Tony leaned forward and peered through the streaks of rain on the windshield. “You figure he’s inside?”

“That would be where they keep the light.”

“Yeah, but they don’t usually keep the doors unlocked.”

“That wouldn’t stop a shadow.”

“No, but it would stop the guy they’re riding. Unless these things come with break and enter already downloaded.”

Arra pulled in behind a battered station wagon and turned off the car. “I expect Alan Wu called the minister and asked for a meeting.”

“It can do that?”

“It knows everything Alan knows. I imagine Alan knows how to use a phone.”

Since that level of sarcasm seldom required an answer, Tony got out of the car. The sky was still overcast and threatening although the rain had stopped. He waited until the wizard joined him—not entirely positive she was going to until she was standing beside him—then started up the three steps to the concrete walk. “Everything Alan knows?” he asked after a moment.

“That’s right.”

“So, that’d include pages and pages of really crappy dialogue.”

“Probably.”

“You know, it’d almost serve the Shadowlord right if we let this one back through.”

“No, it wouldn’t.”

“That was a joke,” he pointed out, glancing over at Arra’s profile.

“It wasn’t funny.”

Okay.

The front door of the church was locked. The side door was open. Even though it was just past noon, so little sun shone through the many windows that the lights were on. A lone figure stood at the front of the sanctuary staring up at the altar. Even at this distance there was no mistaking Alan Wu’s great hair. Or the fact that his shadow was facing in another direction entirely.

Arra closed her hand around Tony’s arm and when he turned toward her, she laid a finger against her lips.

Momentarily distracted by the depths to which the wizard chewed her nails, he jumped when she pinched him. Since he hadn’t planned on bellowing a challenge as he charged forward, he nodded, rubbed his arm, and together they started up the aisle. Twenty feet. Fifteen. Ten . . .

Alan Wu’s body turned. His eyes widened. “You!”

Then they widened further as the shadow surged free in one long whiplike motion, clearly trying to escape.

No. Not escape. Attack. It was heading straight for . . .

He dove into a pew as Arra lifted her hands and shouted out the incantation. This time, the third time he’d heard them, the words almost made sense. Might have made sense had they not been immediately followed by a scream from Alan Wu. Tony lifted his head over the barricade of polished wood just in time to see the actor hit the floor in convulsions.