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

“That last part gets me. Has to be limited, because otherwise Glitonea would be out by now.”

“She’s that powerful?”

“Jericho, she’s one of the Nine.”

“Right.”

We rounded the pillar to find a wispy blue light rising out of the ground. It cast glittering reflections on the surrounding pillars and ceiling above like a blue sun on water. Steph’s eyes met mine and I knew what she was thinking—this wasn’t good.

My eyes darted about, mind playing tricks on me with the light and shadows. At any minute, someone would jump out and try to attack us, I was certain of it.

Steph approached the light, muttering, “This isn’t good. It shouldn’t be here… Why is it here?”

“Certain runes have been activated,” I said. “This place, it had to have been made as an area that could amplify magic, or maybe as a backup for Gertrude in case other magic failed.”

“Or… Maybe it was put here before her time.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” I countered, turning to look at the runes around us on the ground, trying to scan the area for my digital display and analysis. “She came to it by chance?”

“It was put here… to draw her… to it.”

I turned to see why Steph was talking weird, then noticed that she was standing in the light, starting to float. Her hands went out to the side, her eyes rolling back until only white showed, her skirt fluttering as if there was a wind. I felt no wind.

“Oh, fuck,” I said as I ran to her, grabbing hold to pull her out of the light.

Movement. Something large coming at me. It hit like a sledgehammer to the gut and tossed me over, slamming me into the wall. I rolled, expecting another attack, then pushed myself up to face what I was certain had to be Glitonea.

It wasn’t.

Standing in front of me, wings spread and talons at the ready, was Ebrill. I blinked, confused.

“What—” I started, but she slammed into me again, the force of her attack nearly knocking me to the ground. My attempts to throw her off failed, and in a flash she had an arm around my throat, spinning me.

From this new angle, I saw Steph on the floor, wraith knights all around her, with swords held high but not attacking. Why weren’t they attacking? Steph sat up and threw a fireball to my left, out of my sight, but still the knights didn’t move.

She wheeled around, but I couldn’t see what came next because Ebrill lurched sideways, pulling as I attempted to get my chin between her arm and my neck.

“Why…?” I tried asking, but got only a grunt.

This didn’t make sense—it was still daytime. Had to be! To say nothing of the fact that Ebrill wouldn’t attack me like this. Unless Glitonea had found a way to turn them against us, to confuse them… and wake them during the day?

Oxygen was getting thin in my brain and my muscles cramped with exertion, but I gambled and cast frost footing beneath us. My hope had been that it would cause Ebrill to slip, but no such luck. Instead, I slipped and managed to break out of her grip, so that I landed on the ice and rolled aside, then stood, hands ready.

“I’ll blast you,” I bluffed. “Don’t do it. This is me.”

The red in her eyes flared, and she took a step toward me. My hands raised again as I glanced over to see Steph dive behind a pillar and cringe. I still didn’t see her attacker, but knew I needed to get Ebrill under control so we could go and help.

“It’s me,” I said to the gargoyle. “Jericho. I went back in time, found you, saved magic—in a weird way. It is me.”

The corner of her mouth curled, a voice very not her own emitting. “How pitiful, little Jericho. You think that highly of yourself, when all you’ve been is a puppet?”

“You’re not Ebrill,” I said, rethinking my attack strategy.

A hint of humor. “I’m not… but I took her body.”

“Glitonea,” I said, eyeing the runes. There had to be a way to reverse this. If she had taken over Ebrill’s body, that meant the gargoyle was still in there, somewhere. Hurting her wasn’t an option, but how could I win, here?

Part of what I had been learning recently was that I could control quite a lot about my surroundings with my transmutation power. It was all mental, in that I had to believe I could do something before being able to do it. In theory, there wasn’t much I couldn’t change or do, but my mind had a hard time grasping that.

Applying such thought to this scenario, I realized such powers had to be the answer. Focusing on Glitonea up in her room somehow affecting Ebrill, I concentrated on pushing her out. My thought process involved imagining Glitonea and her glowing runes on her flesh, then drawing a string down here to Ebrill and cutting it free.

Only, it was like taking a step only to find no ground beneath your foot. I mentally fell, caught myself, and shook my head clear—in time to catch one of Ebrill’s knees with my face. Pain, blood, me staggering backward. If it came down to hurting this woman I’d grown to care for or letting a possessed version of her kick the shit out of me, which would it be?

My hand went to the ground, an idea taking over. Focusing on creating a hole, I smirked, waiting. Nothing happened. No hole.

Ebrill stepped forward, then glitched! Like a holograph, she cut out for a moment, then was back. Something was very off here. I moved the ground again. This time, she vanished completely, replaced with an image of the Little Mermaid floating in front of me as if in the water, breasts exposed and lasers shooting out of her nipples.

Okay, now I knew this was way off. For one, as ridiculous as it sounded, I’d drawn that exact image once when