Frostfire by Amanda Hocking

front of him and scanned his notes. “Bryn thought he might be Omte, and
     they can be reluctant to give any information. However, the Queen did confirm that
     a young man named Bent Stum was exiled from their community last year, but they wouldn’t
     say why.”
    “So a wanted Kanin and an exiled criminal Omte joined forces to track down a changeling
     in Chicago? Why?” Dad shook his head. “And how did they find him?”
    “I’ve been looking over all the paperwork on Berling’s placement, and I can’t see
     any sign of why it went wrong.” Ridley shrugged helplessly. “The only people who should’ve
     known where he was were Linus’s parents, and then Bryn.”
    “Did the Markis or Marksinna Berling tell anyone?” my dad asked.
    “No.” The King dismissed this instantly. “Dylan and Eva are too smart for that. They
     know better.” Then he looked at me. “What about you, Bryn?”
    “No, Your Majesty. I never tell anyone where I’m sent.”
    “You sure?” King Evert pressed. “You didn’t mention it to any of your friends?”
    “Bryn’s one of our best, my lord,” Ridley said. “If she says she didn’t tell anybody,
     she didn’t tell anybody.”
    “Well, somehow they found one of our highest-priority Markis changelings. If nobody
     told anyone, how the hell did they manage that?” King Evert snapped.
    “I’m not sure, sire,” Ridley admitted, but he met the King’s annoyed glare.
    “What about your files? You have it all written down, don’t you?” the King asked.
    “Yes, of course I do. But it’s all locked away.”
    “Who has access to it?” King Evert asked.
    “Myself and the Chancellor,” Ridley said. “And, of course, you and the Queen would
     have access to anything you wanted.”
    My dad furrowed his brow as he considered this. “So, the people in this room.”
    “Obviously it was none of us, so it must be someone else,” Queen Mina said.
    The King looked over at Ridley. “What about you?”
    Ridley shook his head. “I didn’t tell anyone, Your Highness.”
    “Perhaps Konstantin Black was tracking the trackers,” Queen Mina offered, and she
     turned to me. “Were you followed?”
    “I don’t believe so,” I said. “Konstantin didn’t know that Berling was being tracked
     at first, and I don’t think he realized I was Kanin.”
    The King snorted. “Well…”
    This time I didn’t even try to keep the emotion from my voice, though it was a struggle
     not to yell. “I was born in Doldastam and raised here. I have pledged my fealty to
     this kingdom. I am as much a Kanin as any of you.”
    King Evert smirked, unmoved by my outburst. “I appreciate your service, Bryn, but
     you know that—”
    “Evert, my King.” Queen Mina reached over and touched his hand, and she looked up
     at him with deference. “If the girl has pledged her loyalty to you, then she is a
     Kanin, and by saving the young Markis Berling, she’s proved it.”
    He looked at his wife, then shifted in his seat and nodded. “You’re right, of course,
     my Queen. I apologize, Bryn.”
    “No apology is necessary, my lord,” I said.
    “Back to the matter at hand—what to do about Konstantin Black and Bent Stum?” my dad
     said. “Didn’t the Trylle have a problem like this once? Their changelings were kidnapped
     by an enemy. What did they do?”
    “They went to war,” the King replied with a heavy sigh.
    “We’re not prepared for war,” Queen Mina said quickly, as if anyone had actively proposed
     it. “The Trylle have a smaller population than us, but thanks to their heavier reliance
     on changelings they have many more trackers, and their army is at least twice that
     of ours.”
    “More than that, the Trylle knew who their enemy was,” King Evert agreed. “They had
     that long-standing feud with the Vittra, so the Trylle knew exactly who to go after.
     Who would we even fight against?”
    “Could the Omte be behind it?” Mina asked.
    Ridley shook his head.