On the Govindapura side of the temple, cars zoomed past as people went about their day. Satvi wrapped her non-ghost arm around Justin's arm.

Justin glanced down at her. "You lost your magic?"

Satvi sighed. "Yes. But your poem, it sparked something within me and my magic came back."

"What did it spark?"

Satvi looked up into Justin's eyes. "You know, you don't have to choose a box. Just choose you. Be you."

"I don't think I know how."

She squeezed his arm. "Look, the smoke," she said, pointing across the street to the café. The smoke swirled out from her chest, winding its way through the air to the door of the café.

"What is it?" Justin asked.

"My magic. It shows me how to find what I'm looking for."

"Can everyone see it?"

"No, just those who know how to look. Come on!" Grabbing Justin's hand, Satvi pulled him into the street directly into the oncoming traffic. Tires screeched and horns honked as they wove their way across to the other side.

Customers occupied every table inside the cafe. Most people sat with their laptops open as they quietly worked. At a small table in the back sat Ramya, stewing over a cup of tea.

As his eyes landed on Satvi, his whole body jerked, spilling tea all over the table. "Where have you been?" he asked.

Satvi placed her hands on her hips. "Chasing a beast. Where have you been?"

Ramya blinked. "What?"

"My device, I used it outside the greenhouse and I couldn't wait or I would lose the trail."

"You didn't run away from getting your blood bond removed?"

A man behind the bar made a shushing noise at them. Others in the cafe paused from their work and glared in their direction.

Justin sat down in the other free chair at the table while Satvi turned to the table behind her where a woman and a man sat. She gestured to the unoccupied chair at their table. "Nānu idannu baḷasidare nīvu paravāgillavē?"

The man stared up at her, his mouth wide open as if he had seen a ghost. Justin thought perhaps he had seen Satvi's ghost hand, but then he noticed it rested on the chair, looking like a perfectly normal hand.

"Do you mind if I use this?" Satvi asked slowly, this time in English.

Finally, the man closed his mouth, smiled, and shook his head. "No, go right ahead," he said with a southern American accent.

"Thanks," said Satvi, grabbing the chair. She turned it around and sat in it, resting her arms on the backrest.

"Why do you sit like that?" asked Ramya.

"It's how the Cowboys did it in movies. I like it," she responded. She then frowned. "I do not want my blood bond removed, but no, I was not running away. I have a job to do. I left the portal open for you both. I wouldn't have done that if I was running away."

"Sorry I accused you of running away, but Satvi, you need to get your hand healed. Rupali gave us a tea that will slow the effects of the umm... of you becoming a ghost."

"I'm fine," said Satvi. She waved her left hand to show it was normal again. "See. I will figure it out."

Ramya sighed, but dropped the subject and wiped up the spilled tea.

"So, you have the beast's trail?" he asked.

Smoke swirled out from Satvi's chest. It wound its way through the tables in the café, wafted up over the bar, and disappeared up a narrow set of stairs.

Satvi stood. "Not so much a trail as a tendril of an idea." She made her way to the backside of the bar, her head held high.

The barista, in the middle of making a drink, jumped.

"Nimage nānu sahāyamāḍale?"

Ignoring the man, Satvi turned and started up the stairs. Justin and Ramya jumped to their feet. They glanced at each other and then quickly made to follow Satvi.

As they made their way behind the bar, the barista's face went red. Justin hastily made for the stairs, but Ramya looked at the man and said, "Nanna magu cennāgilla."

The narrow staircase ended at a single red door that stood ajar. Through the door, Justin could hear a man shouting. Cautiously, he stepped into the room. A cot with a thin blanket and a pillow sat on one side, while a narrow desk stood on the other. In the middle of the room, piled nearly to the ceiling, were stacks upon stacks of boxes. Satvi stood on the far side of the room in front of another doorway, her arms crossed in front of her chest. Inside the doorway stood a short, plump, balding man who wore nothing but a towel around his waist.

For a brief instant, the man looked startled, but then his eyes bulged and he pointed at the door where Justin stood. Eyes landing on Justin and Ramya, the man shouted, "Tolagu! Tolagu!"

Ramya held up his hands and spoke calmly to the man. "Kṣamisi, nāvu doḍḍa kappu nāyiyannu huḍukuttiddēve. Kārigintalū doḍḍadu." Immediately, the man relaxed. He pushed Satvi out of the doorway and slammed the door shut.

"Rude," said Satvi.

A minute later, the man opened the door again wearing a purple button-up shirt and jeans. Frowning at Satvi, he stepped over to the desk and sat behind it in a white plastic chair.

"Nīvu mr̥gavannu huḍukuttiddīrā?"

Ramya pointed at Justin. "ivu inglis matanaduttira?"

The man frowned but nodded. "You're looking for the beast," he stated with a British accent.

"How did you know?"

