“If you destroy this world, Cotton…”
“What? Your daddy will be mad at me? He knew what the shadow was. He knew whose side it would take. That didn’t stop him, did it? Face it, he left you to this fate. So shut your mouth and stop acting like you know what you’re talking about.”
Ethan said nothing, utterly cowed.
I managed to get within arm’s reach of Laylah. She lay still, facing me with her eyes closed.
She can’t be dead, I thought. That would defeat Cotton’s purpose.
Still, I took advantage of the pastor’s diverted attention and reached a shaking hand out around the tree. My fingers found her cold little wrist and pressed. The pulse was slow, but at least it was there.
He must have given her something to make her sleep. It made sense. It couldn’t have been easy to restrain two children with both of his assistants dead and only one good arm.
Reassured that Laylah was alive, I could turn my thoughts to the conversation I had just heard. Other worlds? Pale man? How much did Ethan leave out when he was telling me his story?
Cotton’s head snapped toward the tree just as I withdrew my arm into the brush. He started heading in my direction. My heart pounded in my ears as he approached. Had he seen me? Could I wait or was it time to run?
He threw the free end of the rope over a low branch and managed to tie a fairly secure knot. I fought back against the urge to sigh with relief. He hadn’t seen me yet. This close, I could see the rope was old, frayed, and no match for the knife in my pocket.
Ethan got to his feet and tried to lunge at Cotton. But the pastor hadn’t given him enough rope to reach. The boy could watch what was about to happen, but he couldn’t interfere.
Cotton took a last look in the direction of the setting sun and then stood in front of Laylah. He tilted his head back and raised his left arm into the air.
“Leviathan!” he called out. “I wish to make a trade.”
Now was the time to move. I crab-walked as fast as I dared through the brush until I was among the trees. Then I moved around behind the pastor. I found myself wishing he was a flesh-and-blood man I could just stick my blade into. But Garrett and the shotgun last night had told me that wouldn’t work. All I could hope to do was stall him.
I inhaled, stepped into the clearing, and shouted with all my might. “Cyril Crayford!”
Cotton and Ethan both spun in my direction. The pastor’s eyes went wide and he took a step back. Then his surprise changed to annoyance.
“Girl,” he snarled. “I’m getting tired of you.”
I saw lights moving through the trees across from me. I heard movement behind me. I smiled and kept my eyes on Cotton. “Yeah, that must be really frustrating. You did everything you possibly could to stop me from being here, and yet here I am.”
His hand flexed. “Not everything.”
“Come over here and finish the job, then, if you’re so afraid of the bear.”
Ethan’s face was drawn out with terror. “Kelly, run!”
Cotton crossed the distance between us in a flash. I did not try to get away. His hand closed on my throat at the same instant two men burst from the trees and grabbed my arms.
Cotton let go as I looked at the two men who had caught me. Both officers from the county sheriff’s department.
“Sir, step back,” one of them ordered.
“I…” the pastor fumbled. Then he regained his composure. “Thank you, officers. This woman is a fugitive.”
“Over there,” the first officer said.
“Are those a couple of kids?” the other asked, astonished. Cotton’s expression went to horror, then rage. As both men looked over at the children, their hands still on me, Cotton raised his arm to strike.
I pulled back. “Look out—”
“There she is! The cops have her!”
Cotton froze. People were coming into the clearing from all directions. First Branchett, Joe, and the rest of the Grunwald police. They had my husband with them. Then citizens holding flashlights began to appear. The powerful beam of light reappeared, illuminating me and Cotton. I could see the headlights underneath now. Phil emerged from the truck. Sammie and Emma Lee’s heads leaned out the passenger window. There were my parents. Maggie and Gordon. Even Ike and Mayor Vintner had joined in the witch hunt.
“My baby!” came a primal cry from somewhere to my right. Rachael came running, past the cops who tried to stop her, toward the stone slab where her daughter lay.
She never got there. The sunlight was gone. The black mist billowed out from between the roots of the trees, coating the ground and spreading across the clearing. Rachael came to a halt just as I had done when I first saw it. A second later, two people hauled her back to the edge of the clearing and restrained her.
