JOSH KNEW THREE things for certain.

The first was that he'd been spoiled by the Sanctuary's regulated temperatures. A sweltering heat beat down from the ferocious sun. It probably didn't help that he was surrounded by people, which brought him to the second thing.

He hated large cities, especially ones that reminded him how much he sucked at other languages. Although he thought he picked up a few Mandarin words he knew, the swift speech and ever-shifting tonal intricacies of the language left him bombarded with sounds he couldn't decipher. Sounds that came from way too many people crowding onto the sidewalk. Seriously, why did anyone ever choose to live in a place so congested?

Then the third and final thing he knew was...

You so lost them.

No, I didn't, Boomer. Shut up.

Okay, then. Where are they?

Didn't I tell you to shut up?

Boomer's satisfaction at being right prickled at Josh. Or maybe that was the heat. Ugh, he wanted to be in an air-conditioned space already, not wandering the city with no definite end in sight.

Come on, sourberry. It's not that bad.

Josh glared at the back of a man in front of him. I'm going to trick you into eating chocolate-coated raisins again when you least expect it.

Boomer's eyeroll was so powerful that Josh could feel its force through the bond.

His dragon wasn't wrong; Josh was grumpy. A simple mission to watch a newly soul-bonding kid went awry from the very beginning when they found out Suyin Li, along with her twin brother Kai, had run away from their orphanage two weeks ago.

While Mara was off with a Sage—Yvonne, one of the ones who accompanied them into the temple realm three weeks ago—he and Mateo were left scouting the entire city for the twins. He spent hours wishing that Suyin's bonding dragon, Shihova, could magically locate her human. There was no such luck. She only had glimpses into Suyin's life until she agreed to the bond.

Finally, twenty minutes ago, he'd found them. He nearly looked right over the children, but then a flash of purple caught his eye. A girl with sleek black hair walked hand-in-hand with a boy less than an inch shorter than her. The purple had been the hamster-shaped backpack that, according to her previous caretakers, Suyin Li took everywhere. Sure enough, the description of the girl and boy matched the twins perfectly.

Both had raven-black hair, eyes so brown they almost hid the pupils, and complexions paler than those around them. Along with Suyin's identifying backpack, Josh noticed the beauty mark under Kai's eyes that Mara had mentioned. Even if they hadn't checked all the boxes, he would have figured they were orphans or runaways. Their frames were too thin, with their cheeks sunken in and small clothing hanging on them.

The two were an hour or so away from their old orphanage, strolling away from its neighboring lake. After informing Mateo, Josh tailed the twins. Their instructions had been to monitor and make sure the kids were safe. Josh's mind flashed back to Cale and Mara, both of whom he'd seen watching him when he'd been bonding with Boomer.

When the twins melded with a crowd of people along the sidewalk, Josh used Suyin's purple backpack to keep track of them. Until it was suddenly gone.

Ignoring the angry Mandarin it earned him, Josh had maneuvered through the crowd to the spot he'd last seen them, not being shy about using his elbows. He went a few yards past where Suyin vanished and turned circles.

Nope. Not a single speck of too-pale skin or purple backpack. Josh had rubbed his eyes. He had no luck randomly spotting them when he dropped his hands.

Now here he stood, still glancing around as he backtracked. There had to be a doorway to duck through or a hole to scurry in to.

A hole? Josh, they're not rodents, Boomer said, laughing.

They're also not ghosts who can just vanish at will! The only time Josh had seen anything close to that would be teleportation. But nobody had created a portal to drag the twins through... right? Anxiety curdled as the possibility pestered him. The Shadow Knights had done a lot of strange things thanks to Roman, after all.

Purple flickered in his periphery once again. Josh jerked to a halt, earning even more infuriated grumbles. He was going to be the most hated person in China at this rate, but whatever. He had a war of good and evil to fight, so these guys could deal with it.

An alley branched out from the street before coming to a dead end. Josh had passed it in his investigation already. All that claimed the space as its own were some hanging red paper lamps, a dirty window on the right, and a washed-out steel door on the left.

They could have slipped into that building, Boomer said. It might be abandoned.

Except Josh had just seen the very-exact shade of purple as Suyin's backpack, and it had been on the opposite side of the alley and closer to the wall. He'd have been paying attention and known if a door shut. There was a trashcan right outside the door, though. He doubted it, but he supposed they could be hunched behind that.

