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I assumed my brothers did the same. I didn’t know what we were looking for or how spells were cast, but I knew what a bond felt like. I knew that magic was woven through the spaces between worlds, between life and death, all around us.

Much sooner than I would have expected, I felt something within me snag on something else that felt like sticky spiderwebs. It seemed to be shrouding the soldiers and keeping their essential life forces prisoner .

“That’s it,” I heard Leo say. “That sticky stuff. That has to be the spell.”

“How do we get rid of it?” Misha asked.

“It’s like spiderwebs,” I said. “How do we get rid of spiderwebs?”

“Just brush them off and send them away,” Obi said.

The six of us went to work, sweeping what we felt around the soldiers away and willing it to dissolve like candy floss.

Our efforts worked. Even though I had my eyes closed, I could hear movement and murmuring all around us as the soldiers blinked back to sense. It was more than just the soldiers around us, too. I could feel more spiderwebs of magic all around us, throughout the castle.

“Get the others, too,” I directed my brothers, turning my focus to the rest of the castle.

After a few minutes of work, Misha suddenly gasped, which caused me to open my eyes. I found him staring at nothing with wide eyes and a look of joy on his face. “Azurus!” he gasped.

A second later, Obi shouted, “My bond is back! Argus! I’m coming!”

Obi turned and dashed for the door, but Osric, who had been moving among his men, checking to make certain they were alright, blocked him from sprinting back into the castle.

“We’ll rescue him,” Osric said. “We’ll rescue all of them. But we have to be organized and careful about how we do it.

“My mate is revived and he’s trapped somehow,” Obi said all the same, clinging to Osric. “We have to hurry.”

“I agree,” Leo said, stepping away from the rest of us. “We need to attack the Great Hall now. ”

I felt a bit hollow and let down as the magic circle my brothers and I had made vanished.

From the expressions my brothers wore, their bonds with their mates had all been restored.

I felt for mine with Emmerich, but it was as heavy and hollow as it had been.

It made sense, since Nazeing had cast a different spell on him, but I was still bereft.

“Leo is right,” Osric called out to his men. “We need to attack the Great Hall now. If ever we had the element of surprise on our side, it is now. Form ranks and follow me!”

The soldiers did exactly what Osric ordered them to do and organized themselves into lines.

Instead of charging ahead at the front of the army, like we’d all done last time when traveling through the doorways into the Great Hall, my brothers and I took up positions in the middle of the army, where we would be protected.

That didn’t mean I didn’t feel the thrill of action coursing through me as we marched quickly through the halls of the castle.

We had the best advantage imaginable. My father’s army was nowhere to be seen.

Whatever had happened to the ragged and exhausted men we’d spotted entering the castle grounds earlier, they weren’t within the castle to stop us.

We made excellent time, and with a final shout of encouragement that echoed off the castle’s stone walls, Osric led his men straight into the Great Hall.

I wasn’t certain what to expect. When we’d fled the Great Hall before, Nazeing and Emmerich had their arms around each other and were kissing like the rest of the world didn’t matter.

I was only half surprised to find that they were still locked in an embrace, kissing away on one of the sofas against the edge of the room.

I didn’t expect to see my father asleep on a sofa near them, or to find Rottum and about two dozen soldiers snoring away on the Great Hall floor.

Nazeing broke apart from Emmerich as Osric and his men flooded into the room. “What is the meaning of this?” he demanded, letting go of Emmerich and launching to his feet.

“Nikkos,” Osric said, eyes narrowed, as if he was looking at his adversary and seeing him clearly for the first time. “I was a fool for not seeing through your disguise before.”

“You’re still a fool,” Nazeing said with a smirk.

He raised his hands as if throwing something at Osric. Whatever force he attempted to blast Osric with was invisible, but so was the shield Osric raised to defend himself. Osric gritted his teeth and leaned forward, as though pushing against a heavy boulder.

Nazeing looked surprised and stopped whatever attack he was making. “Oh, so you’re stronger than you seem,” he said. He gestured out over the sleeping soldiers, and all at once, they woke up and seemed energized for a fight.

Without needing to be told, Osric’s loyal soldiers surged into battle, crashing into the awakened soldiers in the middle of the Great Hall and resuming the battle from that afternoon.

Once again, we were surrounded by the clang of steel against steel as the relatively evenly matched forces fought.

The din of battle was ten times louder in the echoing Great Hall than it had been in the field that afternoon.

“Where are our dragons?” Leo demanded of Nazeing. “What have you done with Diamant?”

Nazeing ignored the demand, focusing instead on Osric. “You are no match for my power,” he said.

He waved his arms at the suits of armor and statues that decorated the room. Immediately, they came to life and joined my father’s forces to fight against Osric’s men.

“You can use dark magic and other people to do your work all you’d like, Nazeing, but this is about you and me now,” Osric said.

“No, it’s about him and me,” I said, stepping forward and trying to draw on the magic I’d just discovered I had. “You and me and Emmerich.”

“It’s about Emmerich, is it?” Nazeing said with a vicious smile. “If you say so.”

He snapped his fingers, and Emmerich rose from the sofa where he’d been sitting with a confused look. My mate wasn’t confused at all once he was on his feet by Nazeing’s side, though.

“I have to protect my mate,” he said, looking unfocused for a moment before his gaze settled on me. “I have to protect my mate at all costs.”

“Emmerich!” I shouted. Even the egg within me seemed to call out for its daddy.

But Emmerich bared his teeth in a vicious snarl and charged out me, hands outstretched like he would strangle the life out of me.