Page 78 of Untethering Dark

While they were busy deflecting, Cigarette Man had sprinted hard for the trees.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” Perchta shot to her feet, ice springing from the palm of her hand to pelt the backs of the poacher’s knees. Crying out, his legs buckled beneath him, the impact sending him careening into the frozen ground. But Perchta’s sudden movement also dumped Oskar onto the sleigh floor, the fox crying out with a startled yelp. “Sorry, dear,” she said to him. “Are you all right?”

Shaking out his orange fur as he found his feet, Oskar mumbled a little grumpily,“I’ll live.”

Perchta cooed and gave his ears a conciliatory scritch, which perked him up. “There’s an injured wolf.”

Oskar sniffed the air, then nodded.“I’ll let him know we’re here to help. Go on and get that smelly fucker before he gets away.”

Vicious glee sparkled in Perchta’s eyes and softened the deep creases of her face. Nothing like a jolly murderous glow to shave the centuries off. She hopped down from the sleigh with morecheer than one would expect in a several-thousand-year-old witch.

Astrid followed.

Grabbing the poacher’s ankle and yanking hard as he tried to scramble away, Perchta tutted, “Uh-uh-uh. I think not. We need to have a little chat.”

To put it politely.

The man stopped wriggling, but not in compliance. Rather, he shivered something fierce as frost crusted over and locked his limbs. Within seconds, Perchta rendered him immobile.

Pulling the flip phone from her winter coat pocket, Astrid clumsily texted Johanna, her thumbs unused to the activity. It was going to take her far longer than she’d like to admit to type a message out.

While Astrid struggled with what was not even close to being the latest in phone technology, Perchta dragged the poacher she caught by the scruff of his winter coat and dumped him in the back of the sleigh. Though his limbs were frozen, his seething fury was not. The glares aimed their way were just as sharp as his knives.

“We’re going to need to free and mend that paw if he’s to live.” Perchta nodded toward the wolf. “Oskar, can you translate that?”

An exchange of yips and resigned snuffles later, and the wolf settled, allowing Perchta to approach with nary a snap or growl.

Astrid glanced up periodically to check her progress, but the Hexe’s dulcet tones and swift hands relaxed the frightened creature, and she made short work of mending bone, ligament, muscle, and skin.

By the time Astrid finally got out,Meet me at my place. We caught one of the poachers,the wolf was already disappearing into the woods with a minor limp.Cig man.

Johanna’s response came immediately.

On my way. Keep him alive if you can.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Bound hand and foot to a kitchen chair in rope and lightly singed, their captive sat in the middle of Astrid’s cottage, openly glaring. They forgot about the wards spelled to keep him out, so it wasn’t until he started shrieking, skin smoking, that they remembered and dismantled them. For someone who’d just seen the effects of their magic, he was quite brazen in his distaste.

They sat opposite him, sipping freshly brewed tea.

Oskar hadn’t returned with them. The fox familiar was finishing the boundary sweep and would report back if he found anything suspicious or spotted any other poachers. After finding one trying to sacrifice another wolf, it seemed likely the others would be employing themselves with the same task.

Three were slain the last time.

The ceremonial dagger they confiscated sat on Perchta’s lap right next to a plate of Springerle. “Who do you work for?” she asked, bringing one of the cookies to her mouth.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Perchta bit into the cookie with a smile and puncturing crunch, sharp needle teeth on display. “Mmm, that so?” she said after chewing. “And how, pray tell, did you learn to speak a language dead for thousands of years and come across this lovely artifact? It’s surprisingly well preserved.” That last bit was said with genuine interest and curiosity.

“Internet,” he grumbled.

Perchta looked to her, brow quirked.

“A human thing.” Astrid waved a hand. “Think of it as an endless book and scrying glass combined, but every goodor nonsensical thing ever written or said on it sticks around forever. But that’s irrelevant. He’s making a smart-ass remark.”

“So rude.” Draining the rest of her tea, Perchta offloaded the items on her lap to the kitchen table behind her. “More fun for us though.”

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