“Leviathan,” I whispered.
Cotton’s reddening face rounded on me. “What have you done?”
“I did what you told me to do,” I said with a grin. “I figured out what motivates the people. All I wanted to do was find a way to fire them up so they’d come into this forest to save a child. So I gave them a witch.”
Chapter 32
The cops let go of me to assess the situation and get control of the horrified people. Everyone was yelling. Garrett was trying to get to me, but Branchett held him by the shoulder.
“It’s the curse!” someone screamed. “What’s going to happen to us?”
“Why don’t you tell them?” I hollered loud enough to get a few people’s attention. People started to look at me and Cotton. I continued. “Why don’t you tell everyone who you are, Chester Cotton? I mean to say, Cyril Crayford?”
Some folks looked among themselves with confusion.
“Tell them all how you spread lies through the town, making them think there was nothing in this forest. How you attacked Sammie Hagen and kidnapped her daughter.”
Cotton looked at the advancing black fog and then back at me.
“But that one wasn’t for real, was it? After the car accident, you had the badger bring Emma Lee Hagen back into the bear’s territory. You were worried someone might have a strong enough maternal instinct to bring the bear, and you wanted to sniff that woman out. So you staged a crisis to see how everyone would react… to see who would dare to enter the woods at night. That’s how you found me.”
People were starting to stir now, despite the cops’ attempts to keep them back.
“So you drew me in, made me trust you, got me to tell you secrets. Then you used my history against me to make sure I couldn’t stop you when you went after your real target. Just like you did to Muriel Greaves in 1915. Luckily, Chief Branchett’s ancestor was there to put you down back then.”
David Branchett and my husband exchanged a glance. The chief’s hand dropped from Garrett’s shoulder and went to the revolver on his hip. I understood now why he carried that cowboy gun. The forensic report had mentioned the .44 service revolvers the police had used in his ancestor’s day. David, bless him, kept the gun that had shot the serial killer. That revolver was a hundred years old.
The black fog was almost upon us now.
“Tell the people who you really are, Pastor,” I said.
Cotton dashed forward and picked me up by the front of my jacket.
“Shut your mouth, girl. I’m going to…”
“Hey, hey! On the ground!” one of the county cops shouted as every police officer in the clearing drew their weapons and took aim at Cotton.
It didn’t matter. The fog rolled over the pastor’s feet. His bright yellow suit began to wither to tan and brown, starting at his ankles and spreading up his legs.
I smiled, still dangling from his clenched fist. “Axe-Man, Axe-Man, sharpen your blade.”
Ethan, standing as close to us as the rope would let him, picked up the verse with me. “Make all the boys and girls afraid.”
Garrett, Maggie, and Gordon, approaching in a tight group, joined us in the song. “Sheriff got a gun, went bang-bang-bang. If
they find the Axe-Man, he is sure to hang.”
We repeated the song. This time, as the fog’s effect became visible, more people joined in. By the time we finished the verse for the second time, the county cops were the only ones not singing.
Cotton dropped me to my feet as the rot spread to his chest and arm, transforming his suit coat into a cracked leather vest. His hand became desiccated, more bone than flesh. With the light from Phil’s truck on him, I could now see the ragged cloth sling around his right arm. I could see the bare collarbone, crooked, poorly healed from the gunshot that had killed him.
As the flesh melted away from his face, the wide-brimmed leather hat appeared on his head. Then the wooden shaft materialized in the hand that had dropped me. The forged head of the axe-spear appeared, his sacrificial weapon.
Garrett and Gordon reached me and yanked me away just as the Axe-Man made a vicious swipe with his blade.
“The kids!” I yelled, but they kept pulling me back. My father joined in a second later, replacing Garrett at my side. The two old men dragged me into the trees, where my mother threw herself at me.
“Kelly, I’m so sorry!” she bawled. “I should have believed you!”
“Not now, Mom!” I said, but I couldn’t even hear myself as the county sheriff’s officers opened fire. Everyone else dove to the ground, including the Grunwald policemen.