"Big black dog, bigger than a car? I'm no idiot. I know of the magician world and the black market of children. Yes, I saw your bloody beast. It destroyed my home."

"Destroyed..." Ramya started to say, but the man cut him off.

"Did I stutter? Yes, destroyed it. Seen nothing like it in any part of India. It is not from here, and that's for certain."

At these last words, the man's eyes settled on Justin. A shiver ran down Justin's spine as the weight of negative energy pressed down on him.

The man sniffed and then looked back at Ramya. "For a small price, I can show you what's left of my house."

"What price?"

"Only what a poor man deserves to show you the trail that leads to a fortune. Fifteen hundred rupees."

Ramya sighed. "Fine."

The man grinned and his eyes became lost in the folds of his cheeks. He held out one stumpy hand towards Ramya.

Ramya sighed even louder but took his wallet out of his pants pocket and grab three small green bills with the number five hundred on them. He placed these in the man's hand. The man quickly stuffed the bills into a drawer and stood. He spun a set of keys on his pointer finger.

"Come! My car is out back."

When the rusted car came to a halt at the end of a pothole-infested driveway, Justin's stomach finally calmed. He was grateful he had been able to pry his door open and stepped out of the backseat without throwing up in front of Satvi. It had been a very long thirty-minute drive as the windows in the car were stuck shut and there was no air conditioning. The queasiness had set in the minute the car had started and Shankar, the cafe owner, burped. It had been one of the strangest and the grossest experiences of Justin's life. Every couple of minutes, the man would pause in his conversation with Ramya and burp. Then a few seconds later, a stench of stale sweet curry would settle in the backseat.

"I think I might have to walk back," whispered Satvi as she scrambled out of the car behind Justin.

"Agreed," said Justin.

Shankar squeezed himself out of the car and hurried past Justin to stand in front of a pile of rubble. He held his hands out. "This! This is all that remains of my home."

Justin lurched. That had been his home? he thought. The pile of scorched rock and dust? It could hardly be considered man-made, let alone the remains of an entire house.

Ramya stepped up to the rubble and picked up something round and metal. He looked at Justin, holding the object out. It was a doorknob. "This, this might be more than we can handle."

Justin nodded, and his stomach cramped. Perhaps he was going to barf in front of Satvi after all. But she was not paying attention to him. Stepping through the remnants of the house, Satvi headed for the edge of a dense forest.

"Did you find the trail?" Justin asked.

Satvi looked up and pointed at a large tunnel-like clearing through the trees. "I think it would be hard to miss."

"Oh," said Justin, as he stepped through the rubble himself. He stopped next to Satvi, gaping at the opening. Something had split the trees in half at ninety-degree angles as if they were merely toothpicks. Something stronger than a bulldozer plowed straight through the trees, leaving its own path of destruction in its wake.

"Have your own magic kids, eh?" Shankar asked.

"Umm," Ramya started to say but stopped. A small white car with a blue stripe and a red and blue light on its hood, just like an American cop car, pulled up behind Shankar's car. On the side of the car, the word Police was painted in English.

Shankar laughed, slapping Ramya on the back. "Oh, not to worry, man. The sub-inspector is here to investigate my destroyed home, not you! I get it, a tracker needs tools. Man, if you had gotten here just this morning, I would've had just the tool for you."

A tall man wearing an official-looking khaki uniform stepped out of the car.

Nudging Ramya with his elbow, Shankar continued, "I had in my possession a girl who could track the beast."

In unison, Justin, Satvi, and Ramya said, "What?"

Shankar nodded. "I know, but business is business, and another tracker was already on the beast's trail. He offered a price for her that I could not give up."

"Namaskāra," greeted the official-looking man as he stepped up to what little remained of Shankar's home.

Justin listened to this man speak more to Shankar, but his eyes were watching Ramya as all the color drained from the man's face. Justin took a step towards him.

"Ramya," he said firmly, but Ramya held out his hand towards Justin, stopping Justin in his tracks.

"What was the girl's name?" Ramya asked, stopping Shankar mid-speech with the official-looking man.

Shankar frowned. "I don't remember." There was annoyance in his voice that Justin did not like.

"Nitara?"

A light turned on inside Shankar and his eyes widened. "Yes, we will talk later. I don't want to waste the Inspector's time."

Justin could see what was coming next before it happened. He watched as Ramya's face seemed to swell. As Ramya squeezed his hand so tightly into a fist that it shook. Justin made to step in Ramya's way but stopped when Ramya released his fist and only stepped closer to Shankar, pointing a finger in the man's face.

"Sulemaga! You sold my niece!" His face reddened.

Stepping back, Shankar held up his hands. "Hey do not touch me! Help! This man is attacking me!"

Stunned, Ramya lowered his hands. "I am not!" He turned to look at the inspector and backed up as the inspector raced towards him, his bat raised in the air. Ramya quickly shot his own hands into the air. "I wasn't attacking him!" he yelled.

