Rain pounded against his back. Lightning flashed in the distance. He roared along with the thunder, relishing the lack of need to worry. No humans for thousands of miles, and no Sanctum to confine his space.

Right now, while the storm hid him, he was free.

He spiraled forward with laughter, willing the rain to spin with him. It obeyed, allowing him to bullet through a batch of dry air with the water making a pinwheel around him.

The increasingly familiar draw pulled at his gut. His focus came undone, and the rain pelted his scales again. He sensed her, however many thousands of miles away.

She was at her grandmother's house once more, dancing in the rain. Not because she loved rain as much as he did, but because it lit up her grandmother's usually worn face. The elderly woman shook with laughter.

A soft smile pulled at his lips. Once, he would have thought that a bond chained him. A prison, just like the Sanctums. Now he struggled to follow the order against contacting her. He had to "let the bond grow naturally" before he attempted contact.

But soon, the next stage of the bond would—

Darkness enveloped everything, and then the world exploded with color. Thousands of moments flashed past Josh. He tumbled through a whirlwind, unable to stop or focus on any specific spot in time. His hands—human hands now, not the talons from before—grasped, but he couldn't find hold on anything.

Light blinded him before leaving him in darkness once more. Except what followed wasn't a wave of color.

A force slammed into him from each side. Invisible, intangible, but able to compress him at the same time as rip his insides apart.

Thysia!

Her voice penetrated the painful haze. He felt her reaching, trying to pull away the full force of what he had taken.

No, he growled. I will not let you.

But it will...

The uncontrolled pain in her voice stabbed into him, but he shoved it away. Shoved away all of the fears and loss trickling in through the bond.

I know. And it doesn't matter. I will protect you—

"Help me!"

Josh wasn't sure what woke him up—the distant cry or Mara shaking his arm.

"Josh. Caleb," she whispered.

At his name, Cale's eyes snapped open. He reached for both of his swords, fully alert and searching the area.

"Help!"

That shout again. It stilled Josh's pulse. Eli made his way to the forefront of his mind despite knowing the young voice he heard didn't belong to his brother.

"A random kid shouldn't be out there," Josh said. "I mean, you guys are hearing that, too, right?"

Cale nodded. He examined the night. Only the stars provided any light, but it didn't deter their enhanced vision. Not that Josh saw anything besides sand, but with the intensity of Cale's stare, it was like he could see something.

"I sense a light out there," he said. "Neither of you saw a child walk through the portal, did you? With or without the Shadow Knights?"

"I didn't," Josh said.

"Me neither." Mara grabbed her bow and created an arrow. "But if there's the light of a soul, it's human."

"And since we didn't have to pin Josh down, it's not his brother," Cale said.

Josh strapped on his equipment. "So, are we going or what? If you say it's a kid and not some monster, he needs us."

As if to punctuate his point, another scream pierced the night.

"Stay close to me," Cale said. "Not so close we could be jumped all at once if it's a trap, but close enough to help if it is."

Josh let go of the argument he'd been preparing in case Cale tried to keep him back here. He hadn't expected them all to go, but he wouldn't question getting as he wanted.

Cale moved forward, and they all crept into the sandy night.

A desert wasn't a place Josh expected to hear insects, but the light breeze carried an underlying chirp. He shivered, his grip on his hilt tightening. The shin injury, though mostly healed, throbbed as a reminder.

Josh was stepping on the next insect he saw.

Despite the injury being on his leg, he found himself rubbing at his chest. It prickled with a phantom pain even if he hadn't been directly hit there. A whisper of a memory brushed across the back of his thoughts, but it was mostly darkness. Maybe his dream, whatever that had been. It faded even more from his mind with every step deeper that he took through the desert.

"It's going to get me! Please!"

The kid's voice. It was much closer now, perhaps over the sand dune a thousand feet away.

