“Good. It’s just . . .” He sighed. “For weeks, I didn’t know what was happening with you. I was worrying about all the terrible things that might be going on.”
“I had a run-in with a bear, but otherwise, I’m okay.” I tried to force a smile, to ease some of the tension, but it didn’t work.
“Finn told me about that,” was all Ridley said.
“I worried about you too,” I said, deciding that speaking from the heart might work better. “I thought of you every day, and I was so afraid of what might be happening to you.” His jaw clenched, and he stared down at a small stone that he kicked at absently. “What happened after I left?”
“It’s over now,” he said, almost growling. “That’s what matters.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s getting cold out here. I think I’m gonna head back inside.” Rather abruptly, he started to walk past me.
“Ridley,” I said, but he just kept going.
I pulled his jacket more tightly around me and tried to make sense of what had just happened. This was not at all how I’d pictured my reunion with Ridley. There had been much more kissing.
I was so relieved to see him, to know that he was okay, but after that exchange, I had no idea how to feel.
From the corner of my eye, I saw movement. I quickly turned my head, but I couldn’t see anything. Then it moved again, and in the shadows between the doorway to the barn and stacks of straw, I realized that I could see a black shirt, floating disembodied thanks to the chameleonlike skin of the Kanin.
Someone was there, spying on me.
THIRTY-SEVEN
derailed
I rushed over, preparing to get the jump on whoever it was, as my mind raced with thoughts of a Kanin spy stowing away with Ridley. Someone working for Mina coming to gather information and trap us.
But just before I punched at the black shirt, I heard Konstantin’s voice. “Easy, white rabbit! It’s just me!”
He appeared to materialize out of thin air—the brown brick of the wall and the dirty yellow of the straw quickly shifting to his normal skin tone. Konstantin had his hands up defensively, but since he had been eavesdropping on me, I punched him in the arm anyway. Not very hard, but enough to let him know that I was annoyed.
He scowled at me as he rubbed his shoulder. “That was uncalled-for.”
“Why were you stalking me like that?” I demanded.
“I wasn’t. I just came out to talk to you, and then you were in the middle of something, and I didn’t want to interrupt the moment, so I just thought I’d hide out and wait for it to be over,” Konstantin said. “And it’s over now.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s creepy. Don’t be creepy.”
“What was going on with that guy anyway?” he asked. “Is he your boyfriend?”
I ran my hand through my wet hair and turned away from Konstantin. “Never mind.”
“That’s just as well. I didn’t come out here to talk about him anyway.”
“What did you come out for?”
“Mia got a call from the palace.” He motioned vaguely behind me, in the direction of where the palace sat hidden among the trees a mile down the road. “Those friends of yours came in through the gate, so the Queen got word of it. She wants to meet with you and Ridley in the morning to discuss what’s happening.”
“Discuss what?” I asked.
“Probably why there’s like half a dozen people hiding out in Finn’s house, and how long everyone plans on staying here,” he said.
I nodded. “That makes sense.”
“I overheard Mia say that Ridley is the ?verste now?” Konstantin asked.
“He was before I left. I’m not sure if he still is. I’m not sure about anything anymore . . .” I trailed off.
“Ridley’s younger than me, and he wasn’t on the H?gdragen, so I didn’t really know him,” Konstantin explained. “But you know how small the tracker school was, so I knew of him. He always seemed like a punk kid with a chip on his shoulder. I didn’t know he had it in him to be the ?verste.”
“That was a long time ago,” I reminded Konstantin. “He’s grown up since then. We all have.”
“Time does have a way of doing that to you.”
He was right, and I realized how much the last few months had changed us—me, Ridley, Tilda, and even Konstantin. It was strange to look back and realize how much simpler things had been before I caught sight of Konstantin following Linus Berling.
“That one moment changed everything and put it all in motion,” I said, thinking aloud.
Konstantin’s thick brows rose in surprise, and then, as if reading my mind, he said, “When you got into my car in Chicago. It changed the course of my life entirely.”
“Good. Your life needed a change of course.”
He smirked. “That it did.”
I turned away, staring out at the pouring rain around us. “Now where do we go from here?”
“I don’t know. But I can’t see anything good for you in Doldastam.” He shook his head. “Only death and destruction.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
gathering