"Yes!" interjected Shankar. "He was, and he threatened to kill me!"

Immediately, the official-looking man grabbed Ramya by the arm and pulled him to his feet. He then pulled a pair of handcuffs from his belt and handcuffed Ramya. All at once, all three men shouted things at one another in Kannada. The Indian cop dragged Ramya toward his car and Shankar ran to his own. Shoving Ramya into the backseat of the white car, the cop stood and pointed at Justin.

"Come, I know you are in the care of this man."

"What about..." Justin started to say but stopped as he turned to find that Satvi had disappeared. He scanned the trees behind him but could find no trace of the girl.

"Come," the cop said more sternly, and Justin obeyed, quickly scrambling into the passenger seat of the car.

As the cop pulled out of the dirt driveway, Ramya began shouting in Kannada. For a few minutes, the cop shouted back at him, but then he sighed loudly and slammed the window shut that partitioned the front seats from the back. The cop went silent, but Justin could still hear Ramya's muffled shouts.

The cop parked the car in front of a gray, two-story brick building and glanced at Justin. "Come with me." He then exited the car.

Justin peered back at Ramya, who was looking out the car window at the gray building and frowning, and then he followed the cop. The cop led him inside the building, where a woman in a similar uniform sat behind a small desk. Behind the woman, three rows of office cubicles ran the length of the room, and Men and women hurried about doing official-looking things.

"Subha Sanje," said the woman, raising one eyebrow.

The cop nodded at the woman and spoke quickly in Kannada.

Finally, the cop stopped talking, patted Justin on the back, which Justin did not appreciate, and spun on his heels and left the building.

The woman continued to stare at Justin.

"What is going to happen to Ramya?" Justin asked.

The woman grabbed a pad of paper and a pen. "What is your last name, Justin?" she asked.

Justin stepped closer to the desk. "Please, we are looking for Ramya's niece and nephew, who are lost. We need to keep searching tonight."

"I need your last name and your passport, otherwise you are not going anywhere."

"Passport?"

The woman set the pen down and looked Justin in the eyes.

"Ramya will spend the night in jail. We will be sending you home. To do that, I need your passport."

Justin looked down at his feet, his heart fluttering. "I lost it," he lied.

The woman's eyes went wide for a moment and then narrowed at Justin. She stood and pointed at him.

"Wait here," she said, and she headed down one aisle of cubicles.

A whistle echoed through the room to Justin's right. He looked to see Satvi standing in a darkened hallway. She gestured for him to come. Justin glanced back at the woman, who was chatting with a heavyset uniformed man. Quickly, he darted into the hallway to where Satvi stood.

"How did you get in here?" he asked.

Satvi grinned. "I had one last portal. You're lucky I used it to save you."

"Hey!" a voice shouted from the main room.

"Well, we are not going out the front door," said Justin.

Grabbing Justin's hand, Satvi yanked him farther down the hallway. She turned to the first door she came to, pulled Justin inside, and shut and locked the door. They were in a small conference room with a long table and a whiteboard hanging on one wall.

The door handle jiggled as someone tried to open the door. Justin jumped reflexively.

"Justin?" came the woman's voice who had sat behind the desk.

Both Satvi and Justin held their breath.

"Fine," came the woman's voice again, "I will go get the keys."

"Now what?" asked Justin.

"Time to put your magic to the test," said Satvi.

"By opening the door?"

Satvi rolled her eyes. "It's a question of methods. Everybody wants results, but nobody wants to do what they have to do to get them done."

"That's another western movie quote, isn't it? It's not helping."

"I am not a fool. The temple had no doors, I was sucked in. You opened the door into the other realm. I also think that is how you got here. You opened the door from California to India."

Justin backed himself against the wall and shook his head.

"No. I mean, I came through the door, but that door had been built to specifically come to India."

Stepping closer to Justin, Satvi grabbed both of his hands and squeezed them. "You have to do this. You can do this. Just be you. Dying ain't much of a living!"

"Stop quoting western movies!" Justin let out his breath. Be him? He didn't even know who he was and really even if he wanted to be he. But the confusion was the worst part. He had read stories online. People always said deep down they had always known. He didn't feel that deep down.

Who am I?

A firmer voice swelled up to the surface from the depths.

A wizard, it said, a wizard with their own kingdom. This they knew. Had always known. They needed to be that wizard now.

The mighty wizard stepped away from the wall, making Satvi let go of their hands. They stepped up to the door, squaring their shoulders. The door rattled again as someone stuck a key into the lock.

"Hurry!" urged Satvi.

The wizard wasn't afraid. They were going home back to their realm, to their forest of loyal subjects. They smiled as they reached for the door handle, vaguely aware that their hand was glowing. Slowly, they turned the handle and yanked the door open.