FOURTEEN
mission
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.