With no other leads, he made his way into the alleyway. Something wasn't right about the thin path. He definitely didn't feel alone. Being offput was ridiculous, though. He was trying to find two preteens. What were they going to do? Threaten him with puberty angst in squeaky voices?

Josh attempted to open the door as he passed. Locked, though that wasn't to say the twins hadn't locked it behind them. He slipped his hand away from the door handle and edged around the large metal bin. He could have sworn there was a lid atop it earlier.

He reached the bin to find nothing. Well, this place was a dead end in both senses then. They hadn't gone down the alley unless they'd slipped through the doorway, and if they had, what was he to do? Break down the door? Ugh, here came blindly searching again.

As he was turning to leave, a shoe scuffed against the concrete, and Josh's head snapped in the direction of the sound.

He knew the corner near the dirty window had been empty. The entire alleyway had been. But there they were. Suyin watched him with wide eyes. Kai stood in front of her, one arm extended as if in protection. He held a metal trashcan lid in his other hand.

Josh blinked, and when they didn't miraculously disappear, he said, "What—?"

The boy barked something in Mandarin as he leaped forward, swinging the lid straight at Josh's face. Josh stumbled back, disoriented. Something struck his shin hard—one of them had kicked him!—before Suyin and Kai rushed past him.

"Hey, you brats, I'm just trying to help you!" Josh shook away the remaining imbalance from the lid and spun to chase after the twins.

Except they had vanished. Again. How did they move so fast? Muttering under his breath, he took two rushed steps toward the streets again.

A sharp intake of breath stopped him in his tracks. He turned toward it to find the building wall.

Boomer, I think I'm going crazy.

I'm not sure. Wouldn't I know if you were? Boomer hummed thoughtfully. But no, I think I heard something, too.

Josh stared hard at the wall. He was sure he'd heard something, but no matter how hard he looked, nothing appeared. Straining his ears, he tried to block out the hustle and bustle of the street outside the alley.

Yes, there it was. The faintest of breaths right in front of him. Had the kids... No, that made no sense. People couldn't just will themselves invisible. Still, he reached his hand out and stepped forward.

Something hard clamped down on his hand. Josh shouted, both from shock and pain, and then his mouth hung open when the twins materialized in front of him. One second, they weren't there, and the next, they just were. That must have been how they randomly appeared against the back wall.

But how?

And Kai was still digging his teeth into the meaty side of Josh's hand. How hard would it be to convince the twins that he was here to help if he started by walloping this boy?

Probably very hard, so I do not recommend it.

Boomer had a point, so Josh settled on flicking Kai instead. "Get off me, you weirdo. You're not supposed to bite people!"

You literally bit an orc last week.

Orcs aren't people, Josh shot back at Boomer, then aloud said, "I'm here to help you guys, so can you please just..." He tugged against Kai's bite.

Kai finally released him, but only to try to sprint away with Suyin. Heaving a sigh, Josh grabbed them both by the forearms to keep them in place. He wracked his brain for the Mandarin phrases he'd been given to tell the kids if he'd found them.

"You," he said to Suyin. "Seeing things in... head." Josh hoped he'd gotten the word for head right. He bobbed his head toward hers, hoping that helped. "I want to help."

Kai and Suyin glanced at each other before murmuring in rapid-fire Mandarin. Josh watched them blankly, not picking up a single word. Did he need to try again? Before he could, Kai fixed him with a glare.

"You Mandarin not good," he said. His English wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to catch Josh off guard. "But you know what happening to Suyin?"

Josh nodded. "It's a lot to explain," he said, sticking with English. "It happened to me, too. Look." He let go of the twins and slowly dropped his hands. They didn't bolt, but Josh stayed prepared. "I have friends much better at Mandarin than I am. I can take you—"

Kai bristled, and Suyin drew closer to him. Had they misunderstood him, or were they just frightened at the prospect of others? Ugh, Josh refused to neglect his Language & Culture studies again.

"They come here," Suyin said, glancing between her brother and Josh. "You do not take us place."

So, they'd not liked what he'd said. Got it. "Alright, we'll do that." Josh smiled at them, directing the brunt of it at Suyin. "It's scary, isn't it? But we'll figure everything out for you."

Suyin hunkered closer to Kai, but she watched Josh, less with fear and more curiosity. She whispered something to her brother that Josh hoped wasn't an escape plan.