They picked up their pace. Josh expanded his senses, reaching to feel the light Cale mentioned. Except for Shadow Knights, he never succeeded in sensing things. Or maybe the child had gone a different way—

The young boy shot over the dune when they were halfway up it. He skidded as his eyes fell on them, but it sent him tumbling down the hill.

"Samara." It was all Cale said as he moved around the boy and up the rest of the dune.

Mara hurried to the boy's side and jerked her chin toward Cale. "Follow him," she told Josh before turning her attention to the boy.

Josh sent a quick glance at the boy—dark-skinned, short black hair, and definitely not Eli—before ascending the dune alongside Cale.

He didn't know what he expected to see, but it wasn't the peaceful star-lit expanse of desert. Only a handful of small specks in the distance moved, and he couldn't be positive he didn't imagine them.

"What was that boy running from?" Josh whispered.

"Only one way to find out." Cale turned on his heel and trekked back down the dune. Josh followed close behind.

Mara kneeled by the boy, speaking in a low, soothing voice. He was short and thin, giving him the appearance of someone younger than Eli. Maybe nine or ten. An oversized shirt hung off his body, and patches covered his too-short pants. Sand turned his bare feet a few shades lighter than their dark complexion.

"—tell me what your name is?" Mara was asking when Josh and Cale reached them.

The boy hiccupped and sniveled as he leaned away from her. "I need to keep running. It's going to catch up."

"What is?" Cale asked.

The boy flinched and turned around. His eyes scanned the skies before landing on Cale. "The reaper. I—" Realization flickered across his features, and he hurried to his feet. "You need to get away from me! It will get you, too."

"I didn't see anything," Cale said. "It may have run off."

The boy stared up at the sky once more. "I don't think so. It wanted to kill me. I don't think..." He wrapped his arms around himself as tremors shook his body.

Josh put on his most confident smile and crouched down to meet the boy's eyes. "Well, you're in luck. The three of us? We're basically superheroes, which means we can take care of anything coming after you."

"Yeah," Mara jumped in, flashing a grin of her own. "Whatever the monster is, we won't let it get you. But"—at this, she paused to regard Cale—"it would be safer if we got you back to our base. So, can you follow us?"

The boy stuttered out the start of a few sentences then bit his lip. He slowly moved his head up and down. "But we must hurry," he said. "It can come back any second."

"Okay. We'll hurry. If you want, you can even hop on my back," Josh offered. "That way, we can go even faster."

Once more, the boy gave a hesitant nod.

Josh handed Mara his shield before positioning himself in front of the boy. After he had climbed on and Josh adjusted to the weight, they jogged in the direction of their cave.

The boy held tight and pressed his face into Josh's shoulder. Mara and Cale followed from a few paces away, both studying the sky. Cale wore Josh's shield on his forearm, his second sword resting in its sheath.

A chill crawled through Josh's veins at the same time the boy's grip tightened.

"It's back," he whimpered.

Josh spun to face the others, sword raised, but they scanned the area, as unsure as he was. "Where is that thing?"

"I can feel it, but I can't tell where I feel it from," Cale said.

A low-pitched keening drifted in the air without any direction, as if the breeze had caught the noise and carried it around them.

Josh's blood ran cold despite his burning desire to sprint away. The noise pierced through him. The barest of paper cuts across his very soul.

He couldn't tell if the shake in his shoulder was from the boy's trembling or his own.

Mara grumbled something under her breath, then shouted "Above!" while raising her bow to the sky.

The sky. Of course. The boy always looked to the sky. Josh fell into a stance and looked up.

He didn't see it at first, but then part of the night moved. 

Fun Fact: Originally Josh was going to excel at sensing energy. Considering his suckiness at sensing normal human things though... Figured it wouldn't make sense for that to be enhanced.

Wasn't that dream at the start so fun? I'm sure it means nothing VwV Also, random boy! *throws him into the sand* So many questions following that boy, and perhaps something dangerous as well... Yeah, these guys were fools to think I'd give them sleep that easily >:3

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D It's in my bio if you'd like to join!