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

Pucky nodded and shouted, “Attack!”

She shot with her rifle, bursts of gold light sizzling through the air. But the witch was fast, darting about the room in flashes of light and dark, as if she were made up of both and was everywhere at once. Then she was in front of me again, pinning me up against the wall where the others were frozen, so that I started to go partly into the wall as well. Except that my amulet lit up, and it stopped. I gripped the metal and focused on pushing out the shadows, on being one with my qi or the Fae or whatever, and emerged from the wall, able to slash out at her.

The knife drew black, smoking blood and she hissed, vanishing for a moment to dart around the room again. She had Red this time, but Red was slashing and moving about with her fancy cloak as well, so that the witch turned her attack to Pucky. Oddly, Pucky was sitting in the middle of the room, eyes closed and horns glowing white—and suddenly a burst of light hit the room. Not like the white from the witch, blinding and overwhelming, but a calm, clean white light that took on a form… the form of swans.

“Elisa!” Pucky shouted.

A voice called back, “I’m here now!”

The swans burst forth, still in light form, darting around the witch so that when she next tried to move, she was stuck in place. Red and I made our move at the same time, charging in and throwing ourselves into the light, she striking low with me striking high. More black blood, but as my knife started to dig into her, the witch screamed and all barriers—including the frozen wall—dropped away, her dark form fleeing down the same route Peter had gone.

I didn’t hesitate to race after her, the others close behind. The darkness hit more darkness, a portal like the one we’d entered through the oven, its black liquid-like surface shifting and oozing, but before I could reach it she was gone and so was the portal. All that remained was a stone dead end.

“Pucky…?” Elisa’s voice said, and we turned to see the shape of a woman surrounded by a white light that was slowly merging, becoming one with her.

15

Elisa stood in the room where we’d just fought off the witch, her swans fading into her. As they did she stood taller, stronger. She was a beauty by any objective standard. Slim, tall, with wavy blonde hair that fell over her shoulders and a white swan on a chain around her neck. She wore a light blue top that revealed her perfectly sculpted belly—making me wonder what was up with Myths and showing off their bellies—and she had a long skirt to match.

“You did it,” Pucky said, beaming.

“With your help,” Elisa said, nodding and then accepted an embrace from Red.

“It’s good to see you,” Red said. “Smart, leading us here.”

“My swans told me you were here, that using them to guide you had worked,” Elisa said to Red and Pucky, looking my way with curiosity. “With Baba Yaga guarding me, I knew the only chance of escape was with your help. Who’s the Normie?”

“This Normie is your new Protector, Princess,” Pucky said with a sneer.

“Is that so?” Elisa looked me over, smiled, and said, “Great. Protect me—get my ass out of here.”

“Preferably with the rest of her attached,” Red added, laughing.

“Right, let’s just forget her royal ass and we all move, shall we?” Pucky was already heading for the door. “Before more witches show up. Witches creep me the hell out.”

“But don’t you use magic?” I asked.

“Not exactly, and that wouldn’t make me a witch,” she countered. “Magic works through me, you could say. But I don’t use magic.”

I didn’t know what to make of that, so let it go.

“It’s the agents we have to worry about,” Red said, and turned to the spot where a moment ago there had been a barrier trapping the two frozen Myths. Now that the barrier was gone, Kai and Gerda lay collapsed on the stone floor. “Help me get them up. We’re not leaving without them.”

“Of course,” I said, and we got to it.

We had the two up on our shoulders, me with Kai and Red with Gerda—Pucky was willing to sling her over one shoulder, but found the fireman’s carry too complicated with her horns getting in the way. Instead, she went ahead of us to scout the way, heading in the direction we’d just come from. Elisa was able to walk on her own, but was weaker than I would’ve guessed and stumbled from time to time, at one point needing Pucky’s help. As we neared the end of it all, they were—to my relief—starting to come to.

At the final exit, they were able to pull themselves together and we emerged through the portal into the oven to the sound of chatter and the sight of flashing police lights from outside. Whatever the Normies thought had happened here, now the cops were on it. I paused a moment at the sudden realization that I’d thought of them as ‘Normies.’

“Don’t worry,” Red said, looking relieved for a moment of rest. “With my cloak and Pucky’s ability to move us past them, we’ll look like newly-arrived bystanders.”

“Except…” Pucky was out of the oven now, crouched where those outside couldn’t see her, “Agents. One coming our way.”

“Then we’ll just have to make it fast.”

Pucky nodded and stood, grabbing us while we held tight to the two we’d saved. Those outside went into slow motion, and we glitched out, reappearing outside the pizza place and to the side—as far as she could get us within her line of sight from the spot she’d been. The cops were busy grilling a couple of people near the front, while other bystanders were standing about muttering about what had happened. None looked our way. At least, not until