Myths and Gargoyles by Jamie Hawke (interesting books to read in english txt) 📕

about reality here, not the stories. Reality is that she’s a very powerful Legend, at goddess status, and her shadow magic is fucking badass.”

“Ah.”

Sharon nodded at me, and for the first time I noticed the worry in her yes.

“You knew her?” I asked Sharon.

“Sure,” Sharon replied. “Since she kind of made me evil to begin with.”

“Tell him as we go,” Hekate said, “if you’re going to tell the story. Either way, we need to be moving.”

“Seconded,” Elisa said, and followed the witches out the door.

As we went back to the hallway Hekate had originally indicated as the way to go, I turned to Sharon and gave her a look of compassion and curiosity.

“It’s a tough one,” Sharon started.

When she didn’t say more, I let it go, continuing on up more stairs and passages, until finally, when Hekate went ahead to scout out the final hallway and I found myself standing close to Sharon, she said, “Do you want to know or not?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then ask.”

“I…” With a grin and a nod of surrender, I asked, “What happened? Why was it a tough one?”

“She both saved me, and destroyed me.” Holding out her hand, she waited until I took it to continue. “I would’ve died if not for her, as I’d been bitten, see… bitten and discarded, left to die. She found me—”

“How?” I interrupted, then squeezed her hand. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I… was sort of on a date. Experimenting with this girl from college, and she took me to this shady bar, took me out back and I thought it would be my first female-on-female kiss. Turns out her friend was there—the Big Bad Wolf of the time. It was apparently a bar a lot of Legends liked to visit, because after the bite and leaving me, I remember seeing Persephone—stepping out, sniffing the air. She gave me the power, but said she’d come to deal with the Big Bad Wolf. Told me I could live if I settled things for her, and then… entrapped me.”

“You used this power to kill the old Big Bad Wolf, and therefore took over the name and associated darkness,” I said, filling in the rest for her based on where I saw this going.

“She essentially kept me as her slave until… well, until you all freed me.”

“You freed yourself.”

She scoffed. “Don’t feed me that corny bullshit.” The look in her eyes was one of affection and appreciation.

“If you meet her again… are you worried?”

A simple nod in response. I took her hand, kissed it, and said, “I’ll be here with you. No matter what.”

“Pssst,” Hekate signaled us, and we all moved forward to where she stood. There was a cabinet in front of her in a sort of alcove. I was half expecting her to open it and reveal the Golden Goose. Instead, she opened it and moved two bottles near the back, which resulted in a secret passage opening up at the edge of the walls near the window, almost out of sight even if it weren’t completely hidden.

“I want this house,” I said, having always been fascinated by places with secret entrances. Blame it on Duck Tales.

“Already spoken for,” Chris said with a grin. “And we’ve marked our territory on half the secret passages. I didn’t know about this one, though.”

“Because I’m not an idiot,” Hekate said as she led the way. “Taking you here would’ve been too dangerous. But now we don’t really have a choice.”

Moving along the corridor, shadows seemed to move along with us, as if of their own accord. Spiders appeared in the corners, scurrying along before vanishing, and at one point we passed a mirror that didn’t show our reflections at all, but images of what I suppose our souls were like. Mine, to my relief was gleaming a rosy gold, with only small spots of gray around the edges. Those could be polished away, I figured, with some help from my team.

After continuing past several of these corridors, we reached a room that was exactly what I’d imagined a witch’s room would look like. Well, maybe not real witches, but fairy tale versions. I’m talking skulls, caldrons, all that bullshit you know the ‘real witches’ don’t actually touch. In a world where fairy tales are real, though, the idea of real witches gets a bit muddy.

“It’s in here?” I asked, glancing around and hoping to be the first to spot it.

“I wish,” she said. “What we will find here is a locator spell, but even for that we’ll need something belonging to the Golden Goose.”

“Like a feather?” a witch asked with a heavy New Orleans accent. She stepped out from the far corner, where a shorter secret entrance emerged. This witch was short, with dark skin that was even darker in most places because of tattoos in the shapes of birds. Her purple robes were pulled around her tight, showing off cleavage that didn’t quite fit on such a petite frame. “It was stolen, unfortunately.”

“Toewi, Queen of Crows, what’re you doing here?” Mirna asked, hands up, ready to cast a spell. Now I understood the tattoos, though wasn’t familiar with the tale of any queen of crows.

“Same as you,” Toewi said, “I’d thought at first. Then I noticed your company, and figured hiding out, making an escape… wasn’t enough. Whatever this is,” she indicated us, making a circle with her finger in the air, “I want in.”

“That’s a conversation for another time,” Elisa said.

“Either way, regarding this house? I want out.”

“That can be accommodated,” Hekate interjected. “And actually, you can be of some assistance. Tracking spell, and be quick about it.”

“There was a feather here, once, but it’s gone. We need to find out where it is now.”

Toewi laughed.

“Something funny?” Red asked.

“Ironic, considering I’d heard about your recent visit overseas to a mutual friend’s house.” Toewi had a glimmer in her eyes as she turned to Hekate. “Didn’t think anyone was paying attention to your comings and goings, did you?”

Hekate glared, then laughed. “Oh, you’ve