Gabriel Stone and the Wrath of the Solarians

by Shannon Duffy

  Gabriel caught a glimpse of her eyes reflected in one of the mirrors. They looked as black as coal. He snapped his gaze away, terror gripping him like icy fingers. If she met his stare, Jasra had said she could steal his soul. But man, it was hard to tear his eyes away from her. He returned his gaze slowly, careful not to look at her eyes.

  Caprice turned her head away. She raised her hands into the air, palms up. Large golden bangles circling both of her wrists clanked together as she moved. The shallow water under her feet rippled, then parted in front of her. From out of the water, a round, white column rose into the air. On top of it sat a vase with a long neck and a round body. Red, gold, and purple shimmering beads decorated the urn.

  Gabriel’s heart galloped. The soul vase!

  The dimming light in the cavern reminded Gabriel that the sun was beginning to set. Jasra had told them this was the time when Caprice would be at her weakest. If they were gonna move, it needed to be now. Gabriel wished he had the night vision power the empress had given him the last time they were in Valta so he could see more clearly.

  But he was fast. Real fast. Somehow, he had to pull together the courage to make a run for it and grab the vase.

  He looked at his friends. Brent stiffened beside him and Piper peeked at the witch through the slats of her fingers. Finley looked like his eyes were going to bug out of his head and fall on the ground at any second. Gabriel wasn’t sure if it was because he was so scared or if he was mesmerized by the black witch’s beauty. Probably both.

  Gabriel looked at Caprice and tried to gather his nerve. It wasn’t every day he challenged a black witch. A line his old soccer coach used to say whenever he thought the team wasn’t being tough enough ran through his head. Suck it up, buttercup.

  Just then a trail of mist began seeping from the top of the vase like a beckoning finger. First it only looked like a sliver of fog. But it quickly grew thicker and twirled into the air with a twisting rainbow of colors. The light in the cave dimmed to only the soft glow of the moon that reflected off the mirrors.

  Then the worst thing happened. A low moaning filled the air and bounced off the cave walls surrounding them. It grew louder by the second, until it developed into a whole chorus of shrieks and groans. It sounded like people were crying out in pain. Gabriel remembered what Jasra had said about the souls trying to ascend—to get away—and not being able to. Of course they couldn’t. There was a stupid spell that needed to be broken first before they could really get away.

  Piper slammed her hands against her ears.

  Gabriel balled his fists and set his legs into a runner’s stance. He couldn’t save the souls until they brought the vase to the white witch to break the spell.

  Caprice started chanting. The mist began trickling back into the soul vase. She laughed and continued chanting.

  Anger boiled inside of Gabriel. Souls were being sucked back into the vase and the freak witch actually laughed. “Meet me at the exit over there,” he whispered to his friends in the tiniest voice. Then pushing down the fist of fear that gripped his insides, Gabriel darted off.

  “Gabrul—” Finley reached out a small, furry hand and tried to stop him.

  But Gabriel was already running—running so fast, the air skated past his face, the scenery a whipping blur. His eyes locked on the soul vase with one mission: grab it and run.

  The cool water soaking his feet notified him that he had reached the pool of water and reminded him to stop. He dug in his heels, stalling for a second. He stopped just in time to see the last bit of smoke—or souls—filtering back into the vase.

  A weird mixture of ash, sugar, honey, and something indescribable hit Gabriel’s nose. The brightly colored beads covering the surface of the urn sparkled, glowing from all sides, reflected in the many mirrors. Keeping his gaze low, he caught sight of the tail of the witch’s black dress for the briefest of seconds. She startled and leapt toward him with a hiss.

  Gabriel lunged forward and grabbed the vase, prepared to run for his life and all of the others held captive inside.

  Except it was stuck.

  Held by some unseen force.

  He tugged on it with a loud grunt. “Come on!” he yelled through gritted teeth.

  But he shouldn’t have said anything. He didn’t know if it was the tugging on the vase or the sound of his voice, but suddenly bright rays of light shot out from the mirrors that coated the stalagmites. The beams of light landed on the vase, its glow radiating brightly all around them.

