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Comet didn’t have to tell me twice. I could see the mistletoe plants around us had their backs up again and weren’t going to be put off so easy. I scrambled up onto Comet’s back, put an antler in each hand, and gripped them until my knuckles were white. “Giddyup,” I said. Comet launched through the forest like a missile.

Comet darted between trees so closely that with every turn, I was positive I was about to become an unofficial woodpecker. At full throttle, Comet weaved through the forest, changing direction on a dime, as if he had lost his sight. But he could see plenty. Both of us could.

Vampire mistletoe plants don’t take too kindly to their dinner being snatched from the table in such a rude fashion. They gave word that we were on the run and the whole forest was organizing into a life-sucking mistletoe army. Hoary plants were dropping from the branches and jumping from trunks, lashing out at Comet as he whizzed by. It seemed like every turn was blocked by a claw or wall of spindly twigs, but Comet would zip through another gap just in the nick of time. I looked behind us to see a hundred mistletoe shrubs fast on Comet’s heels, fangs bared, and they were starting to spread out to surround us.

A blink later, Comet pelted past a stand of trees where a mistletoe ambush was waiting. A rugged fist of mistletoe grabbed Comet’s antlers and yanked so hard Comet’s head nearly came off. I held on for dear life and did the only thing I could think of: I sunk my teeth into the plant’s knuckles that gripped Comet’s antlers and made sure it hurt. The mistletoe pulled back with a yelp and I kicked Comet in the ribs just as a platoon of shrubs nipped at his wake.

Comet took a hard left and winged it past the reach of dark mistletoe angels raining down from the branches above. There were more mistletoe villains ahead of us and still more pushing up from the other side.

We were surrounded.

I was about to raise the white flag and jump off so Comet could escape. It was me that they wanted. But with Comet’s next zigzag, I realized what he was doing.

He was tying the mistletoe into knots.

The first two batches collided in a tangle, stopping them in their tracks. The plants behind them didn’t have enough time to get out of the way and flew right into a pile, creating more of a mess. Comet made one more sharp turn and sent another wave of mistletoe into the coil that would be snarled and tangled until doomsday.

“Hey, mistletoe,” Comet said with a sneer. “Kiss this!” A second later, Comet launched straight up into the sky, rocketing over the trees and through the clouds to a sky so blue it brought tears to my eyes.

Or maybe I was crying for another reason. I can’t remember now.

Comet was a gentleman and let me compose myself for a moment before he spoke. “You hurt?” he asked. “There was a lot of bark flying around down there. You got any splinters? Don’t try and be tough; they can get infected.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I could never have flown through all that stuff. I’m not strong enough. I owe you one.”

Comet gave a snort. “Not me. I ain’t so sure you shouldn’t be hung by the chimney without care. You’re an outlaw, Gumdrop, and I don’t know if I like being in your company. No, this is a favor for somebody else.”

“Who? Dingleberry?”

“Negative,” Comet said. “Dingleberry don’t talk to me since I gave him that wedgie a while back. It was just a joke, but he’s still pretty steamed, so I wouldn’t cross the street to help that huffy little twerp. He can suck rope for all I care.”

“Who then?” I asked.

“Keep your shirt on,” Comet said. “I’m to deliver you to that clearing ahead, so you’ll see soon enough.”

Comet swooped down a few miles later to a glade just across a river from the mistletoe forest. Apparently, killer plants can’t swim because the trees just past the clearing were free from the pucker suckers. Comet barely let me climb off before he shot back into the sky without a word. I was alone with nothing but the