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

I was twelve. Don’t judge me—twelve, I said. If you thought I was horny all the time with my group of gargoyles and Steph, you can’t begin to imagine how sexed-up my brain was at twelve.

Point being, this was familiar, but not many would know about it.

Even the mermaid herself seemed to think she was a gargoyle still, as she laughed, Glitonea’s voice coming through to say, “You coward. In the face of your worst nightmare, you can’t stand and fight?”

“My worst…”

A shooting pain went through my eyes. My mind was pounding, stomach spinning. None of this made sense. I had to use the runes, figure out… Wait a minute. They were there, on my screen. As I willed myself to be able to understand them, it happened—briefly, barely, but it worked.

“Illusion,” I said, recognizing the pattern. “It’s all an illusion!”

Understanding what it was, I was able to focus on the specific runes causing the illusion and shut it off. The rune I’d affected when trying to make a hole was integral. Another nearby showed a connection. Activating some, while deactivating others, created more scenarios, more tricks of the mind.

Steph screamed, calling for me, and for a moment I saw through her eyes, then was pulled back into myself but able to see her illusions, too. The knights were facing a monstrous serpent, some of them freezing as stone, others turning to ash. Flames leaped up around them.

Then the gargoyle faded, the fire was gone, the ashes and frozen wraiths… all gone. Steph fell to her knees, a whimper escaping her lips, and I ran to her side, holding her close.

“It’s over.”

At least, for us. Now my screen was showing a pattern, the words ‘illusion’ written in the upper right-hand corner. I had learned a rune spell, and saw which runes gave it direction.

“Here,” I said, looking at the runes on the ground and those on the digital map floating before me. With them overlaid I was able to see that there were similar patterns, and the ones glowing at the moment might have been others activated by Glitonea. At least, that was my guess.

Focusing on my map and then trying to use my powers to deactivate specific runes, I wanted to test the magic, see what the effects were.

“Nothing?” Steph asked.

I shook my head, but then had an idea. The runes on Glitonea’s body hadn’t been flat like on my display, but curved around her body. What if there was a connection there, like they paired up in different ways, like Chinese symbols in writing? It wasn’t only the symbols and which were used, but in what order.

Considering this, I made my screens compute different combinations, seeing if it would tell me how to use them. It made the combinations, but left the rest up to me. I was left feeling like A Boy and His Blob for the NES, and these combinations were my jelly beans. If you don’t get the reference, seriously, go look it up. One of the best games ever, along with the old-school Zelda, Contra—the list goes on.

Suddenly, another rune lit up across the way! I deactivated it, then another, this one causing my back to ache. It was like playing whack-a-mole, except the mole had some voodoo effect type magic.

Finally, I’d had enough of this and simply turned off all runes. The result was that I felt naked. Worse than that, all eyes throughout the world were turning in my direction, like the Eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings movies. I’d be spotted soon. That wouldn’t do.

I couldn’t make much more sense of the runes, but there were clear patterns like with the illusion spell. All I had to do was figure out how to understand the rest of the patterns, and we’d be set. For now, I activated the runes again, setting up that barrier to keep the magic eyes from seeing us.

Using the rune spell I’d just learned, I redirected the illusion spell up to where we had left Glitonea. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the shrieks of terror that came down from her moments later.

Distant, echoing shrieks.

Steph looked at me with confusion, then summoned her wraith knights. All were there, all looking down on us with their faces of darkness, hidden under their helmets. Then they were gone.

“Make it stop,” Steph said, clearly referring to the screams.

I nodded, then sent illusions to Glitonea not of her greatest nightmares, but of simply being cast out, sent into a prison of space and emptiness. Floating, forever. In reality she was still in the house, but unless she could look beyond the illusion, she wouldn’t know that.

She would figure it out soon enough, I was sure, but didn’t think she would be able to counter the runes I had put in place.

As far as I was concerned, I’d figured out the trick to keep her out of our hair for the time being.

But, if I had learned one new rune spell, I could learn more. In time.

“You… hungry?” I asked.

Steph laughed uneasily, clearly trying to push out the horrible images she had seen, and gladly took my hand as I helped her up. We made our way upstairs, discussing the various possible uses of the rune magic, and soon had downed some juice and chicken skewers. Steph found a couple of dark chocolates in one cabinet, and we sat on the couch, sharing those and simply being with each other, enjoying it.

“Come on, let’s get some rest,” Steph said, curling up next to me on the fancy cushions. She hadn’t even finished the words, when her deep breathing started, showing that she had already drifted off to sleep.

I considered getting up and carrying her to the bed, but hell, I was damn tired, too. Instead, I leaned my head back, closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

108

We slept the rest of the afternoon, waking just before sunrise. Using the rest of the chicken skewers