Wildwood (YA Paranormal Mystery) (26 page)

Henry and Steve let go of Shaun and tried to escape, but the ivy snagged their feet, whipped around their legs, and dragged them down. Shaun froze on the spot, eyes bugging while creepers surged past him.

When Cardell's two goons were struggling in ivy cocoons like the professor, the rustling mass of greenery fell still. The silvery glow from the torque faded. The storm quieted, and the rattling tree branches settled. Only the muffled grunts and cries of the three bound men broke the silence.

Grandpa walked out from beneath the trees, his face bloodless and creased as though he'd aged ten years. Ruby followed close behind, her arms locked protectively around Marigold.

A network of woody tendrils clung to Todd's robe, the little hairy stems like spider's legs hanging on to him to provide stability for the vines that covered the clearing.

"My lord." Grandpa fell to his knees in front of Todd.

Todd blinked at his grandfather, no idea how to respond. Instead he turned his attention to Shaun. "Get me out of here."

Shaun snapped closed his gaping mouth. "Holy manoly. How did you do that?"

"Jesus, Shaun, I don't know. Just untie me." When Shaun didn't move fast enough, panic raced through Todd as if his mind was just catching up with everything that had happened. A dark whisper sounded in his head, as if the voice he'd heard before was now inside him. Ancient words of power hummed along his nerves.

The fine tendrils of ivy covering him withered. Glossy green leaves that had sprouted on his bindings now browned and dropped. He flexed his muscles, struggled, and the ivy ropes cracked and fell off. He lurched away from the megalith and stumbled to Shaun's side, catching hold of his friend's sleeve to steady himself. Picasso pressed against Todd's legs, and he bent to pet him, the familiar feel of the dog reassuring.

"You okay, man?" Shaun asked.

"I will be when we get out of here."

"Sure. Let's split."

As Todd turned to go, an anguished sob broke the unnatural silence. On the far side of the clearing, Marigold clung to her mother, crying.

Todd didn't want to care about her after the way she had helped draw him into this web of lies and weirdness, but he did. "Is she okay?"

Eyes wary, Mrs. Turpin watched him as though he might attack her. "She's had a shock. We all have."

"Look." Grandpa pointed at the standing stone where Todd had been bound. The carving of the Green Man had disappeared, leaving only the charcoal drawing of a fox. "The Wild Lord's power has left the stone and passed into Todd."

"He's freaking crazy," Shaun whispered. He glanced around at the other robed villagers who were still there. "They all are."

Todd didn't know what had happened to the Green Man's face, but he hoped Grandpa was talking nonsense. Todd should be angry with the old man, but all he felt was pity. Grandpa had lost his son. Now he would lose his grandson as well. There was no way Todd would ever come back to Porthallow after this.

Kelvin still lay where he'd fallen. Grabbing a deep breath, Todd turned his back on his grandfather, a man he had trusted, and went to help the man he'd unfairly suspected of murder.

Shaun followed him and hung on to Picasso's collar as Todd crouched and slapped Kelvin on the cheeks. "Mr. Marks. Hey, wake up, Mr. Marks."

Kelvin opened his eyes, immediately alert. He pushed up on an elbow and glanced around. "You all right, Hunter?" When he realized there was no immediate danger, his hand went to the back of his head. He winced. "Which bastard cracked me one?"

Todd pointed at Henry's struggling, ivy-bound body.

Kelvin's eyes narrowed. "How did the ivy do that?" He vaulted to his feet and scanned the creeper-covered ground and the three trapped men. "Christ." He whistled through his teeth. "On second thoughts, I don't want to know."

Kelvin picked up the knife he'd taken from Cardell earlier and pointed it in the direction of the village. "You and Donovan get the hell out of here. I'll sort out these jokers." He walked over to where Henry was struggling to get free and kicked him. "You're last out of the net, buster."

"Thank you for coming, Mr. Marks. How did you know what was happening?" Todd said.

Kelvin pulled the lost Todd and Marigold dolls from his jacket pocket. "You dropped these, Hunter. Didn't think anything of it till Donovan said you were missing. Then I thought of the
big event
Pat and her loony friends have been prepping for." He tossed the dolls to Todd. "Get out of here, son. And don't come back."

With a last glance at Grandpa and Marigold, Todd set off along the dark path, Shaun and Picasso on his heels. His radar took him the shortest route back to the coast path without him having to think about it. A good thing as his brain was fried.

Todd touched the metal torque still around his neck and traced the engraved pattern with his fingers. After the strange feelings the collar had given him and what it had done to the ivy, he wanted the thing off him. But first, they must get away.

"Thanks, mate," he said over his shoulder to Shaun. He owed him and Kelvin big-time.