  Worse, it seemed like the lighting had triggered a magnetic force field that held him in place. He couldn’t remove his hand from the vase—and he couldn’t back away.

  The witch laughed, soft and menacing. The splashing sound of the water as she moved toward him hit his ears like a warning bell.

  He was trapped.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “Don’t hurt him!” Piper rushed forward from the shadows, followed by Brent and a squealing Finley.

  The witch twisted around, her black braid of hair whipping around with her. “Why don’t you come and stop me, little girl?”

  “Don’t look at her eyes!” Gabriel reminded them. It seemed like they were looking at Caprice in her reflection in the mirror and that they did remember, but he had to be sure.

  The witch waded through the water, the dark pool lapping around the bottom of her dress. Then she closed the gap between them with two giant strides. Again Gabriel tried to run, to rip his arm out of the bright rays of light, but he couldn’t move. His fingers were glued in place, wrapped around the vase like a curse.

  Caprice shot out in front of him so fast that water splashed up in his face. He kept his gaze low, refusing to look into her death stare. “Let us go,” Gabriel demanded, grunting as he pulled against the vase with everything in him.

  “Now why would I do that?” the witch asked with a laugh that sounded more menacing than Duke Malgor himself. “You came to visit me after all.”

  She reached forward, grabbed Gabriel by the shoulders, and jerked him toward her until his whole body was yanked into the bright beams of light. Wrapping cold fingers around his chin, she tilted his head upward. Gabriel pinched his eyes closed and struggled to turn his head left and right, anywhere but directed at her. But the witch held her grip firm. If this was her weakest time of the day like Jasra had said, then he couldn’t imagine what she’d be like at any other time. Caprice was one powerful black witch.

  Gabriel kept his eyes squeezed shut, heart hammering. There was no way he was gonna look up into her eyes.

  Something that felt like a rock hit Gabriel in the side of the head. “Oww!” he yelped. He figured his friends must be trying to hit the witch, but their aim sucked. Either that, or Caprice had hit him with something.

  Finley squealed. “’orry.”

  Figures.

  Unfortunately, the witch had secured Gabriel’s whole body in the mystic light that made him unable to move. With icy fingers, she began prying his eyelids open. It didn’t matter how much he struggled against her, soon his lids were wide open, held in place by her long fingers. He shifted his eyes frantically left to right, trying anything to avoid looking at her.

  Caprice suddenly darted low, her face inches in front of his.

  “Ah!” Gabriel yelled as he met her pale eyes. He heard noises behind Caprice—splashing of water, yelling from his friends—but he couldn’t make out the words or look away. Caprice smirked at him, her red lips tilting up on one side and the skin around her eyes crinkling at the edges. Gabriel didn’t know how someone so beautiful could be so evil.

  “You belong to me now,” she whispered. “What beautiful green eyes you have.” Her voice was sweeter than cotton candy. “I like souls that come through green eyes such as these.”

  Then the weirdest thing happened. No, it was worse than weird—it was horrible. Something ripped inside of Gabriel’s body as though he were being pulled in two different directions, yanked apart. He hollered in pain, tried to p
ull away, to close his eyes—to do something, anything. But the longer she stared into his eyes, the more painful it became … and the more she gained a solid hold on him.

  A shimmery image misted from his body, floating in the air between them. It looked like a replica of himself but in a hazy form … like a ghost. A scream bubbled up from inside of him but died in his throat. He was too weak to yell. Could the misty image be his essence? Was the black witch killing him and stealing his soul? No! Gabriel’s stomach rolled, his arms and legs a tingling mass of numb.

  Then she dropped her hand with a startling yelp. She stumbled back a step and grasped her hands around her head. “Stop!” she yelled. “Or I’ll kill you all!”

  The moment the witch released him, the smoky image that had floated between them sucked back into Gabriel’s body, jolting him like a punch to the gut. He coughed and gasped for air, then tried to move again. But the beam of light that radiated from the mirrored stalagmites still locked him in place like a tomb.

