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

shisa at her side. A look of sorrow was in the shisa’s large eyes, causing Steph to pat its head as we ran.

“This is really happening?” I asked, shaking my head as I tried to comprehend everything. “You didn’t kill my aunt, but the woman I thought was her servant and was helping me did, and she had laid a curse on you. So, my girlfriend is innocent of that but has been under a curse to get me here and attack me, in a strange way, and… I kind of cheated on her.”

Ebrill scoffed, but Steph glanced at her and shrugged. “Since I wasn’t really myself, I’d say we can ignore that little part. Start over.”

“So, you’re not my girlfriend?”

“Would you want her to be?” Ebrill asked.

Turning to look at the stunning beauty that was this gargoyle woman, I was at a loss for words. With a shrug, I finally blurted out, “I have no idea what’s going on. I’m just trying to keep my head above water.”

She guffawed, but then smiled as I led the way to the roof. “We’re going for her?”

“Of course,” I replied. “If they’re going to take this place down, we at least have to protect Kordelia.”

“What about the others?” Steph asked as we went, more rumbling and explosions sounding muffled.

“Others?” I asked.

“The rest of the gargoyles. I remember bits of what I overheard when under her influence, and there was talk of five in all.”

“Five of us?” Ebrill blinked, shook her head, and laughed. “Now this memory loss bit is starting to agitate me. All we know about is the one on the roof. Kordelia.”

“It’s possible my aunt never found the rest,” I admitted.

“Or that she never shared their location.”

“For now, the one.” I reached the ladder and climbed up, pushing through to the rooftop.

I reached down for Steph’s hand to help her up, when her eyes turned red and her hair turned white and flowed out behind her. My life was forfeit in that moment, I was sure of it, but her death wraiths appeared and lunged past me, followed by the sickening sounds of blades on flesh. By the time I managed to spin and take a look, they already had three attacking demons on the ground, while one fell over the side of the roof, cleaved in two.

“Nice work,” I said, helping Steph up the rest of the way.

“Don’t try to pretend that you didn’t doubt me,” she said with a laugh, her voice sounding slightly off while her body was in this form, with her eyes still red. Apparently, this was a power of hers when not under the curse.

“Where’d you get that power?” I asked.

She arched an eyebrow while turning to thrust out a fireball as a short goblin climbed over the edge of the roof. It dodged and came back up, only to have its head chopped halfway down by a death wraith.

“Maybe that’s a conversation for another time,” I admitted.

“You think?”

Now it was my turn, casting “Tarian” to boost us and “Hurtio” to stun one of two witches who made it up to join the assault. Three strange flying beasts came from the sky, but Ebrill was up now and rose to meet the first two, tearing them down and pummeling them. Once they were on the roof, I was able to get a good look at the bat-like creatures with their eerily humanoid faces.

“Vampires?”

Steph scoffed. “Not even close. Vampires are hot.”

“Oh?”

“I mean, nothing compared to you, of course.” She grimaced, shooting off more fireballs. “Am I… I mean,” summoning two more death wraiths to charge at a wind golem, “am I supposed to say things like that?”

“Our situation is a bit murky, what with you trying to kill me before.”

“Right after going down on you, I have to point out.” She spun and attacked again, this time hitting a winged beast right out of the sky. “And again, curse.”

“Wait, so… you were cursed to go down on me?” I caught a flying beast with a stun spell, watching as it face-planted into the railing and flipped over, then fell over the edge. Two more hit me from behind, tackling me to the roof. Ebrill swooped in to take care of one, but a demon caught her from the other side while another flying beast joined the assault on me.

“Elfenol Streic,” I shouted, turning my fist to go with fire, and hit the first one square on the nose. As it fell back in a ball of flames, it hit the other one with it, which caught fire, too. I noticed that my level increased again! I made quick adjustments, knowing this wasn’t the best time, but now the screen read:

Level 3 MAGE

Statistics

Strength: 9

Defense:8

Speed: 8

Luck: 7

Charisma: 7

Mana: 350

Current Spells

Passive: Situational Alchemy, AKA “Transmutation”

Active: Ddiogelu (protection ward), Elfenol Streic (elemental strike), Tarian (defense boost), Hurtio (stun)

I liked that my screen had adapted to the way I thought of myself more of a mage than as a witch, and that, while still not super impressive, my stats were moving along nicely. Soon, I would need to make time to check my scanned spell book pages and see if there were any new spells I could learn at this level.

“So…?” I turned to Steph, waiting for an answer regarding the blowjob—that she hadn’t finished, I wasn’t about to forget.

“That might have been more me than the curse,” Steph admitted.

“Any time you two want to stop batting eyelashes,” Ebrill cut in, gliding to land between us and the statue of Kordelia, “we have work to do.”

Was there a hint of jealousy in her eyes? I nodded, mind reeling with confusion over the female situation here, but very glad to have any sort of distraction from the fight going on.

“Right, just…” I searched for something cool to say, but she gestured to the statue and growled as a burst of blue light shot out from her hand, then ran through the nearest demon, seemingly sucking its life force