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

nobody even knew what I was supposed to be. Someone thought I was a toy soldier from Toy Story—which is weird, because I don’t think they even had soldiers with Civil War clothes in that film!”

“Off track…”

“Right.” I put my hands on my hips, looking around at our surroundings, and sighed. “Maybe. Maybe there’s a subconscious part of me that made this happen because in some way I’m suddenly putting my obsession with certain aspects of our history—I mean, America’s history—to work here with what we’re doing in the magical sense. I don’t know.”

“Of course, you have. And it’s adorable—but for what it’s worth, every single troll and goblin I interacted with while under the spell, on their side, seemed pretty damn evil. Helpless, to say the least.”

“And I’d counter by saying that you either had to surround yourself with people like that, because of the situation you were in, or they had to act like that to fit in, to not be killed. Then again, they could have been under a spell. You should know that better than anyone.”

She pursed her lips and nodded.

“Only one way to find out about them.” I took her arm in mine, nodded to Riland who was watching with curiosity, and we headed up the incline to join the others.

I paused at one point to watch the moon, shining down on us from above. It was hazy, with a light layer of clouds drifting through the sky, causing the moon to have a glowing ring around it. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me, but for a moment I thought there were shapes moving about in the mist.

No way could the enemy have tracked us down already, right? Unless they had followed us from the senator’s house, which was entirely possible. Not that it mattered, since our whole point was to lead them here for a battle.

“I used to stare up at the moon and wonder,” Steph said, pressing close to me. “Wonder if, since there was magic and people like me and the others, were all those other myths true, too? I mean, about werewolves, vampires, all that.”

“And? Did you ever get your answer?”

“It’s complicated,” she replied. “But… yes, I’d say that pretty much every horror you can think of really exists. But, they aren’t always the horror you imagine.”

“As you would seem to expect,” Riland said with a humored nod my way.

“What do you know about it?” I asked.

Riland shook his head. “Only what I know from my time, and what I saw in the Dark Lands. These stories, fairy tales from your world… not so much.”

“And in the Dark Lands?”

“Some creatures were dark, others less so. Some formed into groups, others stayed on their own. You’d have some who saw it as a license to do whatever they wanted, others who took up the standard of justice and tried to keep the place sane, to start over.” He sighed, eyes moving to Aerona, likely thinking of his fallen friend, her lover. “I’m glad to be done with that place, regardless.”

We kept walking, the darkness around us very much pressing in, reminding me of the short amount of time I had spent in that place. For Riland, it had gone on much longer. Megha, too.

“And you?” Steph asked as we entered the clearing the others had formed. “What were you thinking about while you were staring up at the moon just now?”

I grinned. “Thinking that I wanted to throw back my head and howl.”

She laughed. “Do it.”

“When the fighting starts, I will.”

They were already starting to work on the spell, with Aerona in the center as Mizoa faced her, much like she had done with me and Megha to prepare for infiltrating the coven. As the spell began, Ebrill and others worked on concealment spells to ensure that any random explorers or people on airplanes—I hoped satellites, as well—wouldn’t happen to glimpse what was about to go down.

“And if they don’t bother to come for it?” I asked Steph at my side.

She only scoffed. “Based on what we’ve seen so far, they’ll come.”

The chanting increased in volume and tempo, and a flash of mist came in from what I guessed to be the east. It flooded in like thick clouds or dragon smoke, filling the historic battle field as the chanting seemed to echo from all angles.

Cackling came first, and that got my blood moving. It was exciting—when you go into a battle with a bunch of witches, you kind of expect cackling, right? It wouldn’t be the same without it, and I wasn’t let down in the slightest.

The orcs came first, though, before the witches came into view. So, I had no choice—if they were going to try and hurt me or mine, I would fight them. Whether some were good or bad, in this case, we would have to wait until later to deal with it.

“Now comes the fun part,” Mizoa said, eyes alight.

Glitonea laughed, threw back her head, and became a griffon. She flapped her wings and rose into the sky, and then, followed by the gargoyles, led the charge against the oncoming orcs, Drow, goblins, monsters, and more.

Aerona stayed back, however, I thought, since I didn’t see her there with them. Only, when I turned all I saw was an outline of her.

I stayed back with Megha and Steph, casting defensive spells over us, offensive ones at groups of enemies that were exposed, and called out for Aerona.

“Searching,” her voice came like a whisper.

“We’ll need you here.”

“No,” Megha countered. “If she stops searching, the others will sense it.”

“Speaking of others,” Steph said, raising a hand and pointing as her wraith knights appeared, Percival nodding at us, ready for duty. “They’re here.”

Sure enough, a black sphere was visible forming in the mist, flashing about with whipping tails and more colors moving up behind it. The last of the Nine, led by Moronoe. Fatiha appeared at the base of our hill, eyeing first me and then the oncoming sight