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

him,” Elisa whispered my way. “But won’t ever admit it.”

“Still won’t,” Goldi whispered back, then turned to Hekate. “You’re up.”

Hekate nodded, taking the golden feather and waving a hand over it. Her eyes turned to gold, and she pointed. “This way.”

As we kept going, we passed rooms full of shifting darkness, and on the third one I realized they were rooms full of Shades. At least once I saw some taller than should’ve been possible, and recognized one of the tall, colossus looking mother fuckers I had thought I’d seen back in the mists of the Fae world.

“They’re collecting them,” I said, turning to see that Goldi only gave me a ‘who cares’ look. It was easy to forget she wasn’t exactly on our side.

“What you should care about,” she hissed as we moved on, “is that you’re on what’s basically a ship of gods, or at least very powerful fairy tales who will gladly tear you to shreds if they find us.”

“Tear us to shreds,” I corrected her.

She winked. “We’ll see.”

I didn’t want to know what she meant by that, and turned back to Elisa, wishing more of my immediate team had been able to join us. At least I had Roar, if needed.

“Don’t worry, it won’t come to that,” Elisa said, stepping up to walk at my side, so that Goldi led the way with Hekate checking our rear.

“You’d save me?” I asked with a chuckle.

She stared, deadpan. “Yes. Know this, you’re our Protector, and more and more you’ve grown into that role—and done your job well. But I’d die before seeing any harm come to you.”

“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?” Goldi said, voice low like ours to avoid detection. “I mean, you have a Protector, he’s supposed to do the protecting.”

“Actually, his job is to protect on a larger scale. So you could say that if he allowed me to sacrifice myself so that he could live, he’d be making the right move.”

“And I’ll say right now, if that ever happens you can count on me walking,” I protested.

“Don’t say that,” Elisa put a hand on my arm. “You mustn’t.”

“Just—don’t let it come to that.”

She nodded, looking troubled, but then shook her head. “Listen, we don’t have to worry about it, as long as we win. So let’s win.”

“You all always talk like this?” Hekate asked, glaring and looking like she was going to be sick. “Fuck.”

“What, you and Chris haven’t moved on to holding hands yet?” I asked with a grin, mostly trying to forget the situation we were in. Moving up a set of stairs, eerie gold lines along the walls glowed, at times pulsating in a way that made me feel even more uncomfortable.

Hekate hadn’t stopped glaring, but there was a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

“Ah, she’s got it bad,” Elisa said with a chuckle.

“Got what?” Hekate asked.

“You’re in love.”

Hekate actually stopped at that. “Don’t be stupid.”

“Can we apply that to all of you?” Goldi said, motioning to a passage to her right. “We have me here for a reason, but that won’t mean shit if we don’t find out where they’re keeping it. So, tracker?”

“We’re on the right path,” Hekate said, indicating the way we were going. “But there at the next landing up, it looks like we turn right,.”

“And you all were so certain you’d need my skills, why?”

“You ever met a god who didn’t keep the goods locked away?” Elisa asked.

Goldi frowned, then shrugged and kept going.

Sure enough, we turned right when directed, and then came to an intricate system of light we had seen before. The blocks shimmered with a faint light. Goldi glanced at Hekate, who nodded and pointed ahead.

“It’s a pattern,” Goldi said, analyzing it all with a finger at the side of her chin. “And if the spell is saying this is the way, then this is our path.”

Staring at the lights, trying to find any rhyme or reason to them, I frowned. “How is this a pattern?”

Goldi put a finger to the side of her head, turned it, and said, “You need to have a screw or two loose to be on my level, Mr.”

I chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Maybe I screw you a bit and help speed along the process? Or… would that be unscrewing?”

“How about you keep your vagina in your pants and focus on the task at hand?”

“This is starting to get fun,” Hekate said, grinning wide.

“She’ll come for your Chris next,” Elisa countered.

Hekate frowned at that, then pointed a finger in Goldilocks’ chest. “Focus on the puzzle.”

Goldi chuckled, gave me a flirtatious glance, and returned to the wall. “No worries, I’m just teasing you all. The bears are more than I can handle anyway. One’s too big, one too small, the other just right. But together? Woo-eee, they make the perfect trio.”

“Way too much info,” I said.

“It helps me figure out puzzles,” she insisted. “Talking about dick and whatnot. Really, I don’t know, gets the mind focused.”

I glanced around, expecting the other two to be as confused by this lady as I was, but Hekate looked very interested, Elisa nodding along.

“What?” Elisa said at my look. “It’s true. Sometimes when I’m trying to focus on a spell, I just imagine you—well, not you, exactly, but a painting of you. For some reason that works on a level that lets me separate it on a sexual level, but… seeing you there, nude, in the paint? It gives me this warm feeling right here,” she put a hand over her heart, “and, of course, a bit downstairs.”

Hekate chuckled. “I don’t know what you two are talking about, but I’m going to try it next time. So what, you just talk about a good fuck and, boom, mind focus?”

Goldi nodded, moving along the wall. “Yeah, that’s right.” She knelt, watching the light form a bit of an “L” shape. “For example, just yesterday I had Papa Bear so deep in me I thought I’d break in half, while stroking—”

“Fuck