FOUR
stable
It was dark by the time I pulled the Land Rover into the garage, narrowly parking it between another SUV and a full-sized Hummer. I clicked the button, closing the garage door behind me.
Technically it was a garage, but in reality it was a massive brick fortress that housed dozens of vehicles and all kinds of tracker supplies. To the left of the garage were the classrooms and the gym where trackers trained, along with the Rektor’s office.
I hadn’t bothered to put on my jacket or boots after I had gotten Linus settled in at the Berlings’ house, because I knew I was coming right here. The garage was heated, as were most things in Doldastam. Even the floor was heated, so when I stepped out of the SUV, the concrete felt warm on my bare feet.
I’d just gone around to the side of the car to get my bag out of the back when I heard the side door close. The Rektor’s office connected to the garage, and I looked over to see Ridley Dresden walking in.
“Need a hand?” he asked.
“Nah, I think I got it. But thanks.” I slung my bag over my shoulder and went over to the storage closets.
He wore a vest and a tie, with his sleeves rolled up above his elbow. But like me, he was barefoot. His dark hair was kept short, but it still curled a little. In that way, his hair fit him perfectly. Try as he might to be straitlaced, there was just a part of him that wouldn’t completely be tamed.
I dropped my bag on the floor in front of the shelves and crouched down to rummage through it. I’d pulled out a couple fake passports—both for me and for Linus—when Ridley reached me.
“You don’t look that bad,” he said with his hands shoved in his pockets.
I looked up at him, smirking. “And here I didn’t think you liked blondes.”
As far as I knew, his last couple girlfriends had been brunettes, but that really wasn’t saying much when it came to the Kanin. Like all trolls, the Kanin had certain physical characteristics. Dark curly hair; brown or gray eyes; olive skin; shorter in stature and petite; and often physically attractive. In that regard, the Kanin appeared similar to the Trylle, the Vittra, and, other than the attractive part, even the Omte.
It was only the Skojare who stood out, with fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. And it was the Skojare blood that betrayed my true nature. In Doldastam, over 99 percent of the population had brown hair. And I didn’t.
“Come on. Everyone likes blondes,” Ridley countered with a grin.
I laughed darkly. Outside of the walls surrounding Doldastam the world may have shared that opinion, as Ridley would know from his tracking days. But here, my appearance had never been anything but a detriment.
“I was referring to your run-in,” Ridley said.
I stood up and gave him a sharp look. “I can handle myself in a fight.”
“I know.” He’d grown serious, and he looked down at me with a level of concern that was unusual for him. “But I know how hard dealing with Konstantin Black had to be.”
I turned away from him, unwilling to let him see how badly it had shaken me up. “Thanks, but you know you don’t have to worry about me.”
“I can’t help it,” Ridley said, then waited a beat before adding, “It’s my job.”
I pulled open a cabinet drawer and flitted through the files, looking for the one with my name on it, and dropped the passports inside of it.
“It must’ve taken all your restraint not to kill him,” Ridley went on when I didn’t say anything.
“On the subject of your job, have you figured out why they were after Linus?” I bent over and dug through my bag, refusing to talk about it. I wouldn’t even say Konstantin’s name aloud.
“No. So far we’ve come up empty. I’ve scheduled a phone call with the Queen of Omte first thing in the morning, and I have a meeting at ten in the morning tomorrow with the King, Queen, and the Chancellor.” He paused. “I’d like you to be there too.”
“I’m no good at meetings.” That wasn’t a lie, exactly, but it also wasn’t the reason I didn’t want to go to the meeting.
As the Chancellor, my dad would be at the meeting, and I didn’t want to talk about letting his attempted murderer get away. I knew he would never hold it against me, but that didn’t make me feel any less guilty.
I grabbed stacks of American and Canadian cash out of my bag. Ridley pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the safe at the end of the cabinets. My own set of keys were buried somewhere in my bag, and it was a bit quicker to let him unlock it.
“You know more about this than we do,” Ridley reasoned. “For the sake of Linus and the other changelings, we need you at this meeting.”
“I’ll be there,” I said reluctantly. I crouched back down over my bag and dug out what was left of my tracker supplies—a knife, a cell phone, a mileage log, and a few other odds and ends—and began putting them in the cabinets.
“What are you doing out here, anyway?” I asked. “Aren’t you off for the night?” His job was much more of a nine-to-five gig than mine.
“I saw you pull in.” He leaned back against an SUV parked next to me and watched me. “I wanted to see that everything went okay.”
“Other than the dustup, everything was fine.” I shrugged. “I got Linus back, and he’s getting settled in with his parents. I did a quicker intro than I normally do, but Linus seems to be taking this all really well, and I needed to get out and get some sleep.”
His dark eyes lingered on me. “When was the last time you slept?”
“What day is it?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Wednesday.”
“Then…” I paused, thinking. “Monday.”
“Bryn.” Ridley stepped over to me. “Let me do this. Go get some sleep.”
“I’m almost done, and if I don’t log it myself, then my jerk of a boss will have my head,” I teased, and he sighed.
“Well, whatever. I’m helping you even if you don’t want me to.” He grabbed the logbook and started filling it out.
With his help, everything was put away and accounted for within a matter of minutes, leaving only my clothing and laptop in my bag. I started to pull on my heavy winter boots and jacket, and Ridley told me to wait there for a second. He came back wearing his charcoal-gray peacoat and slick black boots.
“I’ll walk you home,” he said.
“You sure?”
He nodded. “I’m done for the night, and you don’t live that far anyhow.”
That was an understatement. My place was a two-minute walk from the garage. Ridley lived farther than that, but honestly, most people in Doldastam did.
The night had grown even colder, and Ridley popped up the collar of his jacket and shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked. I was smart enough to wear a hat, so I didn’t mind it so much. The snow crunched beneath our boots as we slowly walked down the cobblestone road toward my loft.
I turned to him and couldn’t help but admire him in the moonlight—tall and strong with the beginnings of a light scruff. Ridley’s looks could be a distraction if I allowed them to be. Fortunately, I was a master at reining in useless, dangerous feelings like attraction, and I looked away from him.
“I’m not gonna be in trouble, am I?” I asked.
Ridley looked over at me like I was insane. “Why would you be in trouble?”
“Because I’m not sure that the Berlings will be able to get Linus’s money now. He’s a few days shy of eighteen, and there’s no telling what’ll happen to his trust fund.”
“You got him home safely. That’s the most important thing,” he said. “Everything after that is icing.”
“So you think I did the right thing by taking him home early?”
“Absolutely.” Ridley stopped walking, so I did too, and he looked down at me. Our path was lit by lanterns and the moonlight, and I could see the sincerity in his chestnut eyes. “You have great instincts, Bryn. If you thought that Linus was in real danger, then he was. And who knows what Konstantin Black would’ve done with him?”
“I know.” I sighed. “I mean, I do. But what if his parents don’t feel the same way?”
“The Berlings aren’t like that, and if they are…” He shrugged. “Screw ’em. You protected their son, and that’s all that should matter.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”