Page 75 of First Snow

Jareth

OulankaNationalParkiscovered by a thick blanket of snow, its pine and spruce forests lying dormant. Only a few tracks mar the fresh white, and the setting sun colors the landscape in soft shades of orange and pink.

The younger Lord Briar meets them at a parking lot a good distance away from his family’s estate. Jareth had wondered if his willingness to collaborate with them is a trap, but judging by the way he looks at Emily, he suspects the young Lord has other motives.

“Did Emily tell you that I’m a detective inspector?” Arttu growls. He fixes the young man with a stern gaze.

“Yes, but I thought—”

Arttu cuts him off. “The only reason you aren’t faced with an official investigation yet, is because Emily and Jareth are too kind to bring a scandal down on your father until we’re one hundred percent sure he’s done something wrong. So either you help us, or I’ll call for reinforcements.”

Jareth has to turn away to hide his smirk. Arttu is just too precious when he’s acting like an intimidating detective. The poor Lordling has no idea what’s happening to him. After all, he promised Emily to show them the entrance to the cave system under his family’s hunting lodge.

“No need for that, sir,” Briar stutters.

“Good,” Arttu says haughtily. “Believe me, it’s not worth it for you to try and trick us. You would get into more trouble than you can imagine.”

“I—”

“This would be so much worse than having to change universities because you distributed drugs among your fellow students.”

“That was a misunderstanding!”

“Interesting. I didn’t know you had to change your field of study,” Jareth purrs, just to make the young Lord a little more uneasy.

“Okay, that’s enough. He’s got it,” Emily intervenes. “Besides, Tuulia and I will stay with him and make sure he doesn’t get any stupid ideas.”

“You heard Emily,” Arttu snarls. “Now lead the way.”

“See that dark spot over there?” Jareth points between the trees in front of them.

They left the others about two miles from where they now stand and set off into the forest. The young Lord Briar had shown them the direction in which the caves that should lead them under the hunting lodge are. The winter landscape around them is serene in its snowy beauty, the crunching of their snowshoes the only sound in the near silence.

Arttu squints. “There are a shitload of dark spots over there. How can you see anything at all?”

Jareth chuckles. He has always hunted alone. At first, he’d thought that it would be better to convince Arttu to stay with Tuulia and Emily, but of course Arttu wouldn’t have it. And Jareth had no idea that it would feel so good to take his lover on the hunt. It makes deep satisfaction settle in Jareth’s heart to be able to share his true nature with Arttu.

“You’ll have to trust me, then.”

Arttu grumbles something that sounds suspiciously like “Smug bastard”.

He takes Arttu’s hand and pulls him toward the cave entrance, helping him avoid the treacherous spots along the way.

“Shit, when the little Briar said ‘cave’, I thought he meant a small tunnel leading up to the estate.” Arttu peeks into the darkness ahead. “But this looks like the entrance to a whole system. How are we supposed to find him if there’s a labyrinth down there?”

The opening is already high enough that they can both stand there comfortably, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller further back. The darkness inside is compact, threatening. A cold wind comes from the depths of the cave, carrying with it a wet, almost fishy odor.

Arttu wrinkles his nose. “What the fuck is that stench?”

Jareth loosens his snowshoes and steps close to Arttu.

“Black magic.”

“What?”

“What you’re smelling is black magic.”

It’s peculiar that Arttu can sense it at all. A mere human shouldn’t be able to, but Arttu is awfully attuned to spiritual energies.