Kellen stared at the vast expanse of dry, wind-whipped prairie and thought of home. What was Allison doing right now? How were his parents? Did they think he’d run away from home? Maybe some quantum magic phenomenon had wiped the memory of his existence from everyone on Earth. A part of Kellen hoped that was the case—it was better than his parents constantly worrying and speculating where he’d disappeared to and why.

He wondered what time of year it was in Idaho. Here, the rustling of a waxing fall was in the air, the autumn scents of wood smoke and dried grass weaving through the biting breeze. The ever-present haze of wildfire smoke on the Thunder Plains receded with the colder mornings and shorter days. If he were still on Earth, Kellen would have called it October.

If that were correct, his birthday was coming up. Assuming the time warp wasn’t more complex than he could follow, Kellen was in the last few months of his teens. That felt weird, all other oddities and impossibilities of his situation aside.

In the last several weeks, he’d dived through a magic portal, discovered he could use magic, and found himself bonded to a talking creature made entirely of magic, or mana, to use the correct term. He’d survived attacks from other bigger, stronger, and meaner beasts, stampedes, and rock slides, all while traveling hundreds of miles to rescue his sister from kidnappers and cultists.

Finding Allison, then somehow sending her back home, had been a great victory. It was the sole thing that had driven Kellen through weeks of grueling training to hone his newfound arcane abilities. And just like in a movie, they’d saved the day and beat the bad guys. The end.

Then reality sank in. He’d traded what was probably a one-chance, one-way ticket home for the life of a Beastcaller. As more time passed, he realized he had no clue what that meant or what he’d signed up for. It still felt like the right choice, though that didn’t make it an easy one to live with. He wondered—

“Ow!”

A sharp smack on the back of his head drew Kellen from his musings. Swearing and rubbing his head, he turned around in his seated position to find Nokom standing over him, her scowling face more pronounced than usual. The old woman waved a bony, knuckled hand at him in warning.

“Pay attention!”

Sufficiently brought back to the moment, Kellen looked away from his teacher and down to the little valley below the hill where he sat. To the south end, a lean, tawny colored creature weaved through the tall stalks of grass, flashes of his electric blue markings showing here and there as he prowled. His lean frame was about the size of a German Shepherd but built more like a cross between a fox and a cat, with large tufted ears and a long, ever-twitching leonine tail.

Sensing something was astray, Vex glanced upward at Kellen, who hastily clamped his eyes shut, remembered the purpose of the exercise.

Too late. Kellen bit back another curse as Nokom’s bony knuckles rapped his head again.

“Eyes closed! Now focus.”

His world dark, Kellen centered his mind, focusing on the spiritual pool of mana held within his Beast Heart. He willed the mana to flow freely throughout his body, spreading like a sunrise over frost-covered ground as it circulated to his toes, fingertips, and the crown on his head.

Next, he extended his senses outward, building an image of the little valley in his mind. As he’d seen from the peek, Vex picked his way northward from the south end of the valley, down and to Kellen’s left. At almost eye level to Kellen, another Mana Beast circled the valley. Kellen sensed its Storm Mana and Companion strength, though he knew it was Ira, Nokom’s winged coyote.

That left just one other presence, a shifting, ethereal one that Kellen had a harder time grasping onto. It lay somewhere to his right at the north end of the valley. Beyond that, his sense struggled to pin down its location relative to Vex. Aside from purposefully cloaking her aura as part of the exercise, Inferi’s Shadow Mana naturally made her more elusive.

Kellen’s stretching perception made the equivalent of a squint as he tried to sense Inferi within the wisps of Shadow Mana obscuring his outreach. He fought the urge to open his eyes again, as tempting as it might be. Aside from it being cheating, Nokom would definitely know and smack him again.

Vex to Kellen, over.

Vex’s boyish, teenager voice sounded in Kellen’s mind, snatching away his concentration.

I told you, don’t say over. Kellen sent back. We aren’t talking on radios.

Roger that! Got a heading for me?

North? Even in his head, it sounded like a guess to Kellen.

North?! Vex practically shouted back. We knew she was “north” when we started! How far north?

Hold on.

Kellen let out a long breath and re-centered himself. Stretching out to the vague area where he sensed Inferi’s Shadow Mana, Kellen sifted through it, straining to find a more concentrated or definitive gathering of mana. He might as well have been looking for a quarter in the valley, which was larger than a football field. He knew she was there, yet—

A flaring of mana to his immediate right grabbed his attention. A few paces away, Shani, Inferi’s Beastcaller, sat cross-legged, eyes closed, attempting to guide her Mana Beast toward Vex. That was the purpose of the exercise: while Ira flew above the valley, dampening Vex and Inferi’s senses, Kellen and Shani were supposed to guide their beasts toward one another, hopefully one catching the other unaware.

