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

“Shit, this isn’t even them,” she hissed to the bloodied guy pushing himself up next to her.

“Son?” a shout came from the back room, and then a thud.

I recognized that voice, so charged back, holding up my forearm and shield to block the shots as the woman fired on me. Flying through the door, I found two guards turning from Ali Baba, who was latched to a chair with a glowing chain—the type that, I imagined, stifled any sort of magic or charms he might have otherwise used to escape.

“Ali Baba,” I said, sliding in to take out the first and hoping my glamour was gone. “It’s me. Jack.”

The guard was—I had to figure—on the side of evil here. It was the only way I could think about the fact that I’d just sliced his gut open. I’d been hoping to go for some fancy move that would knock them unconscious, but honestly didn’t know much about that. What I knew was that all my upgrading in the mists of the Fae World had made me fast and strong. My next move was an attempt to use that to my advantage, kicking out the second guard’s legs and slamming in the back of the head with the pummel of my sword.

It cracked against his skull and he fell, but cursed loudly, stumbling as he tried to stand again. So much for that idea. When I saw a gun, I knew it was either me or him, so removed head from body in an awesome display of instinct taking over.

No prana or ichor. No leveling up.

Just blood.

A shiver ran up my spine watching it seep out like that,

“Damn, boy…” Ali Baba said, then shouted to look out behind me.

I spun, shield up and met the woman from before with my sword in her gut. Pushing her back, I thought I was going to puke.

“What is this?” Ali Baba asked. “You’re here to save me?”

Holding up a hand, I worked to keep the bile down, to not think about the blood around me and on my sword, likely on my clothes. The metallic smell of the blood made it worse.

“Better move fast.” Ali Baba shifted his chair around. “Magical binds. Cut me loose, so I can help you.”

Finally pulling myself together, I did so, then helped him to his feet. He was the old man we’d met before, but looked to have aged considerably more, long gray eyebrows hanging over the sides of his face, almost touching his white beard.

“It wasn’t so long ago we met,” I said, perplexed. “How…?”

He grunted, shaking his head. “Magic kept me young, but they raided the place, took it all.”

“All?” I felt my stomach churning. “And… this?”

“Bait. Not for you, though—for my son. Seems he’s pissed someone off, even before this little war started.”

“It’s not little,” I countered. “And I need your help—I need a feather. A golden feather.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Even if you had it, it won’t do you any good. Only works on spirits, but this one’s a dud.”

“Except we’re using it for a different purpose.”

“You… have a witch?” He laughed. “A tracking spell, with the hopes of finding the real golden goose? You’re mad.”

“Well, they can’t have gotten far with it, right?” I glanced around. “Based on this setup, it might even still be nearby.”

He nodded. “Top floor—penthouse. They have a small army, so I don’t know how you expect to get up there.”

“I have a lion,” I replied with a wink, and then picked up the guards’ pistols. “Any idea what we’re dealing with up there?”

Ali Baba was still watching me, skeptically. “Yeah, enough to take me down. Though to be fair, I was in the middle of a bath.”

“At least they gave you clothes before tying you up.”

He nodded in conceit. “Party that did it, their leader—you might know him as the Dragon of the North.”

“Doesn’t ring a bell,” I admitted.

He shrugged. “Not one of the more popular stories in the States, but suffice it to say he’s not someone to easily dismiss.” A pounding sounded, then doors opening and shouting followed. “And he’s definitely the type to be sending troops down to check on this situation, so…”

“Got it, move. Come on.”

I took off running for the window, shooting it this time to avoid hurting myself as much when I went crashing through. Shouts of “What the fuck?” came from behind, but before any of the goons had a chance to make a move, Ali Baba and I were out through the window.

He screamed, turning to me in panic as we started to fall, but I reached out my hand and caught him by the forearm. Just then, Roar came swinging around. I landed on the lion and pulled Ali Baba around behind me, and then we were up, soaring past the stupid faces of the goons, up and up until we were level with the penthouse. Here we could see the windows that led in, along with a large balcony with a hot tub.

A guard was fucking a woman in the hot tub, both startled to see us land and hop off Roar.

“They’re all bad people?” I asked.

Ali Baba tilted his head, and said, “They’re all people. Some have children.”

“Fuck.” I held up my new pistol, nodding toward the building. “You two, go find your master, tell him I’m here for a golden feather.”

They scampered off. The woman slipped as she went, the man not even bothering to turn back to help her up.

“Would’ve been easier if you just let me kill them,” I said.

“I didn’t say you couldn’t, just pointed out a fact.” He eyed me. “You know, for the Protector, you sure think about things a bit too much.”

I scoffed, starting to walk toward the building and calling after the man, “Tell them, as long as they don’t shoot at or attack us, they won’t die. None of the people in there need to die today, but they better leave,