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women’s restroom. Thanks to her pregnancy, Tilda had to use the bathroom rather frequently—as she had lamented several times—so I knew it wouldn’t be too long before she came in.
    In fact, I’d only hidden in a stall for fifteen minutes before she entered. I waited until she’d finished, and when she came out of the stall she nearly screamed at the sight of me. Once she calmed herself, she gave me a hard look—one that could cut twice as deep as any lecture.
    I hurriedly explained my absence from training today, and my plan to find Linnea and why I thought it was so important. As she listened, the steel in her gray eyes began to soften, but she didn’t exactly look at me with approval either.
    “But you’re my commanding officer,” I insisted. “You should be able to give me the go-ahead.”
    Tilda shook her head. “You know I have no authority to release you from your duties. Even if I did, it would mean nothing. Unless you get Ridley’s approval, you’ll be considered AWOL.”
    I leaned my head back against the wall and stared up at the ceiling, weighing my options. On one hand, if I left without permission, not only would I lose any hope of being on the H ö gdragen, but I’d most likely be fired as a tracker. I’d still have to stay in the army until after this “war” was over, but as soon as it was, I’d be out of work.
    And on the other hand, getting permission meant I’d have to talk to Ridley.
    “If you think this is the right thing to do, and it seems that you really do, then you need to talk to him,” Tilda said, her voice low and comforting. “Whatever is going on between the two of you, he’ll still be fair and hear you out.”
    I looked up at her hopefully. “Will you get him for me?” She started to scoff, so I quickly explained. “If I go out there now, it’ll be a big spectacle because I’ve already skipped half a day. I just wanna get this over with and get out of here.”
    Tilda sighed but smiled crookedly at me. “Fine. Wait here.”
    While she went to retrieve Ridley, I sat down on one of the benches by the lockers. It may have seemed strange talking to the Ö verste in the girls’ locker room, but with so few female trackers, odds were that no one would use it. In fact, it was probably the least used area in the whole school.
    Ridley pushed open the door hard enough to make it bang against the wall, and I hopped to my feet. He didn’t look at me when he came in, instead preferring to stare off at some point directly to the right of me, but finally, he forced his dark eyes to rest coldly on me.
    His uniform looked good on him; like always, he’d left the top button undone, revealing just a hint of his chest. If the King or members of the H ö gdragen came around, he could get in trouble for that, but by the hard look on his face, I didn’t think he gave a damn.
    “What the hell is so damn important that you think you can just blow off your job?” Ridley demanded.
    “Queen Linnea.”
    “We already went over that—”
    “I think I know where she is,” I cut him off, and that got his attention.
    For a brief second, he looked at me the way he always had—his mask of anger momentarily displaced. A wave of heat flushed over me, reminding me of the way I felt about him, but I pushed it away. I didn’t have time for that, even if he didn’t hate me right now.
    “What are you talking about?” Ridley asked.
    “She came to me in a lysa,” I said, and skepticism flashed in his eyes. “I know how rare they are, especially coming from a Skojare. But I also know that it was real. Linnea is alive, and she told me to come find her.”
    He arched his eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest. “Did she happen to tell you where she was?”
    “No, not exactly,” I admitted.
    “If this was a true lysa, and Linnea really wanted you to come find her, why wouldn’t she tell you exactly where she was?”
    “I don’t know.” I shook my head “The Skojare don’t have