Page 3 of Untethering Dark

By the time they neared the forest’s edge, and the boundary the beast could not cross, the sun hung low in the sky. Astrid watched it sink lower and lower, silently willing the sleigh team on faster.Almost there, almost there.

If Perchta’s lateness got them killed...

We just discussed it this morning. Midday, not midafternoon.Astrid gripped the edge of her seat, jaw clenched tight.The ancient Hexe’s sense of time was woefully misaligned with the rest of the world. Hours were like minutes and weeks like days.

Mutter only paid attention to the sun’s trajectory when spell work was involved. It was a very good thing Oskar handled her nightly offerings.

“Couldn’t you have gotten her out the door a little faster?” she whispered harshly to the fox.

He snorted.“You try telling a fifteen-hundred-year-old Hexe what to do.”

“I heard that,” Perchta tutted. “Relax. We have time.”

Astrid cast another glance at the setting sun.I beg to differ.

Fifty meters. Forty.

The indigo shades of twilight deepened, darkened. Night was rapidly descending, and they were going to die.

Just as the sun fell beyond the horizon, blanketing the world in darkness, Perchta’s sleigh burst through the tree line and into the town’s outer limits. Safely on the other side.

Astrid’s ragged exhale was sharply cut off.

A terrible roar echoed through the trees behind them, reverberating in her bones. It sounded much, much closer than she liked. She looked over her shoulder.

Two bloodred eyes stared back from the darkness. A cloud of hot, snorted breath plumed the air, curling past the boundary. The only part able to cross the tree line.

It sucked the warmth straight out of her.

Mirthful laughter pealed beside her. “We made it!”

Astrid blinked, and Altes Geweih was gone. Twisting in her seat, she pinned Mutter with a hard look. “Cutting it a little close, no?”

Perchta’s cheeks were flushed with good cheer. The rush of danger never failed to please the wicked old Hexe, and while Astrid loved a thrill as much as the next witch, courting danger with Altes Geweih of all creatures?

“This is child endangerment,” she huffed, folding her mittened hands beneath her arms.

“Thirty-five?” One perfectly sculpted brow arched as Perchta turned her yellow eyes on her. “You are not a child.”

“But I’myourchild.”

“Yes, but did you perish?”

“No.” Astrid snorted, wrestling with a smile despite wanting to scold her further. Sometimes Mutter picked up new phrases from the hikers. This was one.

Perchta gestured toward the night sky, twirling her hand with an elegant flourish. Icy, blue light flickered to life atop her palm.Winter magic.“Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf.”

Snow began to fall, the fluffy white flakes kissing Astrid’s cheeks.Sleep, children, sleep.Pulling the blanket up to her chin, Astrid settled in for the remainder of the ride. Someday, she would call upon the snow herself.

One by one the lights in town winked out, and the townspeople turned in for bed, Perchta’s magic coaxing them into a deep sleep.

The sleigh glided through empty streets and between darkened buildings. “I’d never let anything happen to you,”Perchta said softly. “But I shouldn’t have cut it so close. Are you all right, Tochter?”

Coming from the Hexe, it was as good as an apology.

“Fine, fine.” It wasn’t, she wasn’t, but Astrid waved a dismissive hand. Hag life required a thick skin, and she wasn’t about to show weakness right before her first Yuletide trial run. Fear? Existential dread? Stuff those pesky feelings down and bury them deep. “Why were you late, anyway?”

Perchta grinned, sharp teeth on full display. She had the most beautiful smile. So perfectly wicked.

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