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

She nodded. “As long as Morgiana isn’t around, we should be safe. She’s ruthless.”

“Wait, Morganna?”

“Similar name, but no. No relation.”

I nodded, glancing over at Pucky and Elisa, who were already moving around cautiously, searching for the scepter. Hekate stood at the ready, eyes alert. I couldn’t see Sharon since she was behind me, but I could hear her quiet footsteps.

“You sensing something?” I asked.

The others looked over now too, and we waited. Finally, Hekate nodded, pointing to the hallway opposite my position.

“A ward,” she said. “They’ll be here soon.”

“Search fast,” Red said.

“It won’t matter.” Hekate moved to the hallway, kneeled and started to draw a line in the wood with one of her fingernails, an act that made me cringe. “I’ll do what I can to set up counter-wards, to stall them.”

“And who’s them, exactly?” I asked, joining in the search.

“Morgiana married Ali Baba’s son, a man who she trained in the ancient art of sword fighting known as the river dance—roughly translated.” Red cursed, having found a box hidden below some of the shelves, but it only contained a series of goblets. “Both are now known in these parts as the type not to fuck with.”

“And they’re not on our side?”

“Neutral-good,” she said. “Which is better than neutral-chaotic, as some of those back at the community college were, but they’d still rather fight us than let us walk away with the scepter.”

“How do you know if you don’t ask?”

“Shut up and help me find it.” She stood, stepping back and analyzing the wall in front of her, which had shelves with vases, several amulets displayed in glass cases, and other trinkets. “I last saw the scepter after the defeat of his brother, who’d gone evil. That was the day he went neutral, refusing to be part of the fight anymore.”

“How can you be sure he still has it?” Elisa asked, pausing in her search.

“Ali Baba?” Red scoffed. “He’s never lost a single item, aside from this dagger.”

“And now he’ll be having that dagger back,” a voice said. One of the suits of armor stepped forward, sword raised.

I was closest to the armor, and had my sword at the ready, so went to meet it. The armor was quick, thrusting and cleaving, and even with Red joining in and darting about as she did, it was hard to keep this bastard at bay.

When the doors burst open, a man and woman rushed in with pistols drawn. The woman, who I assumed must be Morigana, wore a scarf over her head, her clothes bright and flashy. The man had a darker, more thuggish look about him and looked too young to be Ali Baba so I figured it must be his son. Hekate flung out her hands and the shots that came from those pistols went flying left into the hallway walls, and then Sharon was pouncing, engaging the man and knocking his pistol to the ground. Red went for the woman in a flash, cloak blocking my view for a moment, but I was still busy fighting the suit of armor anyway.

When Pucky joined me, I managed to step back and catch my breath, and saw that Morgiana was actually holding her own against Red. The man, however, was having a harder time with Sharon, who was half-wolf at that point.

Pucky backed the armor into a corner and fired a point-blank blast from her rifle. The shot dented part of the armor to the extent that anyone in there would’ve been dead.

But it still kept fighting.

“He’s not in there,” Pucky said as she stepped back, parrying a blow with her rifle.

At first I didn’t register what she’d said, but then I noticed a movement in the reflection from a nearby mirror—not movement of a person, but of a shadow. I spun and grabbed a lamp, lifting it to lug it in the direction of the shadow, when a voice shouted, “No, not the lamp!”

Everyone froze, staring at the spot as a hat was lifted and placed on an invisible head.

“Who are you?” the voice demanded.

“Myths,” Elisa replied, standing with hands at the ready. “And you must be Ali Baba himself?”

There was a brief silence, and then he said, “Ah, yes. I nodded, forgot that I was invisible. You’re here to steal from me, but you claim you’re Myths. Explain yourselves.”

“Don’t bother, father,” the man in the hallway said, at that moment pinned to the floor by Sharon in wolf form. “Last I checked, this is the Big Bad Wolf, and she’s no Myth.”

“She is now,” I said, and when they all turned to me, a gasp came from the direction of Ali Baba. A glance down and I saw that my sword was shining as if in response to their challenge of our Myth status.

“That… the sword… Excalibur?”

I held it high. “It is.”

“And how did you come about it? More importantly… would you be willing to make a trade? Anything but the scepter.”

“None of your business, and no.”

“Then we have nothing to discuss.”

“You’re invisible,” Elisa said, stepping forward now and lowering her hands. “I’m going to make the assumption that it was done via a curse. Maybe some item you have here?”

Silence.

“What if I told you we could break your curse?” Elisa went on. “Would that be worth the scepter to you?”

“You… can do this?” The hope in his voice gave him away.

“Do we have a deal?” She thrust out her hand toward the hat, and a second later the hat was next to her, her hand moving up and down.

“You break this curse, and as much as I hate to part with such a valuable item… it’s yours.”

“This will hurt,” Elisa said, and motioned to me. “Sorry, but we’ll be needing that shirt.”

I handed it over, figuring this was a worthy cause. She told him to put it on, after warning him that it would hurt, but he still screamed in agony as he tried.

Morgiana threw Red aside and took a step forward,