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

Pucky chuckled as she walked by, looking me over too. “You are looking hot,” she admitted, and winked.

“I’m not just a piece of meat,” I called after them, then stiffened as Red slapped my ass and Sharon and Elisa chuckled.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was just a piece of meat to them—that was fine, because when this was over, I was going to remind them that I was the finest quality meat they’d ever tasted.

But yeah, fighting an undead army first. Yay.

35

It wasn’t until we reached the entrance to another room—much larger and too dark to see the ceiling or far wall, filled with more intricately designed pillars—that Bastet hissed and Sekhmet held up a hand.

“Be wary,” she said. “Isis has waged war on me… it’s here she’ll attack.”

“Isis?” I asked, confused. “Wasn’t she the goddess of birth or something?”

“Originally, yes—fertility and healing. Until she became corrupt, ran off with my lover and, well…” Sekhmet took a deep breath, lioness eyes flashing in anger as she worked to regain her composure. “It was nasty, the way she’d slaughter others, such as Luasaas, Mut-Shet, and more, to take on their powers and become the monster she is today. She swore an oath to destroy me and absorb my Ichor as well.”

“So getting out of here is as much an escape mission for you as it is for us to get you out so you can help track down Morganna?”

She shrugged. “Win-win, as you say.”

The cat gave me a curt glance, then moved toward the entrance to the room. She paused, lifting her paw to touch what had been an invisible wall but now shimmered purple and green.

“Are we ready?” Sekhmet asked. “Once we go through this barrier, all hell will break loose.”

“Ready,” Red said.

Elisa was about to answer, when I raised a hand. “This Isis… Dark hair, covered in tattoos that glow?”

“She can take on many forms,” Sekhmet replied, looking at me with curiosity. “But yes, that would be her base form. You’ve met?”

“Only briefly,” I replied with a shudder, noting the knowing look from Pucky. “I’d be just fine never meeting her again.”

“I can’t promise that, but I’ll be sure to tear her throat out first chance I get, if that makes you feel any better.”

“Actually,” looking at her, I had to admit, “it does.”

“Let’s get to it then,” Elisa said, nodding to Excalibur and reminding me to draw the sword, while the others armed themselves as well.

“If she comes a-knocking, I’ll have something for her,” Hekate said with a grin, strolling past the rest of us to join the cat, hand up and fire sparking to life from her fingertips.

“Something tells me I’m going to like you bunch,” Sekhmet said, and then nodded to Bastet.

The cat pushed her paw through, purple magic of the doorway matching her own, and giving me the impression that the barrier had been of her doing and not the other way around. As the barrier faded, a thud like bass dropping hit, then the pillars began to come to life.

“Quickly now!” Sekhmet roared, and we were charging out.

When I say the pillars came to life, I don’t mean they literally did… but the images carved onto them did. Skeleton warriors clad in gold and carrying curved blades leaped out, alongside mummies and winged cats.

Working our way out of the tomb was like shrinking down and charging through a hornet’s nest. Dark magic was clearly at work here, and by that I mean the type that had watched too many Saturday morning cartoons. Armies of skeletons and mummies, bones clattering and groans echoing lurched into view. Spiders and what I had to assume were flesh-eating beetles crawled out of the walls, and this time it wasn’t in our minds, no illusions here. Now that Sekhmet and Bastet weren’t keeping the darkness at bay, it was throwing all manner of evil at us.

And then we clashed.

First came the skeletons, bones blasting apart or bursting into flames as we hit them with shots and spells. My sword did a number on them, cutting through bone and leaving them writhing on the floor behind us as we progressed.

My arms grew tired as I tore through skeletons and mummies, each swing of Excalibur starting to weigh down on me. Halfway through the room Hekate sent a new wave of snakes and spiders running with walls of flame, but one made it through. I lifted the sword to take a swing, but the energy simply wasn’t there. If not for a well-placed shot from Pucky’s rifle, which caused the snake’s head to explode even as it lunged for me, I would’ve been in trouble.

I kicked out at a skeleton that came around the next pillar, dodged another’s sickle, then came up and threw my weight into a spinning attack that managed to get my sword into position to stop a mostly-decomposed mummy whose unraveling bandages weren’t staying on in the slightest.

“That’s hardly the worst of it,” Sekhmet said, seeing my exhaustion and frowning in frustration. “You’re sure you’re the Protector?”

“I just started,” I confessed moving forward at her side and annoyed that I had to admit to that at a time like this.

She looked slightly worried, but to her credit said nothing more on the subject. At least, not until a line of light coming from a hole in the ceiling was blocked out by a flying form.

“Whatever you know or don’t know, it’s time to pull up your big boy pants,” Sekhmet said. “She’s here.”

Those wings were clear when passing overhead again, and the flashback of the woman clawing at me in the oasis was enough to give me strength to lift Excalibur. In fact, I realized that her presence—or maybe the fear or excitement of facing her here—was causing my tattoos to glow bright again, and this in turn gave me strength.

Noticing my curious glance down, Elisa took a stance next to me, calling on her brothers so that