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

a celebration and debriefing of everything that had happened. It seemed that, considering our contribution to defeating the main enemy leading the attack, the agents of the normies were going to lay off of us, even change their stance and start working with Myths instead of Legends. They agreed to work together with Myths to set up rehabilitation centers for Legends and gods alike, and truly attempt to form a livable situation with the fairy tales among them—secretively, of course. It turned out they had their own sort of amplifier that worked to ensure most of the world forgot about what had happened, instead thinking it had been massive natural disasters that had caused havoc.

I spent my first few hours back in a juggle of wanting to get some rest, to making sure the new ladies felt welcome. No, not in that way yet, but by getting to know them, even playing a game of Uno with the team. Sharon kept rolling her eyes at it, but when she won she wanted to play again.

At one point, I found Chris dragging me off to stare out over the city with him, and found myself staring at him instead in confusion.

“We have a mansion full of friends, ladies, food… drink!” I laughed. “What’re we doing out here?”

“I miss you man.” He leaned forward. “Plus,” pulling out his pants to show me his dick, which was very swollen and kinda lopsided, “I need you to tell me if this is wrong.”

“Fuck yes, that’s wrong. Don’t ever show me your dick again.”

“No, I mean…” He looked at me with such fright, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

“Relax, relax, I think it’s just swollen. Over-use, right?” I glanced down to confirm, then quickly looked away. “Just, put that nastiness away, man.”

He chuckled. “If only it was always that big limp, huh?”

“You’re ladies might be complaining. I mean, who wants a soda can for a cock? They want a healthy balance of length and girth. At least I think so.”

He nodded. “Fuck.”

“What?”

Glancing back at the mansion, he sighed. “Hekate said two new friends wanted to join in today. Some real nasty, freaky witches. But with this… Fuck it, I’m doing it anyway.”

“Chris…”

“Joking, joking. Maybe.”

I shook my head, laughing, and looked back over the city. “Damn, I wonder how hard I’ll have to stare at all this to get that vision of your dick out of my head?”

“Why you thinking about it?” He grinned. “Sorry.”

“Man…” I looked down at my thick arms. “I can’t believe how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time. It’s insane, right?”

“Fuck yes. I still remember reading Harry Potter and thinking how much I wanted to hit up the Florida park to feel the experience—but now I know that he had it lame compared to this.”

“Apples and oranges,” I said with a laugh. “And… that was fiction.”

“Sure.” He winked at me.

Not sure what that meant, I asked, “So you going back to the witches mansion? I mean, what’s the plan there?”

“I think so. They’re giving it to us, actually, with Hekate as head witch. And, I mean, that only makes sense anyway. It was all political, but she was definitely the most badass.”

“And you’re learning?”

He nodded. “Watch this.” Holding out a hand, he made a little fire appear, then waved his other hand and made it take the shape of a nude woman, then again and he gave it my face. Cracking up as I shoved him, he said, “Hey, not bad man. Your head on a body like that.”

“I’d look good no matter what,” I admitted, playfully but actually… yeah, the confidence was definitely there now. After the fighting, the leveling up, the fucking? I couldn’t imagine how I’d ever lacked confidence in the first place. That guy who’d been doing press at the con was a totally different person.

“Well, I hope we get to hang out often,” Chris said, nodding and giving me a big-brother look.

“No doubt,” I said. “As long as the violence and all that stays calm, I imagine we won’t have much else to do but enjoy ourselves.”

“You wish,” Pucky said, coming out through the double glass doors. “You’re going to be training your ass off, preparing for whatever comes next. And trust me, there’s always something next.”

I gave Chris a ‘there you go’ look.

“Come on,” Pucky said, pulling me by the hand, giggling.

“What’s gotten into you?” I asked.

“Just, hurry.”

Chris grinned and followed as Pucky dragged me back through the mansion, downstairs and into the courtyard. There in the waning sunlight all of the fairy tales were gathered, along with some Legends, it looked like, who must’ve switched sides. If not, I had no idea what they were doing there.

But weirdest still was the fact that I noticed two people I had never thought to see in a place like this, and hadn’t actually been sure I’d ever see again at all. My mom and dad.

“What…?” I staggered toward them, then broke out into a run until we were embracing, laughing, and turning to see everyone watching. “What’s going on here?”

“Ask her,” my dad said, and indicated Pucky. “All of them, I guess.”

Indeed, next to Pucky, Red, Sharon, and Elisa had stepped forward. They were in a sort of semi-circle in front of me, the new team members—if they were going to indeed be part of the team, lined up behind them. Even Sekhmet and Bastet were there in the line, as apparently they’d decided they were part of the team. And Maleficent, the Queen of Crows, and Huera. It was quite the display of beauty, and kind of awkward, since Huera was still apparently refusing to wear clothes.

“Pucky?” I asked.

“We won,” Pucky said. “But that’s not the only reason to celebrate, we figured. As you know—”

“We love you,” Red blurted out, then blushed the color of her hood.

“It’s true,” Elisa said, nodding.

Sharon cleared her throat. “I never… I never thought it would be possible, especially only knowing each other after such