Page 81 of Untethering Dark

“Someone’s in your house,” a voice growled behind her.

Verdammt, Mutter Holle!

Barely suppressing a startled yelp, Astrid whirled around. “Gudariks!”

Blazing, crimson eyes zeroed in on the cottage, and if she hadn’t recognized the voice, she might’ve thought it was Heldin staring at her from the shadows. The forest god swayed back and forth on all fours, fur bristling along his spine. If she didn’t say something, and fast, he might launch himself through the wall to annihilate a situation already under control.

“A prisoner,” she rushed, holding up her hands. “Perchta and I captured one of the poachers today and interrogated him.”

He blinked, briefly blotting out the lambent red of his eyes, leaving twin dark holes at the center of his orbital sockets. The swaying stopped. “You’ve done what I could not.”

“Who’s Heldin?”

His attention snapped to her. “How do I know that name?”

“We should catch up,” she replied, patting a spot beside her at the fence post. He joined her, a weariness hanging about his shoulders. The yoke of remembering. “It appears a spectral aberration of her visited a group of poachers and charmed them into doing her bidding.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not. They resurrected her from the Otherworld when they sacrificed the three wolves. She has an uncanny ability to conceal herself and them. That’s why you’ve haven’t been able to find them.”

“So, she walks among us. What did that human inside say she wanted?”

“To free herself and her people from the Otherworld in exchange for their lives.” She rolled her eyes. As if. “I don’t know anything about her other than I’m fairly certain she was the leader of your old village, just by how he was talking.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, a heavy, downtrodden motion. “I guess that sounds right. I’m trying to picture and place her in my memory, but it’s just this black hole. Did he say anything else about her?”

“Nothing useful,” she said softly, laying a hand on his arm. “It’s been two thousand years. I’d be very impressed if you remembered what anyone looked like from that time.”

“But shouldn’t one of the greatest evils I’ve ever encountered be seared into my memory? Too terrible to forget?”

She squeezed his arm, then wrapped her own around herself. “Sometimes that’s exactly why we don’t remember.”

Heldin.Just the name sent shivers down his spine, his body remembering something his mind did not.

“There was one thing of note.” Astrid rubbed her arms, and Gudariksthought it might be more for comfort than chill. “He said Heldin has red eyes ‘like two hot coals.’”

Gudariksfroze.

A woman’s voice, whispered on the wind in an ancient, long-dead tongue. “Oh, mighty Gudariks. Where was your mercy before?”

A pair of red, narrow-set eyes, flickering like fire.

Heldin.

All this time, she had been haunting him.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Every morning, Astrid returned to Perchta’s house to continue taking the potion she brewed, leaving Cigarette Man tied up at home with a forest ranger standing guard. Until the supernatural threat at play was neutralized, Johanna and her team would hold off on making official arrests. The further away from town they could keep this charmed poacher and others like him, the better, especially before they understood the full scope of Heldin’s plans.

Perchta found Oskar, rattled but otherwise unscathed. The poor fox recalled the uncanny feeling of being watched.

Knowing what they knew now, he likely had been, which none of them felt particularly great about. Johanna and her colleagues set up trail cameras throughout the forest, but only time would tell if they caught anything on them. It was like finding five pesky needles in a forest-sized haystack.

With each new day, the ice magic that coalesced in Astrid’s veins grew, her resistance to frigid climes strengthening. Layers were shed. First her hat and mittens, then her coat. Whittling down to a loose-knit sweater, so that when the wind reached through the threads with its glacial touch, she felt none of its sting. Just a cool and welcome caress.

The advanced magic that seemed so out of reach before was clicking. It was messy and crude and the furthest thing from masterful, but Astrid was grasping the spell work, aided greatly by the grimoires and Perchta’s instruction.

---