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he’d expected.”
    Daniel nodded, but he wasn’t sure he agreed. Eric was strong, and getting stronger every day. And even if the car was too much, that didn’t explain why he’d nearly drowned. Eric was the most powerful person Daniel had ever met, but today he hadn’t even had the strength to swim.
    Daniel was worried about his friend, and he planned to talk to Eric about what had happened at the bridge as soon as he got the chance. But for the time being he had other things to focus on. If Herman had left those photos behind where they could be found, they would all be in danger.
    The Shroud was dead and gone, but would he ever stop making them afraid?
    Daniel would start his investigation tomorrow. Theo Plunkett was about to make a new friend, whether he liked it or not.

Chapter Three
The Plunkett Family Name
    T hat night Daniel dreamed of the Old Quarry, and of the Shroud. He was fighting his old enemy again, but this time he was fighting alone. As the black-cloaked Shroud overwhelmed him, Daniel reached for the glowing meteor stone pendant around Herman’s neck. That shard of Witch Fire meteorite was the source of the villain’s strength, and Daniel had torn it from the Shroud’s neck once before, rendering him powerless. But this time, as he grasped the hunk of burning black rock, his own hand caught fire. Green flames licked along his fingers as Daniel cried out in pain. The Shroud was speaking to him, telling him how Daniel could make the pain go away by giving in to the stone’s power, buthe refused to listen. Eventually his hand burned down to nothing, and all Daniel could do was clutch the stump that had once been his hand. All the while Plunkett’s voice whispered his name.
    In the morning when Daniel awoke, he made himself a little rule—no more Shroud talk before bed. His day was mostly filled with chores—mowing the lawn and watching Georgie while his mom tended her flower garden—but as soon as he could slip away, Daniel pedaled his bike along a route he hadn’t taken in months; one that he’d hoped to never take again.
    The Plunkett estate was hidden away at the end of a private drive just off Cedar Lane. The towering mansion had been empty since Herman’s disappearance, a lonely place of gathering dust and wild, overgrown gardens. But Herman’s house had felt deserted for years. The old millionaire had lived a hermitlike existence, playing the part of the infirm, doddering eccentric to the hilt. With the exception of a visiting nurse and a few gardeners, no one came to or went from that house, even when Herman was still alive. Or at least that was the charade, the carefully crafted play, that Herman had put on for years. In truth the villain had had the run of Noble’s Green as the Shroud, flitting in and out of the shadows, stealing the powers and memories of generations of the town’s gifted children. Over many years he’d used his influence, his money, and his frightening abilities to control the town in unseen ways, to dominate and terrorize the children while keeping the adults ignorant of theirtown’s strange goings-on. In the end, he died a bitter and paranoid old man. Herman trapped himself in his own lie, like a bottled spider.
    Which was why it seemed all the more surreal as Daniel walked his bike up the main drive and saw the change that had come over the Plunkett house. The front yard was buzzing with an army of gardeners trimming the shrubs and pulling weeds. Men on ladders were applying a new coat of paint to the peeling facade, and the heavy curtains were drawn back and every last window was thrown wide open. Someone was airing out the place—like they were expunging what was left of old Herman. Daniel remembered the distinctive smell that had permeated the house, a mixture of musty paper and mediciny ointments. It was the kind of smell that left dust in your nose.
    Now it smelled of cut grass and fresh paint.
    Two enormous moving vans were parked next to the long