Authors: Amanda Hocking
I stayed in his arms, my body pressed against his, feeling breathless and dizzy, and
I knew it wasn’t just from the dancing. I stared up at him, and I’d never wanted to
kiss anybody as badly as I wanted to kiss him then.
But instead I found myself blurting out, “It’s too bad Juni couldn’t be here.”
“Yeah.” Ridley sounded out of breath himself, and he blinked, clearing his eyes of
whatever had been darkening them. “Yeah, it is.”
The song ended, so I pulled away from him and smoothed out my dress. I wanted to rush
off the dance floor, retreating back in the shadows to stand with Tilda, but Ridley
hadn’t moved. He stood in front of me with a puzzled expression on his face.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He tried to smile at me but it faltered. “Thanks for dancing with me.”
Ridley turned and walked away, leaving me alone in the middle of the dance floor.
Even though I hadn’t drunk much at the anniversary party, I awoke the next morning
feeling hung over. I would’ve been happy to spend the entirety of the day snuggled
deep within the recesses of my blankets. It was barely after daybreak when Ember came
pounding up the stairs to my loft and threw open the door.
“Unless my building is on fire, go away,” I told her as I buried my head underneath
the pillow.
“Don’t be such a grump. I have good news.” Ember hopped on the bed with such force,
it bounced me up. When I landed, I peered at her skeptically. “I’m leaving.”
“Why are you leaving?” I lifted the pillow from my head and rolled onto my back so
I could look up at her. “And why is that good news?”
“I got my next assignment.” She beamed at me. “I’m heading out to get a new changeling.”
“Congratulations,” I said, but thanks to my sleepiness it came out a bit weaker than
it should’ve.
Like me, Ember preferred being out on missions to being cooped up here in Doldastam.
So even though it would be less enjoyable for me to be stuck here without her, I was
genuinely happy for her.
“Thanks. I just came to say good-bye, and then I have to get going.”
“You’re leaving right
now
?” I pushed myself up so I was sitting, and glanced at the alarm clock on my nightstand.
“It’s not even seven in the morning. When did you get the assignment?”
“Like, twenty minutes ago. Ridley called me to the Rektor’s office and gave it to
me,” Ember said. “He did not look excited to be up this early. I think he drank too
much wine last night.”
“Wait.” I rubbed my forehead, trying to clear my head. “None of this makes sense.”
Usually we got our assignments a few days to a week before we left. It gave us time
to go over the changeling’s file and get to “know” them before we met them, and we
got our travel arrangements in order, like booking hotels and plane tickets, if needed.
On top of that, it had only been a few days ago that the King and Queen had ordered
all the trackers to stay in Doldastam until after all the guests had cleared out.
Some of the guests were leaving tonight, but the majority of them weren’t heading
out until tomorrow morning.
So, barring some kind of emergency, I didn’t know why they would send out a tracker
before Monday afternoon. It didn’t make sense.
“Ridley said that the King had called him early this morning saying that they got
a tip, and they needed someone to get this changeling in right away,” Ember explained.
“Which changeling?”
Ember pursed her lips and gave me a hard look. “You know I can’t tell you that. Our
missions are confidential until after we return.”
As a matter of privacy and safety, we were never allowed to tell anyone where we were
going or who the changelings were. It was to prevent things like what had happened
with Linus, as well as the fact that the royals didn’t always want it getting around
how well-off (or how not-so-well-off) their offspring had been in the human world.
“I know, I know.” I waved it off. “But what was the King’s tip? What’s so important
that he roused Ridley in the middle of the night to start organizing your mission?”
Ember opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but she couldn’t seem to
find the words. And that’s when it hit me. It was so obvious, I couldn’t believe I
didn’t figure it out instantly. I blamed my sleep-deprived brain for it.
“Konstantin Black,” I said.
“They don’t know for sure.” Ember rushed to ease my anxiety.
