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

it back to you all,” Red explained. “And that’s when I saw them. I don’t think they’ve all been notified.”

We reached the edge of it and she pointed down. Scooting forward, I was able to see what she was referring to. Another room, this one more of a rectangle, with several dwarves, a couple of flying monkeys, and some Legends I didn’t recognize (but could tell were Legends because some of them had green skin, some had horns, and one even had a cat’s tail) in it.

They were gathered around a mummy, who was mumbling something I could barely hear, only catching on that they were discussing some major attack, one that would hurt both Myths and Normies alike.

So this wasn’t just some hideout or place to take prisoners, it was a rally point of sorts. The location to launch an attack from—and I had to assume there were others out there, to cause the sort of havoc they seemed to be discussing.

“They’re getting ready to make a move,” Pucky whispered. “We need to find out where.”

“Might be that Elisa’s heard something,” Red countered.

“A fucking storm is coming, I can tell you that much.”

“Oh, shit,” I said, nudging Red and indicating the far side of the wall. I hadn’t noticed a second before, but it seemed to be partially translucent black stone. It wasn’t the cool stone that caught my attention, but the very three-dimensional, very real but frozen forms of a woman and a man—neither were recognizable, but I could tell from looking at them that they were Myths. Even more so, I realized as I focused, that they had that glowing aura I’d first seen on Red and Pucky soon after my tests related to becoming the Protector.

“That’s two of them,” Red said, voice growling as she glanced around at the other walls, waiting… “Ironic that it would be those two, frozen.”

“Kai and Gerda,” Pucky explained upon seeing my confused expression. “Come on, you have to know the Snow Queen story, the Troll Mirror and all that?”

I frowned, confused. The only snow queen I knew about was from the movie Frozen, and this didn’t sound anything like what I remembered that being about.

“How about we rescue them, see if they know anything about Elisa, and then you read him bedtime stories over a nice, warm cup of shut the hell up?” Red said, winked at me, and then turned back to Pucky. “Ready to try out that rifle?”

“You bet your ass I am,” Pucky replied, pulling it up to aim.

“Do I need to cover my ears or something?” I asked.

“Just hope it’s not cursed and blows up in our faces. Otherwise, you’re good.”

I gulped, lying there watching and hoping I wasn’t about to die.

Pucky had the tip of her tongue out, pressed to her upper lip as she grinned like a child about to steal a slice of birthday cake. She pressed her hand to the glowing side, causing the rifle to charge up with a strange hissing sound, the back lighting up even more. Then, with a release like air out of a tire but faster and stronger, a blast of energy shot out and turned two of the dwarves into frogs.

“It’s an amplifier gun,” Red explained. “Shoots based on powers of Myths and Legends who’ve held it before.”

“And I can choose and select, once merging with it,” Pucky said, again placing her hand against its side. “Just have to get a feel for the damn thing.”

This time, as the enemy below was scurrying about to see where the shot came from, Pucky released a blast that froze three more into ice.

“At least we know one of its former owners,” Pucky said, preparing to fire again. “The Snow Queen herself—the chest must’ve been connected due to the presence of Gerda and Kai.” Another moment, and her eyes went wide, “Ooh, and I’ve got one more, it looks like…” she was about to fire to show us, when a winged monkey arrived right in front of us, screeching so that the others came flying up, our hiding spot exposed.

“Good,” Red said, knife at the ready and pulling herself toward the closest monkey. “I was getting sick of being cramped in here.”

She grabbed it by the wing as it tried to flee for help, but then the others below turned to fire on us as she rode it down, knife at its throat. The mummy growled up at us, reaching, but I held onto my amulet, prepared. Then it wasn’t the amulet, but me—I was thinking about Red and Pucky at my side, thinking about what a lucky guy I was, how insane all of this was but that I was loving it. And then the shadow was gone as if I’d shone a light in the room, though there was no light.

I crawled out of the lookout spot and dropped in to join the fight. One of the flying monkeys broke my fall, and I grabbed hold as its wings flapped, lowering us.

My first instinct was to push the little bastard away and charge the mummy, but two more of the winged monkeys came at me. There were still the frozen dwarves and the ones turned to frogs, and a glance around showed the mummy was making an escape. When one of the remaining dwarfs turned a gun on me, I wasn’t about to get shot so I pulled one of the monkeys into the line of fire. It went down, and then I was charging the dwarf, but too late.

These dwarves apparently had some sort of magic, because once he charged through the exit the mummy took, it was like an invisible wall went up.

That left his friends for the slaughter, but he’d gambled that we weren’t the type. He was right. Or so I thought. As I turned to see what our next move would be, the blast from Pucky’s rifle hit the monkey nearby, turning it, too, into a frog.

Another had a shotgun aimed at