The “nap” turns into a fourteen hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep.

  After a fruitless round of arguing with Jonnsonn about lessening the number of his guards from a squad of four to a detail of one or two, Aidyn could use a more pleasant distraction. He internally activates Noelle’s strand of magic from within their Team Bond and focuses on the correct place in the pattern to unlock her secret meeting space. As soon as Aidyn crosses the magical mental boundary into The Library, the pain of his bond breaks eases noticeably. He still feels colder than usual, but his mind and heart feel clearer, making it easier to think and breathe. As a result, he’s actually able to give his teammates a genuine smile when they leap from their chairs to greet him.

  “You’re awake!” Emmett claps him on the back as the others gather around.

  “I’m alive,” Aidyn concedes with a shiver. “I thought I was a goner there for a while.”

  Ellyse pales. “So did we.”

  “About that,” Emmett says in a voice so artificially casual it’s painful, “I guess the Love Bond plan is working out?”

  Ellyse smacks him on the arm. “Way to not make it awkward, Emmett.”

  “Well, it’s not my fault our best plan ended up being really awkward!”

  “Is Noelle alright?” Brehanna asks, fiddling with the ring on her finger like she always does when she’s stressed.

  Aidyn frowns. “She hasn’t checked in?”

  The team passes around nervous looks. Like usual, Taryon ends up as the designated spokesman for the group.

  “Not for about twelve hours.”

  Brehanna nods in confirmation. “She hasn’t drawn on our Strength Bond since the attack either, even though it seems like she’s… struggling.”

  Aidyn’s frown deepens. “What do you mean?”

  “The Library is… well, let’s just say it’s undergoing considerable renovations,” Ellyse says, pointing over her shoulder. “Noelle hasn’t made an in-person appearance since the two of you bonded, but she used her systems to send us messages for a while. Then the messages stopped and everything started going haywire. This place is becoming more and more frantic by the hour, and we’re starting to worry.”

  Emmett gives a choked laugh. “Starting? My stomach has been in a knot the size of Mystic Mountain since last night when Aidyn dropped like a sack of royal potatoes!”

  Aidyn sweeps his eyes around the place, taking it in.

  Frantic is an accurate description.

  The large, labyrinthine library Noelle designed to hold all of her magically collected data is indeed in a state of severe unrest. Instead of methodically organized like normal, the place is bustling with erratic motion.

  Aidyn walks deeper into the twisting maze of shelves, watching entire sections uproot themselves and resettle in new locations, only to move again a few moments later. Books and papers representing Noelle’s memories, experiences, and meticulously collected data zoom above, around, and between shelves like disgruntled flocks of birds.

  “There’s a new section over here you might want to take a look at,” Taryon says. He leads the group down a few rows of shelves and around a large table where stacks upon stacks of files, books, and bundles of documents pile precariously.

  Aidyn grimaces when he sees the small sign labeling the table that reads: Strategies for Dealing with Impending Doom.

  Ellyse sighs. “If you think that’s bad, just wait until you see the conference table. We each have signs at our seats, buried under mounds of paperwork, that pretty much say the same thing.”

  “The investigation is clearly on Noelle’s mind,” Taryon confirms, “but I don’t think that’s the reason her systems are behaving strangely.” He halts in front of a section of bookcases blocked off by metal grated doors with heavy chains and padlocks closing it off. “I think it’s a bigger Memorizer issue, and it seems to start here.”

  Through the bars, several strange, scientific-looking machines with meters and dials record streams of data onto long rolls of paper that quickly spool at the ends. As they watch, a spool fills and ejects the roll of paper to make room for the next one. The ejected roll tumbles over to a table where dozens of large stamps pound themselves against the unrolling paper. After the stamps are finished, the paper gets divided into pages and hastily bound. The unusually sloppy books then toss themselves unceremoniously into a pile so unsteady it repeatedly collapses and rebuilds itself, only to collapse again when the next book crashes into it. Even though the shelves in this area are all empty, the books don’t organize onto them like Noelle’s systems usually dictate.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  A freshly cut piece of paper from one of the rolls escapes the binding process and zooms towards them, getting caught in the gate. Ellyse pinches it through the bars and coaxes it free. She looks at it briefly, forehead crinkling in concern, before passing it to Aidyn.

  The top of the sheet reads, Distress Levels: His Royal Highness, Prince Aidyn Bryann of Embermoore, followed by a date and time. The charts, graphs, and data filling the page are broken into sections including pain, fear, grief, confusion, anxiety, anger, sorrow, regret, disappointment, and panic. The phrases I’m Not Looking, It’s None of My Business, and Sorry are stamped all across the page, obscuring most of the actual information.

  Aidyn’s heart sinks.

