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

“Dear?” I asked.

Chris beamed. “What can I say, we hit it off.” He put an arm around her waist. “Isn’t she so sexy?”

“Um, yes,” Elisa replied. “But… you know she’s a witch, right? The evil kind?”

Hekate humphed and Chris held up a hand. “She’s told me about her past, about—what was it—turning a bunch of kids into nightingales?”

“No, that was my sister Erqleen,” Hekate said. “And they were all put back to normal.”

“You see?” Chris shrugged as if that had somehow answered the question. “She’s turned over a new leaf.”

“I’m at least willing to try,” Hekate added.

My gaze went to Sharon, then the others followed suit.

“What?” she asked.

“I mean, did you know her?” I asked. “You might be able to speak for her character.”

“Hold on,” Red said, holding up both hands and shaking her head. “We let in one bad apple, she tells us another one is fine, and before you know it they’ll be in a prime position to slit our throats while we’re sleeping.”

“Red,” Pucky said, shaking her head. “Legends can change, just as Myths have.”

“We literally just let Sharon join us.”

“I get it.” Sharon frowned, but then nodded. “Trusting a Legend is tough… and another coming over so soon because she enjoys playing with this guy’s asshole isn’t exactly promising.”

“For the record, not the reason,” Hekate interjected. “A fun bonus, but not the reason.”

“And the reason would be?” Elisa asked.

Hekate grinned and pinched Chris’s cheek. “Have you seen his dimples? Come on, who could say no to this face.” When she saw frowns, she added, “Fine, it’s more than that. At first I was all like ‘don’t talk or I’ll set a fire spell on you and watch your skin boil off your bones,’ but then he kept talking and saying the sweetest things. But more than that, he told me about his buddy, Jack—the one he’d betrayed—and how sorry he felt. Went on about their time together, about friendship and loyalty, and how he’d give anything to make up for his betrayal, and I started thinking that maybe he could make up for it, and maybe I could make amends for everything I’ve done wrong, too.”

“But you’re a witch,” Red said.

“And you’re a fucking saint?” she countered with a glare that quickly changed into a smile. “Sorry, I’m trying here, but—wait, so you’re on their side?” She stared at Sharon. “They let the Big Bad Wolf onto the team, but aren’t sure about me?!”

“I was influenced by the shadows,” Sharon replied sheepishly, but then snarled. “What’s your excuse?”

“Lust for power,” Hekate said, then held up a hand and turned, starting a spell that looked like it was closing the portal.

“And now a lust for these nuts is setting her free,” Chris said, earning eye rolls from everyone.

“Whatever we do here,” Elisa said, already starting to walk, “we need to move.”

“And we’re taking her with?” Red asked, irate.

“Honestly, I don’t give a fuck. What I care about right now is that more don’t show up. What’s worse, us with only her, or us stuck with her and an army of more like her?”

Red scrunched her nose but started walking with the rest of us.

“To be clear, there are none like me,” Hekate noted.

“She’s right,” Chris said, chuckling and taking her by the hand as they walked. He glanced my way and then looked away as he mumbled, “By the way, sorry about… you know. And thanks for coming for me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, very confused about our current situation but glad to know he wasn’t being tortured by the enemy. From what we’d seen when we barged in on him, that hadn’t been a concern regardless, but it was good to know.

I jogged to catch up with Elisa as she finished signaling the car. “Is it possible she has my friend under a spell?”

“Possible, sure, but I’d have sensed it.” She took a moment, then stepped closer, making sure the others were a few steps back as she lowered her voice. “Honestly, I like the idea of having her on board, though we’d have to test her loyalty, of course.”

“Oh?”

“First of all, I can’t imagine the powers this one has. But even on a simple level, having access to their portals! Can you imagine? It means we don’t have to rely on international teams—as long as there’s a portal network in place she can tap into, we can go across the globe in an instant.”

That left me thinking about the possibilities, although I had no idea what they could really mean. On the one hand, her statement had even larger implications. I hadn’t even considered that other culture’s fairy tales would be alive as well. Of course, most of the ones I knew had originated elsewhere, so the thought was silly to begin with. Hans Christian Andersen was Danish, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm from Germany. Peter Pan originated from a Scottish playwright.

And all of this put a new question in my head. “Elisa… are these Myths and Legends created by the stories, or…?”

“Discovered,” she said. “Probably a better way to say it—which is also why not all of our realities match the stories you’ve heard about us. Many of us have existed for a long time, though some less so, and you can imagine the stories that have gotten around. Some authors finally started writing them down, and maybe they stuck to the facts, or maybe not.”

“Which is kind of why gods aren’t anything more than fairy tales,” Pucky said, joining in the conversation. “For our purposes.”

The others were all standing there now, listening.

I frowned. “But modern stories?”

“Some are just stories,” Elisa replied. “Others… are very much real.”

“Like that Justin Sloan book, Hounds of God,” Sharon said. “So many werewolf characters are bullshit, but from that one? A lot of it was true—Kat is a badass, and a good friend. My only werewolf friend, actually, and helped me through a time in my life.”

“Shit, I think I read that one,” I said, trying to recall