"Now, just give me a second to call my friends over." Josh fished a phone out of his pocket. It was weird to use one again. He had grown accustomed to using the dragons to communicate, but this mission requiring splitting up and both Yvonne's and Mara's dragons not being near Boomer or Taji, Yvonne had decided it best to use more common means of communicating.

Josh found the necessary app and connected to both Mateo and Mara at once.

Mateo picked up first. "Josh? Is everything okay?"

Before Josh could reply, the click of another person connecting stopped him. "What's going on?" Mara asked.

At the sound of her voice, Josh's heart somehow both rose and sunk at the same time. Mara. Her voice summoned thoughts of her in his arms, encircling him with her presence, her smell, her warmth.

But then a flash of memory trampled over the good feelings. Mara, pressing back against a wall, her eyes full of something as a broken Cale leaned against her. They'd not had a chance to talk about it. That first week, they'd been too busy recovering. The next, he'd been visiting his family. They'd both been on various missions that kept them apart the week after that. Now, on a mission to help the twins, it didn't feel right to stop everything to question her.

"Josh?" Mara asked.

Swallowing, Josh rasped out, "Yeah, sorry about that." He cleared his throat, and his next words came out easier. "I found the twins. But, uh, I may have found them too well."

Mateo chuckled. "And how, exactly, does one do that?"

Josh risked taking his eyes off the twins long enough to stare hard at a random pebble. "Well, um, they apparently caught me following them. And now they're right in front of me. Watching me make this call."

"Joshua Davidson, the pro at stealth missions," Mateo teased.

Mara sighed. Josh thought it sounded amused, but his gut twisted with uncertainty and doubt. Don't be mad at me. Don't pull away more.

"At least we've found them and they're safe," she said. "Do you need me to send you my location so we can all meet?"

Yvonne said something in the background. Mara's voice became distant as she explained the situation. Yvonne's scoff was so loud, Josh heard it clearly through the speakers.

"Actually," Josh said, "the twins don't feel comfortable leaving our little hidey hole. Could you guys come to us?"

Although Josh could hear Yvonne grumbling about his incompetency as they made plans, they decided to meet at the alley, and Josh sent his location to them. If cellphones made things this much easier, he wanted to use them all the time.

Too bad they risked being destroyed on combat missions, and they were of no help in other dimensions. Hopefully, though, he didn't leave the Soul Realm again any time soon.

"Suyin!"

Kai's shout had Josh nearly tossing his phone aside as he spun. An anxious Kai stood in front of Suyin, both hands on her shoulders. Suyin stared straight ahead with unseeing eyes.

Josh relaxed. "She's okay," he said. "It's just part of the process."

Kai's brows knitted together. "Process?" he parroted.

"Yeah, like..." Josh combed through his mind. He didn't realize how hard it was to find different words when the ones you wanted to use didn't work. "Like, what's happening to her. It's just part of that."

That didn't seem to comfort Kai at all. "What is happening to her?" he asked, not taking his eyes off Suyin. "She sees thoughts not hers. Hears them, too."

Josh rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn't had a normal initiation into the whole Soul-Bound thing, so he had no idea how much anyone was supposed to tell the newbies. It sounded like she was experiencing Shihova's memories and hearing bits from her, but was Josh supposed to keep that a mystery?

He really was the worst one to have found them.

"My friends will explain it better," he settled on. "But I promise you, she's safe—"

Josh felt the disturbance moments before the tone of the Mandarin outside of the alley shifted. Fright mingled with a hint of wonder. Turning his gaze to the street, he found out why.

A rift tore open in the middle of the road.

There was no barrier urging people out. It had formed so quickly that it was fully open before anyone even noticed.

But now they all did, and everyone saw as the monsters stepped through it.

Fun Fact: I did research!  Orphans in China were given last names based on the year they were born, and when I did the math, Suyin and Kai's last names would have been Li.  I think there's something about where they are mattering as well, but... I did the research forever ago and forgot to save it... :D 

WE ARE HERE, BOYS AND GIRLS!  Book 3 of the series is OUT!  I hope you're just as excited as I am :D And we are starting off with a bang!  Things are going massively wrong from the get-go, and now we have a monster fight in the streets of China!  But hey, at least Boomer isn't here, so he's save from near death this book start!

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 Let me know if you want to join!