She did the same for the other two cars. We opened each, and then we destroyed the contents.

When I looked back, Love Lost and her retinue were gone.

“She’s gone,” Byron observed.

“No,” Rain said. “It’s not over. She wouldn’t leave things the way they are now. Her losing, especially to me.”

“There’s something more going on,” I said. “Something she’s doing, people she’s working with.”

“Yeah, probably,” Rain said. “But I’m more concerned that she’s so willing to back off now. She wouldn’t back off. Not unless she was absolutely sure she could do something meaningful soon.”

Polarize 10.9

Sveta was out of her armor, and her tendrils flicked out with enough force to crack ice and send the hard crust of snow flying overhead. As she approached, one of her tendrils whipped out and caught me, seizing my forcefield.

It let go a moment later. Forceful as the grab had been, it hadn’t disrupted the field.

“Sorry!”

“My fault for getting too close! Keep it up!” I called out.

In the gloom, even with the snow reflecting ambient light up, and with Sveta’s face being pale, it was still hard to make her out. She was more easily detected by the loose ring of whipped-up snow and flecks of ice than by anything else. I could judge the maximum range of her tendrils and look at the ring to estimate the center of it. The origin point.

I floated, keeping one careful eye on the ring while my eyes scanned the snow. It wasn’t easy to find what I was looking for. Holes that animals had dug, depressions, and shadows cast by distant objects all looked the same.

As a group, we’d fanned out, moving over the field, the road a hundred feet to my left, the streetlights casting a yellow pallor over the field.

“We might have to call it quits!” Tristan shouted.

“If you’re going to wimp out, switch to Byron! The cold doesn’t bother him!” Rain.

“I’m switching to him, but it’s not because I’m wimping out! He might have seen something, and he deserves a turn!”

“Yeah! Sure!”

“Also, just saying, he’s got the crampons on his boots, and I’ve got the boots for running indoors! He’s better equipped for the snow!”

“Sure!”

“Stop saying that!” Tristan called out.

“We need to meet Spright too!” I called out. “It’s about time. Five more minutes!”

“It’s no big!” Kenzie. “I don’t want anyone getting cold! We could go now, really!”

“We’re going to find it.” Ashley, in a firm statement that I could only barely hear.

Sveta continued her patrol, edging closer to me. I ceded the ground to her, flying up and back. I could see a crop-circle style swathe that had been cut through the field in her wake.