An idea came to Kellen. Like following a fishing line, he focused his awareness on Shani’s outpouring mana, hoping it would lead him to Inferi’s exact location. Sure enough, a faint trace of Shadow Mana snaked down the hill into the valley.

Anything else for me except, “go north, young man?”

No, but be ready. I think I’m on to something.

There’s a bunch of gray mist up ahead, think that might be it?

Ignoring Vex’s sarcasm, Kellen investigated Shani’s mana working. While Beastcallers couldn’t sense the bond between another Beastcaller and Mana Beast, Shani was sending her own mana down into the valley, using it to further obscure Kellen’s perception. He was certain of it. At his current ability, he only had a vague notion of it, as if seeing a shape through a foggy window. But it was definitely there.

The gray mist I told you about didn’t give that away?

Vex knew as well as Kellen that most Shani and Inferi’s current abilities were related to shrouds and cloaking.

Ha! Kellen’s hand gripped into a fist in his lap as he followed the tether of shadow mana from Shani down to an aura that could only be Inferi. Now that he knew where to look, he could make her out in clearer detail than he would have thought possible as a mental image. Inferi sat on her haunches, a dark gray hyena about the same size as Vex but built with a much heavier bone and muscle density. Swirling, dark purple patterns ran down the length of her head, neck, sides, and back.

Kellen had only just learned to actually “see” with his mana sense after weeks of training from Nokom and Kiypu. Sorting out different types of mana had been difficult, like trying to organize a bin of different round-shaped fruits and vegetables with his eyes closed. After he and Shani had gotten the hang of that, their learning moved on to forming a picture out of those senses, an even more laborious task requiring constant focus and awareness. So far, the images in his mind’s eye were more like grainy photos splotched with water. He couldn’t wait to tell the others how clearly he’d made out Inferi after the exercise ended.

Dead ahead, buddy. She’s shrouded, but she’s just sitting there.

Are you sure? I’m barely sensing any Shadow Mana there. Through their bond, Kellen felt Vex probing out, both with his own mana sense and his physical smell.

That’s what they want you to think, Kellen assured Vex.

You’ve got to get up earlier than that to fool us!

Vex lowered himself further down in the grass until his belly almost brushed the ground. Rather than approaching Inferi straight on, he circled around to the right. Creeping through the dry, rustling grass without a sound. As he approached, Kellen kept his eyes on Inferi. She remained seated, mouth open, long tongue lolling out. Were they really that confident in their shrouding abilities that she was just going to sit there?

Be ready, Kellen warned. Soon you’ll be so close they can’t help but notice.

Focused on his prowl, Vex shot back a brief confirmation. Kellen studied Inferi. Why wasn’t she doing anything? And why suddenly could he make her out in such detail? As Vex closed in, Kellen’s suspicions spiked. Something was off here.

Vex, hold back! I—

A burst of shadow mana appeared from nowhere just behind Vex. He had just enough time to spin around before Inferi crashed into his back, her heavier frame driving him to the ground. Kellen’s eyes snapped open and saw the real thing below him. They’d been duped.

“That’s a new trick,” he said, glancing over at Shani, who sat a few paces away.

A smug smile lifted one corner of her mouth, made even more nefarious by the long scar running down the same side of her face. “We have been saving that for you.”

Kellen bit back a frustrated sigh. He knew the several weeks of training he and Vex had completed before Shani’s Beastcaller powers awakened weren’t enough to put him ahead. They’d also been done on the move, squeezed in before the sun rose and after it set each night at camp. Yet she took to the basics he’d struggled with so easily and naturally. Weeks later, Kellen and Vex were hard pressed to get a win during these exercises and mock fights. No matter how hard they trained, Shani and Inferi matched them, as if driven by an inhuman hunger to make up for lost years.

Inferi’s cackle drew Kellen’s attention down the hill, where Vex struggled to get up, covered in dirt and bits of dead grass. He shook himself several times, resulting in more bits sticking to his downy and now static-charged fur.

“I could have had you three different times,” Inferi said between barking laughs. “You had no idea where I was.”

