"Freeze!" one shouted. "Hands where we can see them!"
Varkolak pulled me behind him, his body a shield between me and their guns. "We're leaving," he said, his voice deadly calm. "Don't try to stop us."
The lead guard stepped forward. "Shadow scum. How did you get in here?"
I felt the familiar anger rising in my chest. Always the slurs, always the hatred. I'd had enough.
"Like this," I said, stepping out from behind Varkolak.
I closed my eyes and reached for the shadows inside me, the gift Varkolak had shared. The power rushed through my veinslike liquid night, and I felt my body change. My skin rippled, darkness spreading across it like spilled ink.
The guards' eyes widened in horror. One of them fired, but the bullet passed harmlessly through my now-shadowy form.
"She's one of them!" he shouted. "She's a hybrid!"
I extended my hand, and shadows leapt from my fingertips, wrapping around their weapons and pulling them away. The guards backed up, fear replacing their confidence.
"I'm both," I said, my voice echoing strangely in my transformed state. "Human and shadow. And I'm not the only one."
Varkolak moved beside me, his own form shifting between solid and shadow. "We need to go, Aya. Now."
Alarms blared throughout the building as we fled, racing through corridors filled with frightened staff and confused security personnel. We burst through the front doors into the plaza outside, right into the middle of the evening rush hour.
Hundreds of people stopped and stared as we emerged, my body still flickering between human and shadow. Varkolak grabbed my hand, pulling me toward an alley.
"Aya! Look out!"
I turned to see a security officer taking aim. Without thinking, I thrust my hand forward, shadows extending to create a wall between us and the bullet. The shot hit my shadow shield and dissipated.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. People were recording with their devices, capturing the impossible sight before them.
"She's a hybrid!"
"How is that possible?"
"I thought mixed breeding was impossible!"
Among the crowd, I noticed something unexpected, looks of hope on some faces. A woman stepped forward, hereyes meeting mine with understanding. Slowly, her hand transformed, darkness spreading across her skin.
"I'm like you," she said. "We've been hiding for years."
Beside her, a man, clearly human, took her hand. "There are more of us than they want to admit."
Another couple stepped forward, then another. Shadow-human pairs who had found each other despite the system's attempts to keep them apart.
"What is this?" Varkolak whispered.
"Revolution," I answered.
The security forces were closing in, pushing through the growing crowd. But for each officer who approached, more shadow-human couples revealed themselves, creating a protective barrier around us.
An older woman with silver-streaked hair approached me, her eyes sharp with determination. "We heard rumors about a human girl who could wield shadow abilities. We've been waiting for someone to show us it's possible."
"How many of you are there?" I asked, amazed.
"Hundreds in this city alone," she replied. "Thousands across the colonies. We found each other despite their manipulations."
The crowd was growing, both in size and in volume. Chants rose:
