Harry bit back a worried groan when Ben approached him again, kneeling down. It was a sneaky tactic to remind Harry that he was the youngest in the room and being treated like a kid. “So, my name’s Ben, but I don’t think I got your name?”

Harry’s mouth opened and closed for a moment. “Hadrian,” he finally said. He went by his nickname normally, but these were the police. It was better to give them real information. “Hadrian Houdini.” Was he still registered as Houdini, or had his uncle added him to the Kingsley family registry?

Ben smiled. “Hadrian. That’s a good name. I need you to take some good, deep breaths for a moment. What I’m about to tell you is a little scary.”

“I’m-“

“Not a kid, I know. You’re sixteen. But this is even scary for an old guy like me,” Ben said, “so please?”

Harry frowned, but did as asked and made a show of taking deep breaths.

“Okay. So. The nurse found a broken mind link when she looked you over. Do you know what that means?”

A mind link? Harry shook his head. Only parties had any sort of link, and Harry was too young to form a party.

“A mind link is a very special sort of bond that happens between two highly compatible members of a party,” Ben confirmed. “It’s really important, and easy to force on a young, untrained, partially compatible mage if someone doesn’t have the right intentions. It looks like someone formed a bond with you, and then that bond was forced apart. Your magic is still seeking the other half of the bond. We call this situation an ‘open’ mind link, because if you meet up with another highly compatible mage there’s a chance your magic will automatically create a new bond.”

Harry frowned. “But I’ve never bonded with anyone. I’ve never been in a party. I’m too young.”

The look Ben gave him was full of pity. “It’s possible that you don’t remember due to the shock of the bond breaking. If you didn’t want to break the link, or if neither of you wanted to and someone else did it, your magic would want to protect you.”

“Someone else can break a bond? Even if neither side wants to?” Harry’s face turned white at the horror of that, and his stomach lurched again.

“It’s very rare. I’ve only known it to happen when children who mistakenly formed a bond moved very far apart from each other,” Ben said sadly. “That’s why we teach parents to be careful, so accidents don’t happen.”

Harry shook himself. Something was wrong, and it wasn’t a broken mind link. They were just saying that because they didn’t know what was wrong and that was the easiest explanation. Harry knew; he’d never bonded. A bond would have helped him escape the grief of his aunt’s death. “What happens now?”

“Now, we try to find your family and get you back home,” Ben said. “Let’s start with something simple. This is my phone. Think you can call your parents?”

Harry took the device with an eye roll. He wasn’t a child! His fingers had the number dialed faster than he could even say it. He put the call on speakerphone so they could all get a tongue-lashing from his angry uncle when it connected. “We’re sorry, the call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number and try again.”

Harry went red with embarrassment.