Gabriel Stone and the Wrath of the Solarians

by Shannon Duffy

  “The well’s in a creepy cornfield?” he croaked out, his voice trembling and tears stinging his eyes. He squeezed them shut, then opened them again. Chill, you loser. Don’t be a baby. But as much as Gabriel told himself that he had faced much worse in Valta before and that he didn’t need to be afraid, memories of being trapped in the bottom of the well when he was five flashed through his mind. He was tempted to stay on Andimian and demand that the tiger take him away—far away—from the creepy cornfield and the stupid well, wherever it was hidden. But instead he slipped off Andimian and held his head in his hands, trying to gather courage and wishing his headache away.

  After a minute, he collected his nerve. “Dude,” he said, hoping the cat would understand what he was saying and could be his temporary new best friend. “I’m not gonna lie, okay? I don’t like wells. So if I’m going to go down one to get a witch out, you’re staying with me.” He locked eyes with the tiger’s bright blue ones. “Is that cool?”

  Andimian didn’t respond, but Gabriel thought it looked like the tiger was laughing with his eyes. “Don’t you laugh at me,” he said, folding his arms over his chest, feeling annoyed even though he knew he shouldn’t. Seriously, the tiger had just saved him from burning his butt off, but fear, anger, and something else Gabriel didn’t know how to explain churned through him. Not to mention he hadn’t eaten all day. The fact that he was starving to death made him extra grumpy.

  Andimian nudged Gabriel forward with a bump of his huge tiger head. Gabriel stumbled, then batted him away. “Yeah, yeah, I’m on it,” he said, his heart rate climbing as he edged through the tall corn stalks that looked like a forest of skinny, golden trees. With the tiger leading the way, he ambled his way through the cornfield, the crops making scratching noises against his jacket as he went. With the towering crops soaring above his head and the gray sky, he was disoriented. He wasn’t sure which way the well was, but he trusted that Andimian did. With each step forward, Gabriel’s heart galloped faster until he was sure it would spontaneously combust.

  Gabriel pushed through the stalks until he came into a clearing. Golden grass that reached above his ankles spread out around him. In the distance, a barn that looked like it had been sawed off at the middle with only the top-half remaining sprang up in front of a green forest. Gabriel widened his eyes at the structure. It had chipped brown paint and a peaked roof with one large window. But the top half of the barn sat on the grass as if the bottom part had never existed; there was a smashed-out window where the door should be.

  Weird.

  Gabriel searched Andimian’s eyes. “Lemme guess. The well’s in there.” He ticked his chin toward the brown structure as his heart sank to his sneakers.

  The tiger lowered his massive head and blinked.

  “Of course it is,” Gabriel grumbled. “Fine then, let’s go.” Then he did the only thing he could think of. Balling his fists, and before he could change his mind, he peeled out towards it without looking back, and ignoring every warning in his head. Several feet later, he skidded to a halt. Jagged pieces of glass dangled from the window and gave glimpses of Gabriel’s reflection as he puffed for air. His brown hair sprung wildly out of place around his soot-covered face.

  When Andimian pounded in behind him as graceful as an elephant, Gabriel pulled the ropes out from where they were secured on the tiger’s harness. “Come on,” he said, stepping through the large window.

  Andimian folded his wings against his back and stepped through the hole behind Gabriel. Inside, the smell of must and old things hit his nose. The barn had bookcases lining both sides and books strewn across the floor.

  Double weird.

  The fluttering of the pages on a book was the only eerie sound as the wind ruffled through it.

  But it was the gray stone bricks in the middle of the barn that drew Gabriel’s attention. Formed into a large circle with a big hole in the center, the stones were stacked about three feet high.

  Fool’s Well.

  Reminding himself that Empress Malina and Princess Evangeline were dying, Gabriel tiptoed to the side of the well.

  Peering down into the deep, dark hole he called, “Hello?” His voice echoed back along with stirring from below. No answer. Gulping, he stretched his neck farther over the side to get a better look, but only blackness filled his gaze. “Cadence? My name is Gabriel Stone, ma’am,” he said, trying to sound polite and not annoy the witch. “Um, I’ve come to try and get you out of here. I-I actually need help too. My friend is trapped in a soul vase thing that Caprice used and the empress and her daughter are really sick. Dying actually. The prince wanted to know if you could, you know, maybe do some magic that Leejor doesn’t know about and um … maybe save them?”

