Within a Crowded Blade (Disorderly Elements Short Stories)

Jared helps his cousin Cooper save Pittsburgh from a rogue node, when something goes terribly wrong - and then he dies. Waking up inside a foggy, Japanese world does not fill him with confidence in afterlife.

He hears, and he feels the energy currents that had made his elementalist gift so unique, but Jared cannot see any better than he can speak Japanese. What got him landed in this ethereal world?

This between-the-books short story answers the question of "What happened to Jared?" in "Like a Torrent," book 2 of the Disorderly Elements.