Frostfire (Kanin Chronicles #1)

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 remember 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 hob goblin. 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.”

I licked my lips, and, going against my better instincts, I offered him an olive branch. “How about I make a deal with you? I won’t kill you if you let Linus leave with me.” Then I paused, recalling the last thing Konstantin had ever said to me: I am bound to something much higher than this kingdom, and I must complete my mission.

Konstantin tilted his head then, eyeing me as if he were seeing me for the first time. “Do I know you?”

Bent had apparently grown tired of me, and he turned around in the seat with a dopey, crooked smile plastered across his face. “Whatever. I’m taking care of her.”

“Bent, maybe—” Konstantin began, but Bent was already in motion.

He leaned over the front seat, reaching for me. His hands were disproportionally large, like massive bear paws, but he was slow, and I easily ducked out of the way.