Page 32 of Untethering Dark

The revelry abruptly stopped.

He lunged then, out from between the trees to catch them before they escaped, but the campsite was abandoned. For all that not an inch of snow was left untrampled, there wasn’t a single person in sight. And it was quiet. Dead quiet.

“Not again,” he growled, taking a frustrated swipe at the ashen remains of a fire.

Unaffected by his outburst, Astrid crouched beside him, ax laid in the snow at her feet, and tugged off her mittens to sift snow through her fingers. Her brow furrowed.

“What do you sense?”

“They were dancing, celebrating. No surprise there.” She shuffled forward, scooping up another handful of snow, and stilled. A troubled look fell over her features. “There’s powerful magic at work here.”

“Can you identify it?”

“A communications spell, maybe? But much, much more complicated than scrying.”

Uncapping her thermos, Astrid poured out its steaming contents, then held it between her hands, murmuring an incantation. Frost spread out from her palms and fingers, cooling the container. “But if anyone would know, my mother would.” She began filling the thermos with snow.

Perchta. An on-again, off-again resident of his forest for a millennium and a half. While they coexisted amicably for all that time, he couldn’t really claim to know anything about the ancient hag, but he reckoned she’d want to know about magic users who appeared and disappeared at will, eluding even him.Especiallyhim.

It rankled his nerves to know they’d done it again.

At least he wasn’t losing his mind.

Screwing the lid on tight, Astrid said, “I’ll bring this to her and see what she makes of it.”

Standing with a creak of joints, she continued to move about the site, periodically dipping down to sample the snow. “It’s old, group magic, that much I can tell, and that the casters are human, which is especially interesting.” She picked up a cigarette butt from the ground, turning it over between herthumb and forefinger, frown deepening. “Did you by any chance come by a man smoking one of these two nights ago?”

Though stamped out, the offending thing still reeked.

He dispatched a trio of brightly dressed hikers then and pardoned a local hunter from Baden-Gottsdorf. But there had been one other.

A man offering cold, cured meat with a smile on his lips and fetid smoke on his breath. Not a favorite offering by any means, but an offering was still an offering. In hindsight, the human had been far too calm and collected, just a hair shy of insolent.

It might’ve been a mistake to show leniency.

He should’ve recognized the man’s scent, even masked as it was by the foul things he sucked into his lungs, but he hadn’t considered that the human might dare return to the forest.

Or never leave.

“What is it?” Astrid stared up at him, worry growing.

“I did see him.” Evidently, so had she.

“And he’s...”

“Alive.” He rubbed a hand behind his neck, then quickly dropped it.Ach, too human.“I thought the cold, salted meat was actually tasty.”

“All these years tracking and hunting and all I’d needed to do was make a market run.” She rolled her eyes, tone both teasing and exasperated. “I could’ve been setting aside cold cuts from Frühstück.”

“If it’s any consolation, it’s more about intention. I would’ve tasted the insincerity.” And now that he was thinking about it, the man’s offering had been oddly devoid of emotion, as if he’d felt nothing during the exchange. Not even lightly seasoned by stress, let alone fear.

“Do you think this is his?” She held the cigarette butt aloft, perhaps for him to sniff, but he scented it just fine moments ago.

He nodded. “I don’t think he ever left. Can’t fathom how.”

“There’s cloaking magic, but this is something more.” She stuffed the cigarette butt into her pocket, lips pinched. “I thought most human magic had died out centuries ago, but there’s at least twenty separate sources pooling together as one here. Whatever it is, it’s not like anything I’ve ever felt before, which really isn’t saying much. I’m only thirty-five. But I think...”

She stopped abruptly.

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