Ember had that ability, so did Ridley and Tilda and almost all the other trackers I worked with, as did their parents, and their parents before them. A Kanin’s supernatural abilities were passed down through blood, and naturally the trackers were the ones who carried the tracking gift. Since my parents weren’t trackers—my mother came from a tribe that didn’t even have trackers of any kind—I was born without it.

That was one of the reasons it had been harder for me to become a tracker. I suffered a major handicap compared to everyone else, but I worked twice as hard to compensate for it. Instinct, intuition, and sheer force of will seemed to make up for my lack of blood-borne talent.

“Are you getting a read on her?” I asked Ridley.

He shook his head. “Not yet, but we’re still kinda far away.”

“When we get to Calgary, we should go to her house straight off and scope it out.” I closed the file and settled back in my seat. Ridley moved his arm so it rested against mine, but I let it. “We can check into the hotel after, but we should get a read on her, at least, make sure she’s safe, and then we should come up with the best plan to interact with her.

“Obviously, since I’m younger than you and don’t look like a thirty-year-old creeper, I should be the one to make contact,” I continued, thinking aloud. “It’s going to be a bit trickier, since she’s younger than most changelings, but maybe that will work to our advantage. Younger kids tend to be more trusting.”

“I have done this before.” Ridley looked down at me, a wry smirk on his lips. “Believe it or not, I do know a few things about tracking.”

“I know.” I met his playful gaze with a knowing one. “I’m just coming up with a course of action.” I moved my arm away from his. “I’m not used to working with someone.”

“Neither am I, but I think we make a good team. We’ll be fine.” He reached out, putting his hand on my leg, but only for a second before taking it back.

“I don’t know.” I looked away, remembering the ominous warning Ember had given me this morning. “Konstantin seems out for blood.”

“There’s two of us, and we’re both strong fighters. Hell, I’m an amazing fighter.” Ridley tried to make a joke of it, but I wasn’t having any of it, so his smile fell away. “If you could handle him by yourself, there’s no reason to think that we can’t handle him together.”

“Except this time he’s escalating,” I reminded him. Ember had filled out a report and told Ridley in even greater detail about her fight with Konstantin and Bent, so he knew about Konstantin’s blatant disregard for everything when he stole Charlotte from her bedroom.

“But we’re prepared for it,” Ridley countered.

“I still can’t believe you’re out in the field for this mission,” I said, eager to change the subject from Konstantin and the sense of impending doom he filled me with. “Isn’t it, like, illegal to un-retire?”

“No, we just don’t often un-retire, as you so eloquently put it, because there’s a reason we retired in the first place. For me, it was because my boyish good looks had given way to the ruggedly handsome features of a man, and for some reason teenagers find it creepy when grown men hang around high schools.”

“Teenagers can be so unfair,” I said with faux-disbelief. “Do you ever miss being in the field?”

He raised one shoulder in a half shrug. “Sometimes, yeah, I do. The one thing that does suck about being the Rektor is being stuck in the same place day in and day out. Don’t get me wrong.” He turned his head to face me, still resting it against the seat. “I love Doldastam, and I love my job. But it would be nice to see other places, like Hawaii in January.”

“Did you ever go to Hawaii?” I asked.

“I didn’t. I’ve tracked changelings to Florida and Texas, and once I went to Japan, which was definitely a trip. Mostly, though, I spent time in Canada,” he said, sharing a familiar story. It seemed that only on rare occasions did changelings move someplace far away and exotic after we’d placed them. “What about you? What’s the farthest your job has taken you?”

“Alaska. Or New York City.” I tried to think. “I’m not sure which is farther away from Doldastam.”

“You’re young. You’ve got time. Who knows? Your next mission could be to Australia,” Ridley said, attempting to cheer me up.

“Maybe,” I said without much conviction. “Other than the lack of travel, you really like your job?”

“Yeah. The paperwork can be a bit much, but it’s a good job. Why?” He stared down at me. “You sound skeptical.”

“I don’t know. Just…” I paused, trying to think of how to phrase my question before deciding to just dive right into it. “Why didn’t you become a Högdragen?”

He lowered his eyes, staring down at his lap. The corners of his mouth twisted into a bitter smile, and it was several long moments before he finally answered. “You know why.”

“No, I don’t.” I turned in my seat, folding my leg underneath me so I could face him fully. I could let it go, and part of me thought I should, but I didn’t really understand why. So I pressed on.

“Because my dad was on the Högdragen, and he got killed for it,” he replied wearily, still staring down at his lap.