  The jangling of what sounded like chains pitched through the air. Shivers raced over Gabriel’s skin. It had to be Cadence. Okay, thought Gabriel. So she was tied up. He got that, but why couldn’t she just talk already? Let him know that she wasn’t gonna turn him into a demon, blow him up into smoke, or turn him into a frog—or whatever it was that witches did.

  “I wish you’d answer me,” Gabriel called out.

  More clanking of chains, louder this time.

  With a groan, Gabriel secured the ropes to Andimian’s halter using a knot that he’d learned in Boy Scouts. “Insane,” he mumbled as he flung the rope over the edge of the well. “I’ve totally lost it.” He swung one leg over the edge. He paused, closed his eyes.

  Please, please let this go okay.

  “For the empress and the princess,” he said aloud, reaffirming why he was doing this crazy mission in the first place. He looked to the tiger. “And, Andimian,” he said, twirling the ropes around his wrists, “listen for when I ask you to pull me out—us out—as fast as you can.” Gabriel didn’t want to sound like a wimp, but normal twelve-year-olds didn’t go jumping down into wells with witches in them—wells that brought back horrible memories of near-death experiences.

  Andimian let out a low rumble that Gabriel took to mean the tiger agreed.

  He swung his other leg over the side of the well and began scaling down the wall into the blackness, every inch of him a trembling mess. The farther he went, the more his mouth grew dry, like he’d swallowed a wad of cotton balls. The longer he was in the dark, the more his eyes adjusted to the dim light and the harder his heart seemed to bound against his ribs. He couldn’t believe he was really going down a stupid well. Bits of moss clung to the gray stone, and red stuff like dried blood splattered the rock. His breathing sped up and a chill settled in his bones; the dampness in the air stuck to him like Velcro. Gripping the rope as tight as he could with his clammy, shaky hands, his feet finally splashed into cool water and he knew he’d hit bottom. Everything inside of him screamed to climb back up the rope and get out of there as fast as possible. He blew out a breath and instead slowly turned around. “Cadence?” he called out, forcing his voice to keep steady, inwardly reminding himself why this mission was so important. “I’m here to help and I’m, you know, not a bad guy.”

  That’s when he turned and found pale eyes, the shape and color of a harvest moon, staring straight at him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “Ahh!” Gabriel jumped back and smacked his head against the rock, jarring his already aching skull. The woman in front of him—Cadence—stared at him like he was a ghost. It probably wasn’t every day that boys climbed down Fool’s Well to visit a witch.

  White straggly hair hung over her shoulders and surrounded the pale skin of her face. She mumbled against the ragged black scarf that gagged her mouth, but he couldn’t understand what she was trying to say. Her white, dirt-marred nightgown hung heavy around her ankles, and thick chains wrapped around her like a boa constrictor. The chains secured her to the small, raised, concrete platform that she stood on.

  Gabriel pressed his back into the wall of the well as the witch’s wide eyes scanned him. He cleared his throat. “Are you Cadence?” he asked. The second he said it, he realized
how lame a question it was. How many witches were chained to a bottom of a well? Of course it was Cadence.

  Andimian growled from above.

  Lifting her gaze to the opening in the well, her eyes widened. She made a faint sound, then shifted, making the chains rattle.

  “I’m okay,” Gabriel called to the tiger, even though it felt like fingers were wrapped around his throat, squeezing. He bit his lip and turned his focus slowly back on the white witch. “Don’t worry about him, he’s a friend. Listen … um, if I let you out, you won’t hurt me, right?”

  Cadence shook her head, but when the floorboards rattled above them, and Andimian made a high-pitched growl, she froze. Slowly, she looked above, then back at Gabriel, panic covering her face. She tried to talk, but it came out as a muffled mess.

