CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

The creature stuck one of its heads forward through the fog and snorted. Hot air blasted from its nostrils. It opened its mouth, looking like it was preparing to take a bite when suddenly a clattering of hooves shot out from somewhere in the fog.

“No!” a man with a scruffy voice called. “Do not touch them!”

The beast closed its jaws and spun around, dissolving into the fog.

Gabriel raised his eyebrows at Brent and Piper while tightening his grip on Finley’s hand. A small sense of relief shot through him, but was quickly replaced by suspicion. Whoever called out either wanted to help them or save them to finish off himself.

“What’s going on?” Piper whispered.

A misty image of a man’s head topped off with antlers popped through the fog before them. The rest of his furry dark-brown lower body slid into focus as his hooves clicked against the rocks. The upper half of him was a man, the lower, a moose. Gabriel blinked. He knew this moose-man, but it wasn’t possible. His jaw gaped open. Brent retracted his blades with a gasp.

“Jasra!”

Piper squealed and ran to hug one of his furry moose legs. But her hands swooped straight through them—because he was a ghost!

Of course he’s a ghost, genius.

Gabriel and Piper had watched Jasra die in battle the last time they were in Valta. Jasra had been helping them fight the war against Duke Malgor and his evil army when he’d been killed by gruocks. That had shaken Piper up so much at the time, she could hardly move. She’d cried over his dead body so hard she forgot to pay attention to what was going on around her. Because of that, a crazed gruock had almost eaten her for a snack—or turned her into a gruock.

Piper stared at her hands that had swiped clear through Jasra, then back up into his big brown eyes. “Is it really you?” she asked him, tears springing to her eyes.

Even though it was weird to see an apparition in front of them, Gabriel’s nerves settled a bit. Jasra may have been a ghost, but he was still their friend. Which at least made him a friendly ghost.

“Well, sweet little one,” Jasra said to Piper. “It is sort of me. I’m stuck here in the in-between, cursed to Dead Beach.” He shook his head and his thick, curly ponytail swayed across his misty, muscular back. “But forget that. Follow me and tell me what you are doing here. Why are you back in Valta?”

He began to walk away. Looking over his shoulder, he asked. “Or did you never make it home?”

Gabriel wasn’t sure where Jasra was headed, but he figured anywhere away from that fog bath was good.

“Yep, we made it home,” Piper answered, falling into step behind their friend. Then she froze, a horrified look washing over her face. She ran around to look Jasra in the eyes and asked, “Wait. Why are you cursed?”

“Yeah,” Brent cut in. He tripped over a piece of rotted driftwood, righted himself, then lifted a blond brow. “And do you mean you’re stuck here—for like ever?”

Jasra nodded, and then frowned.

“How’s that possible?” Gabriel asked, feeling bad for him. “Aren’t you supposed to go to heaven or something when you die?”

“I call it the ever-after,” Jasra said with a sigh. “I always believed I’d see my mother there. But instead, the black witch stole my essence—my soul—and doomed me here.”

“Witch?” Finley asked, his voice breaking. He pressed closer to Gabriel. Jasra didn’t answer right away, just kept walking through the receding fog. It thinned out pretty quickly and soon they reached the soaring cliffs. Jasra motioned towards a cluster of boulders in front of the rock face and told them to take a seat.

As they did, Jasra pointed a transparent finger at Finley. “Sorry. Finley, isn’t it?” Finley nodded and Jasra continued, “I shouldn’t be complaining and scaring you with stories of witches. I’m happy to see all of you, truly I am. But this is a dangerous place. Not everyone trapped here is friendly, as you have just seen. Souls aren’t too fond of being stuck in this damp place for all of eternity. It makes for foul tempers. But let us focus on other matters. Please, tell me why you’re here.”

