I went limp in his arms. The blade scraped against my neck, but it didn’t slice anything open. He removed his hand from my mouth to wrap around my waist, catching me before I slipped to the floor, and now the knife was aimed at the tender skin under my chin. It would hurt if he sliced across, but it certainly wouldn’t lead to death.

In one quick move, I stood back up and thrust my head backward, head-butting him. He groaned, and I grabbed his wrist, twisting it sharply until he released the knife. His arm was still around me, and he squeezed tighter. I leaned forward and, pulling on his arm, I flipped him forward, and he landed on the bed on his back.

The knife was on the floor, so I grabbed it, and then I jumped on top of him. I straddled him and pressed the knife to his throat. His lip was bleeding from when I’d hit him, but he still managed to grin broadly up at me.

“You can’t kill me,” Konstantin said. “I’m the only one who knows where Emma Costar is.”

“How did you find her?” I demanded. “What do you want with her?”

His smile fell away, and his steel eyes looked pained. “I’m afraid that I want nothing with her anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you ever read Of Mice and Men?” Konstantin asked. “Bent has always reminded me of Lennie. He even talks about rabbits all the time, but I blame that on his fascination with the Kanin.”

“I have a knife to your throat, and I’d like nothing more than to see you dead,” I told him, and I pressed the blade harder against his flesh, breaking the skin just slightly. “So you should really answer my questions.”

“I will. But maybe you should ask yourself a question first,” Konstantin said. “Like, where is my companion? I don’t usually work alone.”

I lifted my head, taking my eyes off Konstantin only for a moment, and I expected to see Bent lurking in the shadows somewhere. But there was nothing, and that moment of distraction was all Konstantin needed.

He grabbed my shoulders and flipped me over so I was lying on my back on the bed, and he rolled on top of me. He grabbed my wrists, pinning them against the white comforter. My legs were trapped underneath him, and when I fought against his grip, he didn’t budge.

“What do you want?” I asked, staring up at him in the dim light of the bedroom. “Why were you here waiting for me? If you have Emma, what’s the point?”

“I remember you.” Konstantin’s eyes were searching mine, and they seemed to soften. “I’m sorry I didn’t right away, but I remembered you as soon as you punched me in the stomach in Chicago. You were the plucky tracker, trying to claw your way up to be a guard. Nobody wanted you there, but you didn’t care. You wanted to be there.”

My heart pounded in my chest, and I swallowed back my anger, which was easier since he’d thrown me off my guard by remembering far more about me than I’d thought he’d ever known.

“How did you…” I narrowed my eyes at him. “How would you even know that? You didn’t know who I was.”

“Of course I did. You were that little blond girl, and that alone made you stand out, but you were always fighting twice as hard as anybody else.” He paused, grinning down at me. “And I’d always catch you staring at me.”

“You were on the guard,” I replied coolly. “I was watching the Högdragen.”

“No, you were watching me. You looked at me like … like I could do no wrong.” Konstantin sounded wistful.

“I was young and stupid.” I looked away.

“I’m sorry,” Konstantin said softly. “For what happened with your father.”

I snapped my head back to glare up at him. “What happened with my father? You tried to kill him,” I snarled, and I tried to fight him off, but he had me pinned.

“Bryn!” Konstantin was calm and firm. “Stop fighting.”

“What do you want with me?” I shouted. “If you’re gonna kill me, then just kill me.”

“I’m not gonna kill you,” Konstantin said with an annoyed sigh. “I want you to…” He hung his head for a moment.

“Do you even know what you want with me?” I asked.

“I’m trying to protect you!” he yelled in exasperation.

I laughed darkly. “Protect me? Why in hell would you do that? I want to kill you, and you want to kill me. You even told Ember you’re coming after me.”

“What? I never told anyone I was coming after you.”

“You told her to ‘tell that white rabbit to watch out,’” I said, repeating what Ember had told me.

“That wasn’t a threat.” He shook his head. “I was warning you. You need to stop this.”

“Stop what?” I asked, incredulous.

“Dammit,” he muttered.

Konstantin pulled the knife from my grip, then he let go of me. I stayed where I was, lying on my back on the bed, because I wanted to get a read on what was happening before I made a move. He sat on the edge of the bed, his back to me with the knife in his hand, and he ran a hand through his dark tangles of hair.

“I feel terrible about what happened with your father. And now everything that’s happening here.” He shook his head. “I made a choice a long time ago, and I’m still trying to make things right.” He looked back at me over his shoulder. “But things are in motion, and there’s going to be a lot of casualties, and I don’t want you to be one of them.”