Page 98 of Untethering Dark

But not her own.

No eviscerating pain had followed, nor no new gaping hole at the center of her chest.

But her would-be shooter’s hand?

The gun had backfired, rendering it a bloody, mangled mess. More chewed up, stringy flesh than anything solid.

Astrid smiled, stepping down barefoot from her front stoop and into the snow.

Her unwanted admirer smiled, this development with his colleague fazing him none.

Cigarette Man tossed the knife from hand to hand. It was a wonder he wasn’t scared. Did he think she couldn’t repeat the magic? It was true she didn’t know the boundaries of her strengths and weaknesses, newly come into her hag’s power and restored from Death, but it was awfully cocky to assume she already reached her limit.

“It’s nothing personal.” He grinned, showing all his teeth, like he thought himself more wolf than man. “Kill or be killed. That’s the way of nature, isn’t it?”

A wicked smile twisted her mouth, filled with too many sharp teeth. He thought he was the predator.

He was wrong.

“I’ve hunted wolf, bear, summoned demon spawn from Hell.” He laughed, waving his knife around carelessly. “Those pretty, sharp teeth don’t scare me. I will...”

Astrid hefted her ax and swung, cleaving his screaming companion’s head clean from his body. It smacked the ground in a wet, meaty, and extremely satisfying thud, followed by his body.

“One swing.” Cigarette Man toed the severed head with his boot, having the audacity to look impressed. “Nice job, Blondie. This one was starting to get on my nerves.”

The doorstep creaked behind her.Suri.

He whirled, wrist flicking with a blinding speed she’d seen before.

Astrid threw up an ice shield, one large enough to protect her and Suri, but her friend was already darting to the side. As the poacher’s bowie knife smashed into the ice, Suri leaped forward, quick as a rabbit, plunging a kitchen knife into his shoulder.

He howled in pain but instinctively reached for their throat.

Astrid shot ice from her palm, pelting him so hard in the groin, it knocked him on his back. Howling turned to screaming as he clutched himself, rolling from side to side on the ground. The debilitating pain zapped the fight right out of him.

Together, they dragged him back inside and tied him to the chair, right where he belonged.

A black crow perched itself in the center of the tree stump outside Astrid’s gate, staring at them through the open door with its beady eyes. She couldn’t exactly pinpoint what she didn’t like about its open, unflinching stare. Crows alwaysseemed brazen, but this one’s behavior bordered upon unnatural.

She considered shooing it off when a flash of orange streaked across her vision, almost too quick to track, leaving the space the crow occupied an obliterated puff of feathers. There was squawking and then an abrupt snap.

Moments later, Oskar emerged from behind the tree stump, a limp, feathery bird in the clutches of his mouth.

“What’s this?” she asked.

He laid the crow at her feet.“Formerly? A familiar for Heldin.”

Astrid nudged it with her toe. “How do you know that?” It hadn’t talked, just watched.

Oskar turned his nose up, looking offended. She didn’t mean to imply distrust. Only curiosity.

“I can see the master behind the servant,”he explained a little grumpily.“That’s a normal skill amongst our kind, which is why I didn’t let it see me and used the element of surprise.”

“I’m sorry.” She rubbed her chest, wincing at the phantom ache. “I’ve had a crummy night, so I’m a little more blunt than usual. I was only wondering.”

The fox familiar’s expression softened. In a manner that was very catlike, he rubbed his furry head affectionately against her legs.“That’s a lot of blood. What happened?”

“The short version? I was shot during the ritual, almost died, and these ‘fuckers’ kidnapped Gudariks and Johanna.”

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