  He lowers the paper and turns to once again take in the general unrest and upheaval of The Library. “You’re right. I don’t think Noelle is handling the last twenty-four hours very well.”

  “Of course she isn’t,” Ellyse huffs. “None of us are. And shouldn’t you of all people know that? You literally have an Emotion Bond with her now.”

  Heat rises in Aidyn’s face. “Hey, I’ve never had an Emotion Bond before, and I’ve been a little busy—you know, almost dying and then not dying, and then dealing with two broken bonds!”

  “Yeah, Your Highness, and so has Noelle, because now she has to feel everything you feel! Except that while you’ve been getting the Royal Treatment, she definitely hasn’t.”

  Aidyn’s stomach clenches, and not just because Ellyse used his proper title as a jab. “Mother just said they’d detained her for questioning.”

  Taryon looks at Aidyn sharply. “What exactly do you think that means? Did the queen happen to tell you what she did with us?”

  “She said you’re under house arrest.”

  Based on his teammates’ expressions, that isn’t what happened.

  What had his mother’s exact words been again?

  Emmett scowls and crosses his arms. “Considering the King’s Army Prison seems to be our new home, sure, I guess you could say we’re under house arrest.”

  “With lovely charges of Suspicion of Conspiracies Against The Crown to keep us company,” Taryon adds.

  “Blazing Bond Breaks,” Aidyn swears.

  Brehanna fidgets with her ring again. “You really can’t tell if Noelle is okay?”

  Aidyn slumps against the end of a row of bookshelves and pulls his cloak tighter around himself. “Honestly, I haven’t wanted to go near our… bond.”

  He squeezes his eyes shut, trying to fend off the mingling discomfort, guilt, and anger growing in his chest. As he does, the machines behind the locked gates beep and whir faster in response.

  “I didn’t want a Love Bond this way,” he says, admitting out loud something that crossed his mind at the very beginning of this whole mess. “I wanted a real one.”

  “You’ve got a real one,” Taryon says.

  “No, I don’t!”

  The Emotion Mage shakes his head. “Whether you like how and why you got it or not, it’s real, and there’s a real person holding the other end of it. I know this isn’t at all ideal. In fact, the circumstances are terrible. But you did what you had to do to survive. We all did, because we are a team. You poured your magic into that bond, Aidyn, and it activated. It is the real deal.”

  “I was barely conscious! And choosing to either live or die is barely even a choice. Of course I chose to live. But now what am I supposed to do? I care about Noelle, a lot, but I’ve always wanted more than friendship from a Love Bond. There are so few ‘normal’ things I get to do in life, and falling in love is—or was—one of them.” Aidyn keeps his gaze towards the floor, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. “Who will fall in love with me now that I have a Love Bond with someone else? I just lost an entire future, one I wanted deeply, and I’m not going to apologize for being upset about it!”

  Taryon’s voice softens. “Yes, you are absolutely allowed to be upset. Just don’t forget there’s someone else in the same situation as you, someone who willingly put herself there, despite knowing the likely consequences and political ramifications. You don’t have to be happy about it, but the longer it takes you to accept the realities of the situation, the longer Noelle has to handle this on her own. You are Love Bonded to her, just as she is to you.”

  Aidyn groans and buries his head in hands.

  If anyone knows the ramifications of their actions, it’s Noelle. Her magic doesn’t let her forget anything, after all, and she’s already gone through one political fiasco after her husband’s controversial death during the war. Noelle knew the type of consequences she’d most likely face as a result of bonding with Aidyn, and she did it anyway. It’s selfish of him to avoid her. Taryon is right. They are supposed to be a team, but so far he has left Noelle to fend for herself. That isn’t the type of person Aidyn wants to be. It isn’t the type of person he is. Prince or not, Aidyn doesn’t abandon the people he cares about, no matter the circumstances.

  “You are right. All of you are right. Give me a minute to try harder to check on her.”

  Aidyn sits down on the floor, leans back against the shelf, and closes his eyes. He can sense the freshly opened space within him where their new bond resides. That’s called their emotional landscape. The magic of Emotion Bonds allows each partner’s emotions to manifest as tangible sensations within their landscapes. Aidyn’s emotions currently take the form of a vast, roiling ocean. He can feel the boundary line separating his side from the unfamiliar space that must be Noelle’s. However, instead of sensing a distinct set of emotions from her, Noelle’s side of their bond is just as flooded with his emotions as his side. Aidyn tentatively examines the emotions more closely, but it hurts to touch them, so he retreats.

  “I can’t really sense her,” he admits. “Our bond is there and it seems to be working, but all I feel are my own emotions. I can’t feel any of hers.”

  His friends exchange worried looks.

  Emmett reaches out a hand to pull Aidyn back up to his feet. “Then I guess you’re going to have to go find her in person, since you’re the only one of us not in prison.”