“Not exactly.” I chewed the inside of my cheek and looked up from the phone at the dark sedan, which hadn’t moved. “I haven’t seen anyone, but this car has been following him.” I turned the phone around to show it to Ridley.

“Which one?” Ridley asked, and I tilted the phone to show him more directly.

“The black one with the windows tinted. Do you recognize it?”

Ridley was quiet for a moment, considering. “No, I can’t say that I do.”

“I was afraid of that.” I leaned back against the brick wall and turned the phone back around to me. Ridley had leaned forward, like he’d been inspecting the image of the car closely.

“You haven’t seen anyone get in or out of it yet?” Ridley asked.

“No.” I shook my head.

“It could just be a human thing,” Ridley suggested, but he didn’t sound like he believed it.

“I don’t think so.” I sighed. “I’m gonna go check it out.”

“Okay.” Ridley pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded once, reluctant to agree that I should put myself in a possibly dangerous situation. “Just don’t do anything stupid, Bryn.”

“I never do,” I assured him with a smile, but that just caused him to roll his eyes.

“I mean it,” he insisted. “Investigate, but do not interact with them until you figure out who we’re dealing with. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can run the plates or find out anything on that car. I’ll check in with you later today, okay?”

“Okay. And I’ll let you know if I find anything out.”

“Stay safe, Bryn,” Ridley said, and before he could say anything else, I ended the call.

According to the clock on the phone, I only had twenty minutes left of lunch and then afternoon class began. My options were limited, but I knew I didn’t want to wait outside all day, hoping the passengers would make a move so I could see them. If somebody was after Linus, I needed to find out who it was before something bad happened.

So I walked out of the alley and straight to the car. Ridley might consider what I was doing stupid, but it was my best option. Out of the past twelve changelings I’d tracked, I’d brought twelve of them back home. I wasn’t about to let Linus be the first one I lost.

I grabbed the handle of the back door, half expecting it to be locked, but it opened, so I got in. Two men were sitting in front, and they both turned around to look at me as I slid across the seat.

“What the hell?” the driver snarled.

When I saw who it was—his steel-gray eyes meeting mine—my heart clenched, and all the air went out of my lungs. For that moment everything felt frozen as he glared at me, then the rage and horror surged through me in a nauseating mixture.

I recovered as quickly as I could, holding back my anger, and smiled at him. Somehow in an even voice, I said his name. “Konstantin Black.”

TWO

vengeance

His eyes narrowed, and his lip twitched ever so slightly. “Do I know you?”

“Not exactly,” I admitted, not surprised that he didn’t remember me.

The only time I’d spoken to him had been one of the most important and traumatic nights of my life, but that night he’d clearly had his mind on something else. Before that, I had only been one adoring fan out of thousands that he’d met in his tenure at Doldastam.

Konstantin had changed some in the four years since I’d last seen him—four long years since he’d attacked my father and disappeared into the night. His eyes seemed harder, and there were lines etched in the once-smooth skin around them. He’d grown a beard, and his hair was a bit longer and wilder than I remembered him wearing it.

But he was still unmistakably him. I’d spent years nursing a schoolgirl crush on him, picturing that face in my daydreams, and then I’d spent years plotting my revenge against him, picturing that face in my nightmares.

Now here it was, his eyes mere inches from my own, and he had no idea who I was.

“You’re a tracker,” Konstantin realized, and the corner of his mouth curved up into a smirk. I remembered the way that smirk had once filled me with butterflies, but now it only made me want to punch it off his face.

“So you do know her? Or not?” his companion asked.

“No, I don’t know her, Bent,” Konstantin told him, and I glanced over at his partner in crime.

His friend—Bent, apparently—I didn’t recognize, but by his features I guessed he was Omte. His skin was smooth, and he appeared to be tall, but he had the same lopsided square head and beady eyes of a hobgoblin. Not to mention he didn’t seem that bright.

“You’re a wanted man, Konstantin. What are you doing here?” I asked, instead of hitting him or spitting in his face. Despite my wish for vengeance, I needed to find out what he wanted with Linus Berling and what he was doing here.

“Same thing as you, I would guess,” Konstantin admitted.

Pressing my hands on the black leather of the seat to keep from slapping him, I asked, “What do you want with Linus? You don’t have a tribe to take him back to. What’s the point of even tracking him?”

“We were just waiting for a chance to grab him, and then we’re—” Bent began, but then Konstantin shot him a glare and he fell silent.

“Kidnapping? Really?” I shook my head. “Are you planning to hold him for ransom?”

Konstantin pressed a button in the center console, and the doors clicked as they locked. “Things are far more complicated than they seem.”