“This is ridiculous.” I threw the covers off me and leapt out of bed, barely noticing
how cold the wood floor felt on my bare feet as I stomped over to my wardrobe.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m getting dressed.” I threw open my wardrobe doors, hard enough that the wardrobe
nearly tipped forward, but I caught it just in time. I grabbed a sweatshirt and pulled
it on over the tank top I’d slept in. “I’m gonna go find Ridley and give him a piece
of my mind.”
“He’s probably back in bed,” Ember said.
“I don’t care.” I turned to face her. “I just can’t believe he would do this. This
should be my mission, not yours. If Konstantin is back, then I should be the one going
after him.”
Ember had been sitting on the bed, but she stood up now. Her hands were balled into
fists at her sides, and she took a fortifying breath before speaking.
“Bryn. Stop.” She spoke harshly enough to break through my frantic agitation, but
by the tightness in her voice I could tell she was doing her best to keep calm and
not yell at me. “First of all, what you’re doing is incredibly patronizing. I am strong
and smart and capable enough to handle this mission.”
“No, I know that, Ember,” I hurried to apologize. “You’re an excellent tracker. I
don’t mean it like that.”
“I know what your deal with Konstantin is, better than almost anyone,” she went on.
“So I get it. But I also know what a massive jerk he is and how much of a threat he
is. I understand the danger, and I also understand how important it is to bring him
back to stand trial for his crimes.”
“I know,” I said.
“But—and I mean no offense by this—I’m not clouded by my own personal feelings about
him.”
I wanted to argue with Ember on the last point, but I couldn’t. Only a few days ago
I’d confessed to Ridley that I wanted to kill Konstantin and that I wouldn’t let him
get away again. Since I’d seen him last week, I’d been replaying my fight with Konstantin
again and again, thinking about how much worse I would hurt him if I saw him again.
My own need for revenge would make it impossible for me to think as rationally and
impartially as Ember, so I fell silent and lowered my eyes.
“I understand the severity of the situation, and I’ve got it under control,” Ember
said at length. “That’s why Ridley chose me and not you.”
“I know that you’re right and that he made the right choice. I just…” I trailed off.
“You still want to be the one going,” she finished for me.
I looked up at her and nodded. “Yeah.”
“I get it. But it’s actually a pretty big
if
that it is even Konstantin. The reports were sketchy. They’d just heard rumors that
he might be in the area of another prominent changeling.”
“How do they know?”
“After the incident with Linus, they sent out Konstantin and Bent’s pictures to all
the tribes so their guards could keep a lookout. They’re, like, Trolls’ Most Wanted
now,” Ember explained. “A Trylle tracker was getting one of their changelings, and
they thought they saw someone that looked like Konstantin, and that happened to be
nearby where this changeling I’m going after lives.”
“I know you can’t tell me
who
or
where,
but can you tell me if you’ll be close, at least?” I asked. “In case you need backup.”
“I’ll be less than a day’s drive from Doldastam, if I need you.”
“And you will call me if you need me? Or Ridley or Tilda or somebody, right?” I asked,
and I was thinking more of Ember’s safety than my own vendetta. Ember was a good fighter,
but so was Konstantin, and he wasn’t working alone.
“Of course I will,” she promised me with a smile. “But I shouldn’t. I’m sure everything
will be fine. The Trylle tracker was probably mistaken, and I’ll find a perfectly
safe changeling and bring her home.”
“How long do you think you’ll be gone?” I asked.
“On the off chance that things get dodgy, Ridley wants me to try to make this a quick
mission. I’m hoping a week will be good enough, but I also don’t want to risk scaring
the changeling off.”
“Well, I was only in Chicago for five days, and Linus came back okay,” I reminded
her. “So I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure I will too.”
“I should let you get going, anyway. If you need to get out of here right away.”
Before she left, I hugged her tightly. Ember had gone out on missions before, but
this was the first time I felt nervous for her. I was reluctant to let go of her,
but eventually Ember pulled away. She smiled at me, promising that everything would
be okay, before she turned and headed out my door. It took all my willpower to keep
from chasing after her and following her.
