The next morning came faster than I wanted it to.

  For a while I just lay there in bed staring at the ceiling, watching thin strips of sunlight slowly crawl through the blinds and stretch across the walls of my room. The light made long golden bars across my desk, my backpack, and the floor beside my bed.

  Normally mornings felt peaceful.

  But after last night, peaceful felt strange.

  Every time I blinked I could still see flashes of it in my mind.

  The shadows moving like living creatures.

  The screams.

  The flash of weapons cutting through darkness.

  The roar of power.

  And the dragons.

  Real dragons.

  I rubbed my face and sat up, running a hand through my hair before forcing myself out of bed. Whether the world had nearly ended or not, school apparently still existed.

  I pulled on a hoodie, grabbed my backpack, and walked downstairs.

  Usually the house was empty in the mornings.

  My mom left for work before sunrise most days, and my dad normally didn't come home until the afternoon. The house was usually silent except for the hum of the refrigerator or the occasional creak of the floorboards.

  But today something was different.

  The television was on.

  A news reporter's voice echoed through the living room.

  "…still no explanation for the mysterious masked individuals who appeared during last night's shadow attack…"

  I slowed down.

  My dad was sitting on the couch.

  That alone was unusual.

  He leaned forward slightly, elbows on his knees, staring intensely at the TV like he was trying to memorize every second of the footage playing.

  On the screen behind the reporter were blurry phone videos from last night.

  Dark figures in armor.

  Explosions of light.

  A flash of red cutting through shadows.

  My dad looked up when he heard my footsteps.

  "Oh good," he said. "You're up."

  His voice was calm, but I could tell he had been waiting for me.

  "I have something I want to tell you."

  I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and adjusted my backpack strap.

  "Yes," he continued, "I want you back here at 3:30 sharp."

  He pointed toward the door slightly.

  "School and back. That's it. Do I make myself clear?"

  I stared at him.

  The whole thing felt ridiculous.

  Yesterday monsters attacked the city.

  People nearly died.

  And somehow I was the one grounded.

  "Or," my dad added, his voice tightening, "do I make myself clear?"

  "…Sure."

  There was no point arguing.

  I stepped outside before the conversation could get any longer.

  Cool morning air brushed against my face.

  The sky was bright blue, completely clear, the kind of peaceful morning that made the world feel normal again.

  Birds chirped from trees lining the street. A car rolled slowly past. Someone down the block was watering their lawn.

  Everything looked perfectly normal.

  You would never guess that yesterday the world almost ended.

  Across the street, standing at the usual corner, was Zach.

  He stood with one foot on the curb, kicking a pebble back and forth while he waited.

  The second he saw me come outside, his head snapped up.

  Then he ran across the street.

  "DUDE!"

  I sighed quietly.

  "There is no way you didn't see what happened last night!"

  "I saw it," I said.

  Zach looked like he had just been given the greatest news of his life.

  "That was insane!" he said. "Those shadow monsters! The explosions! And those ninja-looking people with powers!"

  "Yeah."

  "And the suits!" he continued. "Did you see the one in brown?"

  I raised an eyebrow.

  "The one with the daggers?"

  "Yes!" Zach said excitedly. "That guy was awesome!"

  We started walking toward school, our shoes scraping lightly against the sidewalk.

  "I don't know," I said. "I thought the red one was cooler."

  Zach stopped walking.

  "What?"

  "The red one," I repeated.

  "No way," Zach said immediately. "Brown was better."

  "He had daggers."

  "Exactly!" Zach said. "Two of them! That was sick!"

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  "The red one had a sword."

  "So?"

  "So that's cooler."

  Zach laughed.

  "Bro, you're crazy. Brown was clearly the best one."

  "Red."

  "Brown."

  "Red."

  "Brown."

  "I told you something weird was happening here."

  Ava walked up behind us, her voice cutting into the argument.

  She looked extremely satisfied with herself.

  "I want to hear it," she said.

  Zach groaned.

  "I want to hear both of you say it," she continued, crossing her arms.

  "Say that I was right."

  Zach sighed dramatically.

  "Fine. You were right."

  I shrugged.

  "Yeah. You were right."

  Ava smiled proudly.

  "That sounded painful," she said.

  Then she walked ahead of us.

  "Boys are idiots."

  Zach leaned toward me.

  "But seriously," he whispered, "who do you think they are?"

  "I don't know."

  Ava glanced back at us.

  The look she gave me lingered a little too long.

  And that made me nervous.

  Ava noticed things.

  She had been saying something strange was happening in the city for weeks.

  Which meant she was probably already connecting dots.

  And if she connected the wrong ones…

  That would be a problem.

  School went by in a blur.

  Whispers about last night filled the hallways.

  Everyone had theories.

  Everyone had stories.

  By the last class of the day I was exhausted.

  As I walked down the hallway, I suddenly saw something ridiculous.

  Shin.

  His leg was wrapped in a thick white cast, and he limped slightly as he walked.

  But that wasn't the weird part.

  The weird part was the shirt he was wearing.

  "NUMBER ONE FAN OF THE NINJAS."

  I nearly laughed out loud.

  Shin was proudly telling anyone who would listen how the mysterious fighters had saved him personally.

  "They were insane!" he said loudly. "One of them literally cut a shadow monster in half!"

  He noticed me staring.

  "What are you looking at?" he snapped.

  I immediately turned and kept walking.

  Math class was next.

  Mike was already sitting in his usual seat when I walked in.

  But something about him looked wrong.

  His face was bruised.

  Not just a little bruise.

  His lip was split, his cheek was swollen, and one of his eyes looked like it was turning purple.

  It looked like he had been jumped.

  "Dude," I said quietly as I sat down. "What happened to you?"

  Mike didn't look at me.

  "I don't want to talk about it."

  I frowned but didn't push.

  The rest of class passed quietly.

  When the final bell rang, I walked home.

  The moment I opened the front door, my dad was sitting on the couch again.

  He immediately looked at his watch.

  "3:28," he said.

  He looked up at me.

  "Good."

  A moment later my mom walked in the door.

  "Good, you're here," she said.

  Both of them were acting like security guards.

  Great.

  I went upstairs to my room.

  I was grounded.

  No training.

  No team.

  Honestly, they were probably still mad at me anyway for siding with Shu and Kai.

  But rules were rules.

  Right?

  Suddenly the doorbell rang.

  I frowned.

  I walked downstairs, but before I could reach the door my dad opened it.

  I stopped halfway down the stairs.

  A voice spoke from outside.

  "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Ashborn," the guy said politely.

  "I'm here about an exchange program involving William."

  I froze.

  I knew that voice.

  I could see a bit of blonde hair past my dad's shoulder.

  Kai.

  My dad frowned.

  "Exchange program?" he said.

  "I don't know anything about an exchange program."

  My heart sank.

  This was about to get complicated.