“The empress and princess,” Piper blurted. “They were kidnapped by the Solarians—stupid lizard people from another planet. Prince Oliver asked us to help get them back. But the Solarians want us to exchange Duke Malgor for the empress and princess. Problem is, the duke’s locked up,” she added, filling Jasra in on what had happened since his death. “But we’re not gonna let him out.” She paused to take a breath, and lifted one brow. “We shouldn’t, right?” She bit her lip, looked to the ground, and then searched Jasra’s kind eyes. “But maybe we … should?”

Jasra smiled and patted her head. Only his hand didn’t really touch her. It just seemed to move across her head in a misty form.

Piper sighed. “It’s awesome to be able to talk to you again, Jasra. And I’m so sad that you were … ” She gulped. “ ... Killed. But I want you to go to the ever-after with your mom. Why did some witch steal your—your essence?” she asked, rubbing a finger over the rip in her jeans. “I—we want to know. You can tell us. We can handle it.”

Jasra’s fists clenched. “The black witch gathers strength from our souls,” he answered with a deep rumbling sound in his chest. “It’s our essence that gives her such power. Her name is Caprice.” Jasra looked them each in the eyes, as if settling in to tell them an important story. “You see, there had been a long battle for power between Caprice and her sister Cadence—the white witch. Caprice grew up being jealous of Cadence. And believe me, jealously is a powerful enemy. Instead of enjoying her sister, Caprice obsessed about who was more beautiful and powerful. This hate led Caprice to devise a plan to steal souls and trap them in a vase. She gained unbelievable power this way and overtook her sister. Then she locked Cadence away. With Cadence gone, Caprice didn’t have to dwell on that anymore. If she had her way, I’m sure she’d have killed Cadence long ago.”

“Then why didn’t she?” Brent asked.

“Well,” Jasra said with a frown. “It’s because they are twins. And since the twins were born into witch-dom, they are bound together forever. If one dies, the other will too.”

“Well that just sucks, now doesn’t it?” Brent picked up a beach rock and squeezed a fist around it. “For Cadence and Caprice. It’s like they’re conjoined twins or something—or they may as well be, because just like a lot of those babies, they can’t be separated without dying.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel said, thinking. “Not only does it suck for Cadence to be stuck with that witch … but it sucks for you guys, too.” He thought about the dilemma a moment, a weird sensation growing in his stomach like a bug crawling around inside of him. “There has to be a way to release your souls,” he said finally, a lump forming in his throat. He wanted to help Jasra and the other ghosts trapped on Dead Beach. They couldn’t just walk away and leave Jasra like that forever. Nobody deserved an eternity of being stuck on Dead Beach, especially not a friend. But the thought of going anywhere near a black witch was overwhelming. Who knew what she could do to them? What if they all ended up stranded on Dead Beach forever—as ghosts?

Jasra shook his head sadly. “The only way would be to get the soul vase and break its spell.”

“How do that?” Finley asked, his gaze darting around.

“The only ones who can break the spell are the black witch or the white witch. Obviously, the black witch will never do that—and the white witch is locked away.”

An uncomfortable silence crept over them for a minute. Piper tapped her lip in thought before saying, “Supposing someone managed to get the soul vase … where would they find the white witch to break the spell?”

Jasra looked her straight in the eye. “If you are thinking of trying to help us lost souls, I will be honest and say that I would be very thankful. But I cannot expect you to put yourselves in more danger. You have already risked so much for our land.”

“We want to help,” Piper said, twisting her hands together. She dragged in a deep breath and blew it out fast. She was obviously nervous too, but Gabriel knew she would never let Jasra suffer if she could help it.

“If you can tell us what we need to do, we promise we’ll at least try,” Gabriel agreed, ignoring the nervous knot in his stomach.

Brent whipped the beach rock through the air. It hit the ground in the distance with a clack, clack, clack. “I’m down with that, don’t get me wrong. I totally want to help you, man, seriously I do. But we’re kinda on a deadline.” He shoved a hand through his hair and threw Gabriel a look. “Dude, if we don’t show up tomorrow, they’ll kill Empress Malina and Princess Evangeline.”