  Crashing sounds rang out. The hold on Gabriel began to lessen and he looked up. Several feet away and just outside the pool of water, stood Piper. Her eyebrows were scrunched tightly together, eyes intense. Caprice, the evil witch, fell to her knees screaming in pain. Gabriel inwardly cheered.

  Sick!

  Piper was nailing her with a brain blast.

  He turned his head and watched as Brent dashed around the pool. He had turned his arms into baseball bats and was smashing mirror after mirror. Gabriel laughed, realizing what the crashing sounds were. With each strike and following crash, the beams of light decreased, and so did their hold on him.

  Gabriel sucked in a deep breath. Yanking the soul vase with him, he then took a giant step back.

  Free!

  The witch staggered to her feet with a painful screech. Eyes squinted, her face a mask of agony, she lurched forward. She raised her arm, ready to swipe the vase out of Gabriel’s hands.

  “Throw here!” Finley called, darting beside Piper.

  Still stinging from the pain Caprice had caused him, Gabriel just managed to shift away, barely missing the witch’s grasp. He pulled his arm back to launch the vase at Finley, but tripped on a rock beneath the water, his limbs still weak. The vase flung into the air—too high—way too high for a little monkey to catch.

  Gabriel gasped. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as panic worked its way into his brain. The witch held one hand at the side of her head, her face creased in awkward lines. She staggered toward Finley just feet away. A sickening feeling wormed through Gabriel’s stomach. What would happen if Finley missed? What if the vase crashed to the ground? Jasra had said the white witch needed to break the spell in order for them to go to the ever-after. If the urn broke, would the souls be lost forever?

  Finley dashed backward a few steps like a football receiver trying to make the save. The vase sailed through the air several feet above his head. Gabriel wasn’t sure if Finley could make it. Alarm rushed through him like a freight train.

  Piper folded her arms across her chest, her lips in a thin line. She focused on Caprice. The witch dropped to her knees with a yelp—but somehow managed to crawl—clawing her way through the dirt toward Finley as he rushed backward, eyes on the vase.

  “Watch out!” Gabriel yelled, seeing the boulder that jutted behind Finley before the monkey did. Finley glanced around a moment too late, then stumbled over the large rock.

  The vase continued over his head. It was going to crash!

  Gabriel lunged forward, but stopped when the agile monkey hopped to his feet, leapt onto the rock, and propelled skyward.

  “Me got it!” Finley caught the vase, then fell to the ground. “Oomph.” Finley landed on his back, the air rushing out of his lungs. He looked up, his arms still wrapped tightly around the vase.

  “Yes!” Gabriel called. “You rock, Fin! Now let’s get out of here!”

  “No!” Caprice yelled. “I won’t let you take them.” She dug her fingernails into the dirt and dragged herself toward Finley. Gabriel rushed forward, splashing through the water and onto the dry cave floor as quick as lightning. He shoved Caprice away from Finley while Brent rushed in, grabbed the vase, and took off toward the exit. Snatching Finley up from the ground, Gabriel flung him onto his back in a flash.

  Piper hurried to their side. “Run! I can’t concentrate on keeping the brain blast anymore. Go. Quick!”

  The clanking of Caprice’s bracelets was their only warning. She reached out and wrapped her fingers around Piper’s ankle. “I won’t let you leave,” she snarled. Then suddenly the black witch pulled her head back and winced as though somebody had hit her. She released her hold on Piper, curled into a ball and wrapped her arms around her stomach.

  Piper looked at Gabriel, surprise on her face. “It wasn’t me,” she said.

  “Get out of there!” Brent called from the distance. Gabriel looked up. Brent was standing just outside the cave, the moonlight shining at his back. He held the urn tightly in front of his chest.

  The soul vase was out of the cave! Gabriel remembered that Jasra had told them the black witch couldn’t leave the cave after sunset. She was in pain because the vase with her trapped souls was outside the cave! She couldn’t gain strength from them anymore.

  “You’re a freak,” Gabriel said, carefully avoiding the witch’s gaze. He wasn’t gonna look into her eyes again. Then he secured Finley on his back and wrapped his hand around Piper’s.