“I’m not thrilled about this either,” my mom said in a hushed voice, as if someone
might overhear. Her gray jacket went down to her ankles, and she pulled it tighter
around herself as we walked toward the palace. The large diamond studs in her ears
glimmered when the sun poked through the clouds in the overcast sky.
“Then why are we doing it?” I asked, trudging along beside her.
“Because they’re family, even if they aren’t close,” she explained with a hint of
exasperation. “And because it’s a nice gesture.”
“But you don’t even like them that much,” I said, as if she needed me to remind her
of that fact. “I don’t even know them.
You
don’t even really know them.”
“I know. But they asked me.” We’d reached the palace door, so she stopped and turned
to me. The wind had left a rose on her cheeks, but that only made her look more beautiful.
“And now I’m asking you.”
“Your mother doesn’t ask much of us, Bryn.” Dad put his arm around her waist, showing
his solidarity. “We can do this for her.”
“Of course we can,” I agreed, and smiled as genially as I could.
There was no point in arguing this or being sullen about the whole thing. It did help
to know that my mom didn’t enjoy it either, so the three of us were a united front,
all pretending to be happy and polite for strangers.
Besides, I had to agree with my mom that it was a nice gesture. After my mom had eloped
with my dad, she had been banned from visiting the Skojare, and at first that meant
no contact at all. Slowly, their freeze-out had begun to thaw, and she had been allowed
to return home for her mother’s funeral ten years ago, which had opened the dialogue
between her family and her again.
So this was a big step on their part. Queen Linnea Biâelse—the young bride of the
Skojare King Mikko—was my second cousin, which made her my mom’s first cousin once
removed or some other ridiculous relation like that.
The King, Queen, and Prince of the Skojare had invited us for brunch since they were
in town, and King Evert had been kind enough to allow us to use one of the meeting
rooms in the palace to visit with them.
When we went into the palace, a footman greeted us and took our jackets and boots,
and then he led us down to where the brunch was being held. My dad knew where everything
was, and so did I, actually, but since we were here as guests of royalty, it was proper
for the footman to show us in.
As my mom strode down the corridor, her long white dress flowed out behind her, and
it made me happier that I’d chosen to wear a dress myself, although mine was much
shorter than hers. My mom always looked beautiful, but she had taken the time to really
dress for the occasion, looking more like she should appear on a red carpet than in
the dark hallways of a frozen palace, so I knew this was important to her.
The footman opened the door for us, and King Mikko, Queen Linnea, and Prince Kennet
were already seated at a long table decked out with fruit and pastries of all kinds.
As soon as we entered the room, Linnea got to her feet, followed by Kennet, but the
King seemed reluctant to stand.
“My apologies if we’ve kept you waiting,” Mom said, curtsying slightly.
“No, of course not. We’re early,” Linnea assured her with a warm smile, and she gestured
to the table. “Please, sit. Join us.”
On the Queen’s neck, just below her jawline, were two nearly translucent blue semicircles—her
gills. They would’ve been virtually invisible, except they fluttered every time she
took a deep breath.
Since her marriage to Mikko ten months ago, the royalty in all the kingdoms had dubbed
her the “child bride.” At only sixteen, Linnea had married a man twice her age, but
that wasn’t all that uncommon in societies like ours—where royal marriages were arranged
to provide the best offspring and alignment of powerful families.
The Skojare possessed an odd elegance, as if they weren’t human or trolls, but porcelain
dolls come to life. While Linnea had that look—the pale, smooth features with undertones
of blue, and the striking beauty—her face still had the cherubic cheeks of childhood,
while her azure eyes had the youthful rebelliousness of a teenager.
Only her crown filled with sapphires, nestled in her platinum-blond corkscrew curls,
gave the indication of her title. Her only makeup was bright red lipstick that stood
out sharply against her alabaster skin.
Linnea took her seat between her husband and her brother-in-law, and my mom, my dad,
and I sat down across from them, separated by the largest assortment of fruit I’d
ever seen served at breakfast.
“I know that you’re a relation of Linnea’s, but I’m not sure that we’ve been properly
introduced,” Kennet said, grinning as he popped a grape into his mouth.