Bailey was the goddess of the blue moon, and three nights ago something tore her light out of the sky. She woke in the dark with no memory of it. She only knew two things. A demon had swallowed her glow and left BloodNest in endless night. And one person had stood on a hill and watched it happen, with no camera, no notes, nothing but their own eyes. That witness was all she had. The astronomers had recorded numbers. The photographers had captured empty frames. But the watcher had seen the demon itself. Find the watcher, and she might learn how to take her light back. The trouble was she had no name, no face, no trail. By morning the hill would be swept by wind and foot traffic. Whatever marks the watcher left would be gone. So Bailey climbed the hill in the dark. The grass still held the shape of boots pressed deep. She knelt and set her palm flat against one print. Faint warmth lingered there. The watcher had stood a long time, waiting, which meant they had come on purpose. The prints led downhill to a wall of thorned vines. Behind the vines rose a mansion that should not have been there. Its stone walls bloomed with huge pink and green flowers that glowed faintly in the dark. Petals breathed open and shut like slow lungs. The boot prints ended at its carved front door. Bailey pushed the door. It would not move. She shoved harder. Nothing. Then the ground shook. A shape rose beside the mansion, taller than the roof. It was a man carved from rough stone, his body a map of deep cracks, one eye burning red. He had been crouched so still she had mistaken him for a boulder. He stepped between her and the door. "The one inside saw your light die," the stone man said. His voice ground like rock on rock. "They do not wish to be found." Bailey's heart jumped. The witness was real, close, behind that door. "I need to speak with them. The demon took something from me. I think your master knows how." "Then you know too much already." He raised one heavy fist. Bailey did not run. She had come too far for the one lead she had. She stood her ground and spoke fast. "Strike me and you lose your only chance too. The demon that ate my light will not stop. Night everywhere, forever. Your master lives under that night as well." The red eye held on her. The fist lowered. A voice came from a high window, thin and careful. "Let her in, stone. I saw what came for her. She should know what it looked like before it comes for the rest of us." The stone man stepped aside. The door swung open on its own. Bailey had found her witness. Now she had to walk inside and hear what they saw.