  “Hold on, Andimian!” Gabriel snapped. The tiger wanted to hurry, he got that. Andimian was the empress’s guardian after all. But seriously, he’d just gotten down there. No one wanted to get out of the stupid well more than Gabriel, but this was a witch he was dealing with, not a puppy.

  He turned back to Cadence. He wondered how she had even survived. And he figured it wasn’t every day she heard a tiger growling in her barn. Made sense that she seemed so freaked out. Gabriel needed to talk to her, to find out how to get the chains off—which meant he had to take the scarf out of her mouth. Slowly, he stretched out a shaky hand, pulled the fabric out of her mouth, then yanked his arm back as if she would bite him.

  “We have to get out of here,” Cadence said, except she said it so fast it sounded like, wehavetogetoutofhere!

  Above, Andimian seemed to be pacing. The floorboards above Gabriel creaked, and Andimian’s irritated cat sounds filled the air. The ropes attached to the tiger that were still wrapped around Gabriel’s wrists, yanked him back a step, splashing dark water against his face.

  “Everybody needs to calm down!” Gabriel yelled. He wiped his cheeks with the sleeve of his jacket and realized he needed to take his own advice. “Okay, I’m gonna try—”

  “Wait.” Cadence cut him off. “You don’t understand. She’s here—Caprice is here. She comes every day before sunset to give me just enough food and water to keep me alive.”

  Holy crap.

  An icy chill tiptoed down Gabriel’s spine. The walls of the well spun. Of course Caprice would feed Cadence. The black witch couldn’t let Cadence die, because then she’d die too. Gabriel’s gut clenched while he tried to come up with his next move. He tilted his head back and caught a flash of black and gold fabric whooshing over the well opening. He froze. Those were the same colors that the black witch wore. Andimian’s white paw swiped through the air.

  It hit Gabriel then—the tiger had been warding off the black witch, not rushing him!

  “Don’t look into her eyes, Andimian!” Gabriel yelled. The creepy well and the white witch suddenly didn’t seem so scary compared to a soul-robbing black witch bent on revenge. He eyed the chains attached to an iron ring embedded in the concrete block. Tugging at the shackles, he asked between huffing breaths, “How do I get you out?”

  “Only Caprice holds the key,” Cadence said in a quiet voice, lowering her gaze to her feet. “Please just leave me. You need to get away before she hurts you.”

  Gabriel ignored that comment. He couldn’t leave now. Sinking to his knees in the shallow water, he searched for a key, a release button, something—anything—when suddenly his hand landed on something hard. He lifted the object out of the water and eyed the big rock. Grunting, he stood and rushed to the iron ring that held the chains in place. “I’ll smash it away from the concrete!” he said, landing a blow against it.

  “It’s iron,” Cadence said, sounding defeated. “It will take forever to break.”

  “I’m really fast,” Gabriel said, desperate to free her.

  He drew his arm back, ready to take his first swing, when something yanked him from behind. He flew backward through the air, the ropes on his wrists unwinding as he went. He landed on his back, splashing in the cool water. Sitting up, he spit out the liquid that tasted like minerals and gaped above. The rope—his only lifeline—flicked high into the air and back through the hole in the well.

  “No!” Panic drilled through him. With no rope to pull him out, he was trapped.

  Andimian let out a high-pitched, predatory tiger growl. It was followed by more rumbling.

  He willed himself to stand and concentrate on freeing Cadence.

  He couldn’t give up.

  Not now.

  He raced the few steps back to her and picked up the rock he’d dropped on the concrete slab. Above, banging on the floorboards continued, mixed in with Andimian’s growls and the black witch chanting odd words. Not wasting any time, Gabriel put his supersonic speed into action. With his arms moving so fast that they looked like a whipping blur, he banged the rock over and over against the iron ring that locked the chains in place. He might not have been super strong, but he was crazy fast and could pound hundreds of blows per second.

  Gabriel paused for a moment to take a breath and shake out the cramps in his aching muscles when he caught sight of a crack in the cement next to the iron ring. “There’s a crack in the cement,” he whispered.

  “Good,” Cadence said. “Try banging on that area.”