When Shaun didn't answer, Todd worried his friend must think he was a freak. They reached the camper van, parked illegally by the harbor, and piled in. Picasso sat on Todd's feet, and rested his slobbery chin on his knee. Todd stroked the soppy old dog's head, needing the connection, the grounding in reality.

Shaun slapped his hands on the steering wheel. "I don't know how you did that back there, man, but it was freaking awesome. Mega, mega freaking awesome."

"It wasn't me. It was this." Todd pulled on the torque with both hands expecting it to be difficult to get off, but it came away easily. He angled the silver collar so the street light illuminated an engraving of Cernunnos.

The etched figure had horns and vines spewing from parts of his body. On one side of him stood a stag, while on the other, people kneeled, heads bowed. Had this really grown from Dad's ring, or had he imagined it? As if to answer his question, the torque twitched and vibrated. He dropped it on his lap. With a strange humming sound, it shrank until it was once again small. Todd gingerly placed it on his hand and held it up. His familiar stag's-head ring rested in the middle of his palm.

"Wow, mental! Are you some kind of magician, or what?"

"I'm no magician," Todd whispered. It was his father who was the magician, or maybe something even more powerful. He certainly wasn't a normal human being.

So what did that make Todd? Right now, he didn't know. He only knew he really was different from everyone else.

He stared at Dad's ring, his chest tight, a pain beside his heart. He pushed it on his finger, the feel of the metal familiar and reassuring. Dad had come to him when he needed help and had shown him the true nature of the ring—how it could protect him.

It sounded as though Professor Cardell, Grandpa, and the other faithful had caused Dad's disappearance by killing the Cochrans and angering the Wild Lord. Todd now knew his father would never come home. His life would never go back to how it used to be.

But Dad hadn't completely deserted him. He had come to him in Lords Wood, so there was a chance Todd would see him again.

As they drove out of the village, Todd remembered he'd left his bags at Edna's. It was just past two in the morning when Shaun stopped outside her house. Todd sneaked up the dark path to the shed and fetched his stuff. The security light blinked on as he left, spotlighting a huge granite tub overflowing with lobelia, begonias, and petunias.

He touched his ring. Did the torque's power work when it was in ring form? He grasped the stem of a trailing petunia and imagined it growing. For a moment, nothing happened, then heat streaked through his hand and the fleshy stems lengthened. New flower buds emerged, and the petals unfurled. This was so cool.

The security light blinked out and darkness swallowed him. A fox barked its harsh call, and he sensed the creature slink across the lawn a short distance away. His hunter's radar thrummed with the vibrant life all around. But there was something else in the darkness, something he had sensed on the edge of his perception for a long time, something that beat in his blood with the promise of the hunt and the glory of the kill.

A dark, seductive whisper caressed his mind, tempting him with things he didn't understand. He grasped the petunia and icy needles prickled his hand. The plant shriveled, until there was nothing left in his grip but dead stems. The security light had switched on again at his sudden movement. He stared at the withered plant and remembered the Green Man in his father's book didn't just bring life in the spring. Cernunnos was master of the eternal cycle.

It seemed that the stag's-head ring had the power of both growth
and
death.

"Come on, man," Shaun called. Picasso whined, poking his nose out the car window. Todd hitched his backpack on his shoulder, jogged back to the camper van, and climbed in.

Shaun gunned the engine and shot up the lane, throwing Todd back in his seat. "Goodbye, Weirdoville," Shaun said.

They were both lost in their thoughts for a while, watching the headlights cut through the dark. Todd had thought living with Philippe was the pits, but after his stay in Porthallow, he knew better. For Mum's sake, he would try harder to get along with him.

"Where to, man?" Shaun asked.

"Home. You can crash at my place for a couple of weeks until you decide where you're going." Todd said.

"Thanks. I'll get Casso a pet passport and head on over to France, but we must keep in contact."

"Yeah, I'd like that."

"You think you'll ever see Marigold again?"

"Nah. I feel sorry for her being tangled up with these weirdos, but she could have warned me to leave, and she didn't."

"What about your grandfather?"

"Man, I don't know." Todd dropped his head back and closed his eyes. Grandpa had been the one to lure him here into Cardell's trap, and he would have let them wipe Todd's memory if Kelvin and Shaun hadn't shown up. The betrayal tightened his throat, and he swallowed it back. But some good had come of this. He'd learned more about his dad so he sort of got what he came for. His thoughts returned to Dad's ring, and he smiled to himself as he wondered what else it could do. He could think of one way it would be really useful.

"I'm going to start my own part-time gardening business." Todd's smile stretched into a grin. "Nobody will be able to grow plants as well as me."

"Radical!" Shaun laughed.

Thank you for reading Wildwood

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