Chapter 62: Back to Work

Astrid

I opened the apartment door still a little tense, bracing myself for whatever version of awkward the evening was going to bring.

They were already there, both seated at the table surrounded by books and papers. The first thing I noticed was that Xander wasn’t being his usual self, no teasing, no distraction. Reed looked completely ordinary too. No questions about the party. No mention of the bond.

Just work.

I felt a strange sense of relief settle over me.

Reed glanced up. "You’re late."

I checked the time. Barely.

"He’s been waiting for someone to complain about," Xander said quietly.

Reed gave him a look. I almost smiled and sat down across from them.

Our research spread across the table, still centered on the hidden Lycan royal bloodlines that had eaten so much of our time before everything else got in the way. We reviewed what we’d already gathered, incomplete records, families that had changed names or vanished from official documents entirely, sections of history that seemed deliberately restricted.

Reed had several books open in front of him, Xander’s notes scattered messily around his side of the table. I sifted through what we’d already collected and noticed we’d been going in circles on one particular section for a while now.

"This source contradicts the other one," I said, pointing it out.

Reed looked closer and agreed. Xander suggested we simply skip it, and I argued we couldn’t ignore a contradiction that could actually change our conclusion. A small disagreement followed, nothing serious, just three students trying to work through a difficult section of an assignment.

Xander got bored fast, predictably, reaching over and stealing my pen off the table.

"Give it back," I said, reaching for it.

He held it out of reach, grinning. Reed told him to stop. Xander eventually dropped it back onto my notebook.

"There."

"You’re irritating," I said.

"I’ve been told."

I threw a small crumpled piece of paper at him. Reed told us both to focus without even looking up, and I muttered something about him sounding like a teacher, which Xander immediately agreed with. Reed ignored us entirely, and something about the whole exchange felt easy in a way I hadn’t expected tonight.

We got back to the research eventually, and I noticed a pattern across several records that hadn’t clicked into place before. The bloodlines listed as missing might not have simply disappeared from the official record.

"I think they removed themselves deliberately," I said, explaining the similarities I’d spotted across several entries.

Reed questioned it at first, but the more I laid it out, the more it started making sense. Xander checked another source, and his expression shifted the moment he confirmed it.

"That’s actually a good point," Reed admitted.

"Actually?" I said.

Xander laughed. "Don’t mind him. He’s allergic to compliments."

Reed ignored that too, though I caught the faint twitch at the corner of his mouth. We worked the new theory into our notes together, and for a while I genuinely felt useful, not because of the bond, not because I was the scholarship girl half the academy still whispered about.

Just because I was good at this.

Reed eventually looked through our references and pointed out we didn’t have enough material to support the new direction properly. We’d need another trip to the library before the presentation.

I groaned. I’d hoped we could finish without one.

"We need stronger sources," Reed said.

Xander agreed, then announced, "We’re eating first."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I’m hungry."

Reed suggested we eat while organizing our notes at the same time. Xander refused outright.

"Food first. Historical bloodlines second."

I laughed, and he ordered food while we waited, the whole atmosphere lightening considerably. For a while I wasn’t thinking about the bond at all, just sitting there with two people arguing over what we should order next time, Xander complaining loudly about how long delivery was taking, Reed telling him to be patient.

When the food finally arrived, we ate together, easy conversation drifting between us, nothing important, nothing weighted. I realized I hadn’t felt this normal around either of them since before everything at the ball had happened.

I decided not to examine why I liked that so much.

After we finished eating, Reed suggested we organize everything before heading to the library. He reached for the stack of notes we’d been building all evening.

Then stopped.

He checked the table again. Then checked a second time, more carefully.

The notes weren’t where he’d left them.

Xander looked around, assuming at first someone had simply moved them during dinner. I checked beneath my own books. Nothing. Reed searched the far side of the table.

Still nothing.

Slowly, the three of us realized our entire stack of research notes had disappeared. Not a single missing page.

For a moment none of us said anything, the three of us just standing there staring at the bare table like the notes might reappear if we looked hard enough. It didn’t make sense. We’d been in the same room the entire evening, never more than a few feet away from the table at any point.

All of it.

The room suddenly felt different, quieter in a way that had nothing to do with sound.

"Did either of you move these?" Reed asked.

"No," I said immediately.

Xander shook his head.

We searched again, more thoroughly this time, checking under furniture, behind the couch cushions, anywhere they could have slipped. Nothing turned up.

I remembered seeing them on the table when I first walked in, and I said so. Reed looked toward the door, then toward the windows, his expression sharpening into something serious.

Xander’s usual playfulness dropped away entirely. "Someone took them."

My stomach dropped.

"Who knew we were working on this tonight?" Reed asked quietly.

I looked between the two of them. Nobody had an answer.

Then Xander went still, staring at the empty space on the table.

"Wait," he said.

Reed turned toward him. "What?"

Xander’s eyes lifted, settling directly on me.

"The restricted file," he said. "That’s missing too."