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

love it. Come on. You drive and I’ll do it right here, right now.”

She hit me again. “Shut up, we’re almost there. But next time we’re fooling around, it’ll be the grand buffet for you.”

A snort-laugh escaped, and we both laughed, then. I had to adjust my cock so my boner wouldn’t be so obvious. She reached over, though, massaging it for a second before saying, “Shit, we’re here.”

I pursed my lips in a pout and pulled over to what looked like a large church. “No way.”

She shook her head. “Not the church, but I remember passing it. One of these houses, for sure.”

The heat and humidity hit me hard when we stepped out of the car, but not as hard as the sight of Fatiha in the park nearby. She sat on a bench, posture straight, staring at us with hands folded in her lap. Both hands, as she had somehow found a way to heal it back on, or grow another. Then again, this was all magic largely beyond my comprehension, so what did I know?

She was waiting.

“What brings you two so far from home?” Her voice carried, barely more than a whisper, but audible from far away.

We approached, reaching the gate of the park, where we stopped. “You can still pull back,” I said. “Call it quits Nobody has to be hurt.”

She laughed. “If your aunt had known how simple you were, I doubt she ever would have entrusted so much of her plan to you. Lucky me.”

I glared, holding her gaze. After a few beats of this, I grunted. “Then we’re done. One thing, though—how is it that my aunt didn’t recognize you for who you are?”

“She only ever knew me as the one with magic,” she replied. “When my magic was gone, or mostly gone, so was my imprint, the way she would have recognized me after so much time.”

I scrunched my nose, processing this, then nodded. “And you… what, want your magic back?”

“So much more than that,” Fatiha replied with an evil smile. “My powers, yours. All.”

“For what ends?” Steph asked.

“Magic should never be hidden. Never be stolen, certainly.” Her eyes penetrated my soul, boiling deep within.

“And never, ever be used to hurt others,” I countered. “Unless they need to be stopped, unless they are the ones using it to commit evil.”

Her lip twitched. She turned, waving me off. “You have until midnight to hand over the Liahona. We will come to collect.”

We stood there for a while, watching her walk off. Cars passed, all oblivious to the fact that evil incarnate was hiding out so close to their homes. A breeze rustled the leaves above, as if none of the chaos mattered, as if peace could really exist in this world.

Of course, the Virginia heat and humidity served as an annoying reminder of what was to come. My hand went to the inner pocket of my jacket where I had stored the Liahona. With our powers, safer to keep it close.

“We’re still coming for her, right?” Steph asked, opening the gate and going in to sit on a bench. I followed and did the same.

“You have a good idea where she’ll be?”

Steph grinned. “One of my wraith knights is following her right now. If she still had her full magic, she would know—but she doesn’t.”

“Sly dog.” I chuckled. “But, I thought your type of magic doesn’t work in the day?”

“It works, but on a very reduced level. They could attack us right now and still prove to be a challenge, but with your transmutation spells, I can’t imagine they would have much chance of success.”

“Speaking of which.” I pulled up my screen and focused on making transmutation spell options appear. “I’m hoping I can get more specific with that side of my magic. And…” Sure enough, a new page appeared. I gave Steph a satisfied nod.

“What do you see?”

“A few options, such as ones I already know. At my level—er, power level, I guess—there’s what I’ve done so far, like animating objects as I did with the house, kind of.”

“Badass, I might add.”

“Ooh, here’s a fun one. It looks like I can change the air to basically be poison, or even make it… solid?”

“So, you can attack people by changing the air they breathe, nice.” She leaned back in thought. “I guess the latter can be used for shields?”

“Or making a temporary prison.”

“Nice.” She eyed me, waiting for more.

“Aside from that, it’s mostly silly stuff, but… no way.” I stared at the words for a moment, then grinned. “Shape-shifting.”

“As in… you can actually become a wolf and stuff like that?”

I shrugged, glanced around, and tried it. My whole body was instantly wracked with pain, my skin feeling like it was being torn off. Blood formed in lines on my arms, and I stopped, staring in horror at what I had done.

“Fuck me,” she said, eyes wide.

My mouth was dry, everything hurt, and I felt like an idiot. So much so, that all I could do was sit there and stare as the blood started to trail my skin, forming lines between hairs.

“What… was that?” Steph asked.

“A spell I’m never trying again,” I replied. “No way in fucking hell.”

She nodded, slowly. “Maybe when you’re much more powerful? When you can heal? Speaking of… can you? Please, because this… is disgusting.”

I almost laughed, but it was the sort of hysterical laugh that was almost a whimper. My screen was still up, and while I didn’t see anything about healing on there, I focused on my wounds and timidly pressed with my mind. Nothing. Licking my lips and thinking instead of it like an ‘undo,’ I tried again. This time, while the pain was still lingering and blood still on my skin, the wounds closed.

“Undo,” I said, and shrugged. “As close to healing as I can get, for now anyway.”

With a sigh, she said, “I’m glad I don’t have your magic. No offense, but… it’s too much.”

“I’m right there with you, at the moment.”

A shimmer of