four shadow," he replied.
"Impossssible!" The witch hissed angrily. "No one hassss ever defeated a level four but the shadow eater! They live until they fade with the sssunlight."
"I know, but they did it somehow," the man replied.
"Where are they now?" The witch asked in a demanding tone.
"We don't know. We haven't been able to get eyes on them since they left the warehouse. All of my men are out patrolling the city as we speak; they won't get away for long," the man replied in a placating voice that suggested he reported to the witch and not the other way around.
"You had better find them, captain, or you can tell the chief there will be a vacansssy in the department very soon."
There was a quiet and submissive reply followed by footsteps that faded away, giving Bali the impression that they had left the chamber. She wondered how the police station connected to this chamber. Were they just one door away from the hustle and bustle and lights of the police station? Were there average criminals hauled in for petty crimes just on the other side of the walls? Bali was beginning to forget what normal light felt like in her eyes. She longed to feel the sunshine on her cheeks and was having an irrational regret for every day she had ever spent indoors.
The news that her friends had survived and were running through the streets of the city causing a ruckus for the police chief made Bali smile. She was relieved that they were at least not dead, even if they hadn't been able to find her and save her. They had tried, and that mattered.
"Where do you want her?" A voice said from the darkness, startling Bali from her thoughts as several men came out of the shadows carrying the unconscious form of Lucy. Bali felt shocked to see the girl again, but she wasn't sure why. Perhaps a part of her thought that there was no way Tony would let her out of his sight, but then here she was, a captive just like Bali.
"Ssset her down here," the witch hissed, pointing next to the stone table where the men set her down carefully. Bali was shocked at the change in the girl's appearance. Her hair was braided in a neat French braid; she wore leather boots and slender, army-green cargo pants and a short-sleeved black shirt. The clothes looked like what they kept for emergencies in the bunkers, and Bali couldn't help but notice that the braid looked like one of Daisy's. She was always trying to braid Bali's hair too.
Lucy looked less gaunt, and her cheeks had a light pink tinge to them, as opposed to the waxen white look they had had the last time Bali had seen her. How much time had passed? she wondered as she looked at Lucy's sleeping form.
The witch came out of the shadows carrying a glass box with gold trim, and Bali looked at it in shock and horror as a black mass inside throbbed and shifted as if it were desperate to get out. It was a shadow—Milo's shadow, she realized suddenly, repulsed by the revelation. It was unnatural to see a shadow unattached to a solid object or person, but to see one in a box was like watching someone shove a live fish into a toaster.
"Cut the casssst off!" The witch hissed to Milo, who had just come into the room holding a small handheld saw like the ones doctors used.
Milo was standing in front of Lucy staring down at her, not saying a word, holding the saw as if he forgot why he had it in his hand in the first place. Bali could see without a shadow of a doubt that Lucy and Milo were twins: the same hair, the same eyes, the same nose; they were identical. She looked at Milo, hoping he would see what she saw, but the look on his face belied no revelation of having just encountered his long-lost sister. Instead he shook his head as if shaking off the beginning of a bad headache and instead knelt down and began cutting off Lucy's cast.
It took a while to get off, and Milo struggled with it, clearly trying not to hit the girl's arm by accident. After a while of sawing, the blade finally fell silent, and with one final tug the cast came off of Lucy's arm in two pieces. Bali was surprised to see that Lucy's arm looked perfectly normal beneath the cast. There were no marks or swelling, and it looked just like her other arm.
"Won't her arm break again?" Milo asked, concern in his voice as the witch came over and ordered him to pick up Lucy's legs so they could set her on the stone table.
"It won't matter oncccee ssshe hasss eaten the shadow," the witch hissed, setting Lucy's head and shoulders on the table, and then in silence the two of them put a robe on Lucy like the one that Milo and the witch wore, Milo being careful with the broken arm as he slipped it through the sleeve.
"Now we wait for her to wake up," the witch said with a satisfied gleam in his black eyes.
Bali wanted to talk to Milo. She tried to catch his eyes, but he refused to look in her direction. Instead he stood over Lucy for a long time, staring at her face as though he were daydreaming. Was he remembering? Bali wondered. She wanted to yell across the room, "That's your sister!" But before she could say anything, Milo shook his head again and walked out of the room, leaving Bali to sit in the darkness waiting for Lucy to wake up.