Jasra stepped forward, his lips in a straight line. “Brent is right. You must go to them. If there is hope for us here at Dead Beach you can try to find it later.” He paused, bowing his head, his antlers tipping low. “That settles it. And just the fact you even want to help me, warms my cool heart.”

Tears sprung to Piper’s eyes and she murmured something in Spanish under her breath. After a moment, she cleared her throat. “Well, okay, fine. But I’m not giving up. We’ll come back and save you. I promise to at least try.” Determination etched her face. “Where does the black witch even live?”

Jasra pointed behind him in the distance. “About a mile back. She lives in the secret cavern that separates Dead Beach and Crimson Lake.”

Gabriel jumped to his feet. “Secret cavern?” He peered out in the direction Jasra pointed. “It separates both places?” He looked back at Brent and Piper. “Hold on. That can save us time, right?” He rubbed Finley’s head. “A shortcut, Finley!”

“Dude,” Brent said, eyes flaring. “It won’t be any shortcut if the black witch catches us.”

Piper shrugged. “I say we give it a try,” she said, even as her face turned sickly pale. It wasn’t like Piper to throw caution to the wind, and Gabriel could tell this was scaring the crap out of her. But loyalty was Piper’s middle name. If there was a way to help Jasra, she wouldn’t give up until she found it. “Look, we have powers, don’t we?” She eyed Brent, then Gabriel, before settling her gaze on Finley. Her honey-brown eyes grew wide. “What the heck good are they if we can’t help our friend here?”

Gabriel smiled inwardly at her bravery. He nudged Brent, then cast hopeful eyes on one scowling Finley. “It is on the way—cuts down on our time, right?” He lifted a shoulder like it was no big deal, trying to act braver than he felt. “So, we try finding this soul vase thing, bypass the black witch, go save the empress and princess, then find the white witch—” Gabriel paused, turning his attention back on Jasra’s ghost. “Where is this white witch anyway?”

Jasra’s face darkened. He hesitated like it was an answer he didn’t want to give. Finally, he spoke up. “She’s chained to the bottom of Fool’s Well.”

“Fool’s Well?” Gabriel croaked. An icicle formed in his chest at the thought of the creepy darkness of the deep and confined space of a well.

A memory flashed in Gabriel’s mind to when he was five years old—just before they’d moved to Willow Creek. His family had lived in the country with no neighbors for miles. Their only source of water had been from a well in the backyard. One afternoon, Gabriel had been following a cat wandering in their yard. Being distracted, and because the stupid repair guy had left the cover off the well, Gabriel had fallen in. It was a whole freaking twelve hours later before he’d gotten lifted out of that black, cold hole. The fireman who’d rescued him said Gabriel was lucky the water level was low and he hadn’t drowned. To make it even worse, Gabriel had made the front page of the newspaper. Even though he was only five at the time, that picture was like Gabriel’s photo of shame—totally embarrassing. His five-year-old self had made it home from the hospital with bumps, bruises, a minor concussion, and yeah, inspiration for future nightmares.

Wells were not his thing. He didn’t want to see one ever again. Let alone one with a witch at the bottom of it. He didn’t care if Cadence was a good witch or not, she was still a witch. Fool’s Well. He couldn’t help but think that maybe they’d be the biggest fools of all for going down a well with a witch trapped at the bottom. His mind raced with thoughts of mechanical locusts, crazy lizard people, ghost monsters, trapped souls, witches, evil spells, and still a kidnapped empress and princess. No, Valta wasn’t technically dying like the last time they’d been there, but this seemed equally impossible.

Gabriel lifted his heavy gaze from his shoes and scanned his friends. Piper poked at the rip in her jeans, looking more uneasy than ever. Brent had picked up another beach rock and was staring at it as if it would solve world hunger or something. And Finley gripped the end of his tail between his fingers, eyes darting left to right.

They all seemed to be thinking the same thing—this quest to save Empress Malina and Princess Evangeline had taken a new twist full of suck. With growing problems and time ticking by at warp speed, their scary adventure was quickly turning into their worst nightmare ever.