  Without looking back, Gabriel tugged Piper forward. They zipped out of the cavern and joined Brent who laughed and cheered as they made their escape—along with the soul vase and the lost souls of Dead Beach.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  After running uphill at least an hour, they decided to take a rest. They were all weakened from using their powers, and the craziness otherwise known as their lives.

  “Not far to lake,” Finley said, panting and scanning the wooded area. “We eep for bit, k?”

  Gabriel wasn’t gonna lie. The idea of sleeping was like getting the best Christmas present ever. With what the black witch had done to him with her soul zapping, and then having to use his powers, and the long jog that followed, he was wiped. They all were. It was like a major adrenaline crash. But he knew they were running out of time. They couldn’t rest for long.

  “Sleep sounds good,” Gabriel said, yawning. “But just for a few hours. We need to leave before sunrise. That witch is definitely gonna come looking for her soul vase thing and I don’t wanna be anywhere around here when she does.”

  “Yeah,” Brent said, hiding the soul vase beneath a pile of leaves. “And besides, we gotta make it through Crimson Lake and to Ericville by tomorrow morning.” He dropped to the ground beneath a tree in a thick patch of grass. Stretching out on his back beside Piper, he crossed his legs at the ankles, and looked up at the sea of stars that twinkled through the sky like glittering diamonds.

  “Exactly,” Gabriel said, zipping his jacket up against the cool air. He lay down beside them while Finley scoped out the area for any lurking danger.

  “Check that out,” Brent said, pointing at the sky. “Looks like a slice of pizza over there.”

  Piper laughed. “Where?”

  Brent leaned over her and pointed again while squinting. “Right … ” He jabbed his finger upward. “There. See the triangular shape?”

  Piper laughed again. “Yeah. Cool.” She paused, then pointed at another set of twinkling stars in the inky sky. “Look at the baby rhino. See the long horn?”

  “Yep,” Gabriel said, eying the constellation. “But I’m with Brent on the whole food thing. I’m starving. I’d die for a huge chunk of prime rib with mashed potatoes and gravy right now.”

  “Dude … ” Brent said, his stomach growling loudly. “Don’t torture me.”

  Piper elbowed Brent. “You started it, pizza boy.” Then they were all laughing, the stress of the day rolling off of them like a wave.

  Finley rushed back, fussing at them to
keep it down. Of course. Gabriel pulled him in, and tucked the monkey’s head under his arm. Rubbing his knuckles lightly over the top of Finley’s head with a laugh, he said, “You caught that vase, Finley. That was so sick!”

  Finley shrugged free, smirked, and did a booty shake. Then he scooted up the tree and swung his legs around one of its thick branches. “I be rock, member?” he said, flashing a set of long teeth while nodding his head wildly. He shook the branch and several leaves fluttered to the ground on top of them. They all laughed, trying to keep their voices low. It was awesome to see their monkey friend smiling, to feel a bit normal—even if it was only for a few minutes—and even if normal in Valta meant hanging out with a silly talking monkey.

  After setting his watch to go off at five in the morning like they’d all agreed on, Gabriel closed his heavy lids and curled into a ball. Brent’s snoring filled the air.

  Exhausted, Gabriel pushed aside the haunting thoughts of what lay ahead of them at Crimson Lake and the looks on Finley’s and Gunner’s faces when they had mentioned the place. He couldn’t think about that right now. And he definitely didn’t want to dwell on the fact that the empress and princess were still in danger, held by the creepy, threatening leader of the Solarians. He shoved down the burning in his throat, reminded himself that tomorrow was another day, and fell into a dreamless sleep.

  ***

  When the alarm beeped on Gabriel’s watch, he felt like he’d only been sleeping for two minutes.

  Finley landed on the ground beside him with a thud and shook Gabriel’s shoulders. “Gabrul, make it stop.”

  Gabriel slammed a hand on his watch and shut the alarm off. With a groan, he sat up and shoved a hand back through his hair. Through hooded lids, he peered around. The night sky still twinkled with its many stars, an owl hooted somewhere in the distance, and the cool breeze rustled the leaves on the surrounding trees. For a moment, Gabriel forgot the chaos going on, but then it came rushing back like a runaway train.