The Axe-Man streaked around the clearing in his abnormally fast manner. In their panic, it looked like the officers never landed a shot on him. The bullets sang over our heads and thwacked into tree trunks.
“Stop! It won’t do any good!” I shouted, but no one heard me.
The Axe-Man darted from one cop to the next, his curved blade flashing as he did so. The men fell with horrendous wounds. Phil jumped on top of his truck and tried to follow the phantom’s movements with his light.
I raised my head as much as I dared and looked across the clearing, terrified that Ethan might get caught in the crossfire. He, too, lay on the ground. His eyes met mine and I could see that he and I were thinking the same thing. I was here, against everything the Axe-Man had tried to do. So where the hell was Momma Kodi?
Soon no one was shooting anymore. The Axe-Man raised his bloody weapon and pointed at the crowd.
“No one else interfere,” he snapped. After that violent display, the onlookers were inclined to obey him. He turned and dove for the altar. Ethan screamed. So did Rachael, breaking free and racing toward the tree. The Axe-Man was moving faster, but Rachael was closer.
The phantom raised his weapon over his head as he streaked toward Laylah, aiming for the killing blow. Rachael leapt, throwing her body across the sacrificial slab to protect her daughter.
“No!” I screamed, but I was drowned out by a bellowing roar. Before the blade could reach its mark, the infuriated bear burst through the underbrush, knocking both Rachael and the Axe-Man sprawling.
Chapter 33
Everyone besides me, Garrett, and Ethan backpedaled in shock and hid behind trees. Momma Kodi bellowed her rage into the dusk and charged at her downed enemy.
“This is it!” I found myself screaming. “Stop the sacrifice!”
“Kill him!” Ethan cried.
The Axe-Man leapt to his feet and evaded the paw swinging at him. He spun around and inflicted a long cut on Kodi’s outstretched foreleg. She turned, far too slowly, in time to take another wound on the shoulder.
“Oh, no…” I moaned, taking a step towards the fight.
Garrett saw it too. “She hasn’t healed yet. She’s still limping from last night’s battle.”
“What can we do?” Maggie demanded. “The poor creature…”
I scanned the clearing. Rachael had stayed on the ground and was crawling in the black fog towards the tree.
“We can still stop this,” I said. “Make sure he stays occupied.”
“Got it,” Garrett said. “Go get the kids.”
I lunged into the clearing and landed on my belly, army-crawling as fast as I could until I caught up with Rachael.
“I’m with you,” I said. “Get Laylah.”
Rachael didn’t stop or look at me, but she took a deep breath. “Kelly… thank you.”
“Don’t thank me until we’re out of this.”
We had gotten within five feet of the tree. I got up and ran the rest of the way, unfolding my knife. I grabbed the rope restraining Ethan and started sawing. Motivated by our example, other people ran into the clearing just long enough to drag the wounded officers to safety.
A tortured cry got our attention. The Axe-Man withdrew the spear point of his weapon from Kodi’s body with a slash that threw a crescent of blood across the ground. She reared up and roared, making one more effort to throw her weight at her nimbler opponent. The Axe-Man dropped to one knee and spun, cutting across her hind legs. She collapsed forward.
As her eyes closed, Kodi bared her teeth and made a deeper roar. As it had during the battle in the flooded river last night, this roar sent a vibrating shockwave through the ground. And again, she was cut off. The Axe-Man planted one of his heavy boots on her snout, holding her mouth shut. He raised his weapon and turned it blade-down to plunge into her back.
“Huh? Mommy? Mommy!”
Rachael swept the stirring child into her arms. “It’s OK, baby. Mommy’s got you. We’re going home.”
The Axe-Man spun and let out a cry of rage. Rachael ran with Laylah. I was still working on the rope. The skeletal man darted toward us.
“Leave me!” Ethan hissed. “He’ll take you in the girl’s place if he has to.”
A gunshot rang out. The Axe-Man stopped and turned to look.
