“I found her here.” We’d gone quite a few blocks, and I was honestly amazed he’d managed to run that far carrying her…and still been able to jog back with me.

“You’re amazingly fit,” I noted as I walked over to the stream.

“I do hunt vampires for a hobby. Well, until you scared them all off.”

I rolled my eyes. “They’ll come back sooner or later, or a new batch will. So…”

“Right by the stream, under the tree. She…sent a distress signal.”

I didn’t ask how. Clara was a highly competent witch. “But she was unconscious and like that when you found her.”

It wasn’t a question. I dropped to one knee, looking for clues, and wishing for the fyrhund. I missed him. I missed him so much.

Maybe I could find another one. The fire was very active. Having been let out once it wanted to play again. It danced within me, wanting to destroy but also…there was something else in there.

I’d have to talk to Freya again, once all the crises were over. She seemed to know what she was talking about. Or my mother.

But I saw no clues. There were various tracks, but they all seemed to be people…kids and adults…in sneakers, and several dogs. One of the dogs was remarkably large, but there was nothing suspicious about that. “Bunch of people, couple of normal dogs, one St. Bernard,” I pronounced.

“Heh. But…look.”

I did.

“The grass is burned here, and here.”

I nodded. “Maybe they put whatever brand they used…yes, they did, look at the burn patterns.”

“Okay, so we know they did it right here. How did nobody see them?”

“How is nobody noticing us? That’s like…pretty basic magic for us, Seb.”

He nodded. “For fire giants too?”

“Yup. Nobody would have noticed them who wasn’t supernaturally sensitive or really alert. Like Mike, say.” He’d seen through things before, and I was pretty sure he was just that good a cop.

“Okay.” He frowned. “So…what do we do?”