  Again he pounded the stone. The loud clanking of the rock smashing against the cement sounded out, his arms moving at freakish speeds. With fatigue growing in his muscles and the crack in the cement starting to spread, he huffed for breath, but pushed harder. He had to get Cadence out before Caprice tricked Andimian into looking at her. If he did, she’d steal his soul. Gabriel was sure that was why the tiger hadn’t just killed her already—he couldn’t get a good enough look at her. Either that, or he knew the story about if one witch died, the other did too.

  The iron ring had lifted on one side just as a voice shot down into the well and echoed around them. “Where’s my soul vase?” Caprice shrieked. “Give it back to me!”

  Gabriel tilted his head just enough to see Caprice leaning over the side of the well. In the next second, she swooped toward them, a mix of her black dress with gold swirling through the air. Andimian whipped a giant paw through the air, swiping the tail end of her dress.

  The rattling of the chains brought Gabriel’s attention back to Cadence. The chains wrapped around her sagged. He snapped his gaze to the iron ring.

  It was broken!

  Cadence lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug. Then she shot upward, quick as a bolt of lightning.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “Whoa!” Gabriel hollered as the witch released him from her embrace and held his arm with one hand. He dropped and dangled in the air as she continued shooting straight up. Everything was happening so fast, he couldn’t think straight. Mixed-up feelings shot through him all at once. He was on his way out of the creepy well—awesome! But before relief could calm his crazy heart rate, new fear launched through him. The witch was flying! And there was a roof above them. How could she get out?

  While they blasted upward, Cadence opened her free hand toward the opening in the well, palm up. Gabriel eyed the hole, his gaze wandering past it, far above them and onto the solid wooden roof of the barn. Soon, they’d be pancakes.

  “Andimian!” Gabriel called. But before the tiger had any chance of saving him, Cadence zoomed out from the well and swooped sharply sideways. Gabriel’s toes skimmed the dusty floor before they shot through the smashed-out window.

  The white witch dragged him higher into the sky only holding his one hand. Gabriel stared around him, horror ripping through his chest like knives. They towered in the air way above the treetops, the scent of pine and damp air filling his nose.

  I’m dangling by one hand above the trees!

  He gulped. One slip and he was a goner. Gabriel had seen pictures of witches flying on brooms, but this witch was more powerful than any make-believe witch he’d ever seen on TV or in movies. She could fly—
no broom needed.

  He swayed in the breeze, hanging like meat at a butcher’s shop. Then he thought of Andimian. He peered through the treetops, hoping to spot the winged creature, when a figure dressed in black shot out from the roof.

  Crap!

  Caprice was coming for them!

  He searched for Andimian but didn’t see his tiger friend. A sickening thought crept over him. Maybe Caprice had killed him somehow and had stolen his soul.

  “Get back here!” Caprice yelled, her voice carried on the wind.

  Cadence, who had seemed scared and defeated before, looked back, curled her lip, and called out in a booming voice. “It’s almost sunset, sister.”

  Gabriel shifted his gaze to the sun. The huge orange ball was lowering behind the trees. He remembered that Caprice needed to stay in her cave from sunset until sunrise.

  A loud shriek belted out as the black witch realized her fate, too. Then she flew through the air, headed in the opposite direction.

  Gabriel didn’t have time to be relieved. His arm stung like fire—first from all the pounding he’d done with the rock, and now because Cadence was pulling him through the sky. He winced, feeling like his arm was going to be pulled straight from its socket.

  Something flashed through the sky around him. Misty rain filled the air, blurring his vision. Gabriel whipped his head left to right, trying to find whatever it was. Maybe Caprice had decided to take her chances and kill him before she left. But then, he saw the familiar blaze of white massive wings thumping through the air.

  “Andimian!” Gabriel yelled. But the tiger had already seen them and was heading in their direction like an angel sent from heaven.

  He swooped in beneath them like a cushion and flew off toward the sunset—and in the direction of Leejor’s.

  ***

  After they’d landed, Andimian stayed outside the cave, standing guard. Gabriel didn’t need to ask Brent and Piper as they welcomed him and Cadence inside if things had gotten better with the empress and princess. The looks on everyone’s faces and the sad feeling in the room told him things weren’t good.