David Branchett pointed his revolver in a shaking hand. He fired again, another wild miss, just as I cut through the rope. Ethan pulled his arms free but didn’t run away.
“Branchett,” the Axe-Man gurgled. “I will have to ask the Eld King to leave you for me.” He disregarded the man and returned his attention to me. He raised his blade. My back was against the tree. I had nowhere to go.
The chief’s fingers slipped on the gun. Garrett appeared at his side, seizing hold of the firearm and snatching it out of Branchett’s sweaty grip. “Damn it, give me that—”
My husband sighted down the revolver, thumbed back the hammer, and blew off half the Axe-Man’s jaw. The skeletal man screamed and collapsed to the ground.
Ethan and I slipped away and ran toward the bleeding bear. The boy knelt at her side and cradled her massive head.
“Kodi, get up,” he pleaded. “Get up. You can still make it.”
There was no response. Ethan laid his head against hers and cried. I crouched down and put my hand on his shoulder. He turned and fell into me.
“I don’t…” he sobbed into my jacket. “I don’t know what to do, Momma… I don’t want to be alone.”
I stood, lifting him into my arms, shushing him. “It’s alright. You won’t be alone.”
“Momma…” he cried.
“That’s alright,” I said. I rocked him, stroked his hair. Now I was crying too. I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t good enough for this. But it wasn’t about me anymore. It was about what this child needed. “It’s alright. Momma’s here.”
The bear’s eyes drifted open and gazed at me. I stared back into hers. I could see my own reflection in the brown spheres. I saw myself holding the child. In that instant I knew the instinct I had pushed aside out of fear when my own baby had been lost from me. I knew this bear’s weary desperation, her nurturing love that could turn to protective violence in a fraction of a second.
“I didn’t bring you,” I whispered to Kodi. “I am you.”
Her eyes flicked away from me, looking past us. She bared her teeth and roared into the ground again. The vibration traveled through my body, shaking my spine and rattling my teeth. A wave spread through the fog on the ground, moving up the trees and causing the leaves to stir. The low rumble echoed through the Green Ravine valley beyond us.
“Look out!” someone shouted.
I spun, clinging to Ethan. The Axe-Man was getting up again. Garrett ran into the clearing, still holding the revolver to deliver another shot up close.
The axe lashed out. Garrett was too close to get caught by the blade, but the wooden shaft slammed into his already broken arm. He fell, uttering a stream of curses. The Axe-Man turned to me, his grin gone, replaced with a gaping hole in his face. He dashed up to us.
I turned to run, but he tripped me with the shaft of the weapon and I fell on top of Ethan. I felt the sharp point against my back. The Axe-Man slowly increased the pressure, taking care to pierce me without hurting the boy. I screamed as I felt the blade split through my jacket and push into my skin.
“Stop it!” Ethan cried. “Help her! Somebody do something!”
A long, loud call ripped through the clearing, one that was impossible not to recognize. The howl of a wolf.
Chapter 34
The spear point withdrew from my back as the Axe-Man backed up several steps. He clutched his weapon close to him, looking in all directions. I got to my feet, holding Ethan’s hand. Garrett came to my side, interposing himself between me and our enemy.
“You didn’t listen to the myths very carefully, did you, Cotton?” Garrett jeered. “What does the bear do when she can’t face the threat on her own?”
I smiled, gripping his forearm with my free hand. “She calls her husband.”
A red shimmer caught my eye. From the edge of the clearing behind the bear, he emerged. Copper-colored in his coat. Ears and tail held high. Sharp grey-green eyes, like those of an eagle. The King of the Forest had appeared at his wife’s side.
My first thought was how slender he was. With his oversized ears, he looked more like a coyote or a fox than a wolf. But I could see the muscles threading across his body as he moved. A glowing sheen rippled through his red fur like flames.
“Brennen,” I said. “King Firehide.”
“False king,” the Axe-Man hissed, his voice warped by his missing jaw. “Usurper. Bonebreaker.”
The wolf lowered his head and touched his snout to Kodi’s. She opened her eyes and groaned, lifting her face into his.
Momma Grizzly Page 16