Vex muttered in annoyance, shaking himself again before giving up the attempt and bounding up the hill where Kellen and Shani sat. Inferi followed close behind, nipping at his tail playfully, even if Vex wasn’t in the mood. As the two Mana Beasts arrived, Ira landed with a whoosh of his bedraggled wings beside Nokom.

“Did you learn anything?” the old woman asked Kellen.

Kellen nodded. “I was too focused on what I thought I saw.”

“And Vex paid the price,” Nokom said. “Or would have. You were too cautious at the start, too sure of yourself at the end.”

Kellen nodded again, knowing she was right. He wanted to say he’d figured it out at the end, just not in time. That was a lame excuse. Now that he knew Shani and Inferi could use their shrouding technique, he wouldn’t be fooled so easily next time.

A mound of recently dug dirt shuddered nearby. From what looked like a fresh grave, a skeletal hand and arm burst through to the surface. It was followed by another, then a skull wearing a wool cap before the rest of the skeleton man, Kiypu popped out.

“Let me—oh.” Digging away at the dirt in his lap, he produced a skeletal crow that squawked and shook its bony wings to remove the dirt. Kiypu alone knew why he’d buried himself before their mana sensing exercise started. No one had bothered to ask.

“My apologies, Shakraa,” he said to the skeleton crow before she flew off to perch in a nearby sagebrush. He looked at Shani and Kellen with two ruby gems that served as his eyes and tapped one with a yellowed, cracked fingernail. “You two are looking, but you are still not seeing.”

They all waited for more. Kiypu nodded in satisfaction, grinning at them with his golden, gemstone-studded teeth.

“And?” Vex prompted.

“And now we will see if you fight better than you see. Begin!”

The first time Kiypu called for an impromptu fight, Kellen and Shani had stared at him in confusion until he waved his hands and shouted at them to attack one another. Now they knew the drill. Kellen immediately rolled out of his cross-legged position, charging a baseball-sized sphere of golden light as he did. He heard the hiss of shadow and sun mana striking, followed by snarls and barks as Vex and Inferi engaged.

Kellen popped up to his feet and thrust his ball of sun mana out before him. It flattened and spread into a convex shield just in time to absorb a twisting blast of shadow mana. Shani closed the gap between them, her hands covered in roiling purple mist.

Wielding his sun mana like a buckler, Kellen knocked back Shani’s flurry of shadow-filled punches. She pushed forward, driving the attack as Kellen gave ground, trying to position himself near Vex, who had broken away from Inferi and stood in a standoff, fur bristling.

Shani lunged, driving a fist forward and over extending herself. The small stumble was all Vex needed. He blasted at short range with a crescent-shaped sun mana attack and pounced. Focused on Kellen, Shani flew backward from the attack and Vex was on her.

Kellen stepped forward and diagonal, bracing his feet and expanding his shield to absorb Inferi’s attempt to cut off Vex from Shani. The hyena struck his barrier like a linebacker. If he hadn’t had his stance set, the blow would have knocked Kellen flat on his back.

Inferi snarled in frustration, jaws snapping. Trusting his companion, Kellen put his back to Shani and Vex, separating Inferi from her Beastcaller. Shadows dripping from her fangs, Inferi charged again. Rather than leaping at Kellen, she bulldozed toward his knees, shrouded in purple darkness. With only an instant to react, Kellen crossed his arms, tendrils of gold weaving from both to feed an even larger and thicker shield. Inferi collided with it and this time Kellen stumbled and fell, immediately bowling over him toward Vex and Shani without hesitation.

Scrambling to his feet, Kellen realized she meant to double-team Vex and did the only thing he could do to stop Inferi by grabbing her stubby tail. As his grip closed, Kellen yanked. He heard a yip of pain and surprise before being dragged face first into the ground.

Rolling, he looked up to see Inferi inches away. She spread her fanged mouth, billowing purple smoke spilling from its depths. Kellen lashed out with a backhand covered by a shield of sun mana the size of a dinner plate, catching Inferi in the jaw and interrupting her attack. The hyena let out another yip, that turned into a deep-throated bark and a fang-baring snarl. Their eyes met and Kellen saw an uncontrollable rage building as Inferi’s eyes darkened to empty black holes, leaking with shadow.

She didn’t look like she was training any longer. This was raw, predatory hate. A tremor of fear passed through Kellen. Still on his back, he thrust his opposite hand forward, glowing with a blinding white light. It blinded Inferi but did not to stop her bone-crushing jaws from clamping down on Kellen’s arm while he screamed from the pain.