Myths and Gargoyles Jamie Hawke (i read a book .TXT) 📖

It wasn’t only me moving, I realized. Somehow, Fatiha was pushing forward, moving through the magic of the curse. She was growing in form but in a way that made her seem like shadows and blurred light. My first instinct was to attempt stuns and other spells, but nothing worked. They all fizzled away as soon as the spells hit the magical wind. I tried using my transmutation magic as I had before, but all it did was vibrate through me in a way that let me know what sort of power I was dealing with here.

She was strong, and I was fucked.

Unless… My eyes went to the Liahona in my hands. It was opening this portal, supposedly doing something that would cause the magic of the world to change. If I could redirect some of its power at her, maybe… As I thought it, with my transmutation well already open for access, a blue beam shot out at Fatiha.

Her eyes went wide. The light and shadows faded, flowing through the light and back at me and into the Liahona, until she collapsed just outside the circle of my stone friends.

“No…” she muttered, and then slouched in defeat.

My power told me one thing about her at that moment—she was no longer a threat. I had stolen her magic, and now it was time for me to finish the mission. I went for the doorway that shone like an opening of light, floating there and calling me to it.

As I paused in front of it, the waves crashed again and this time rose, flowing all around me and the portal, surrounding us and carrying Fatiha and the others away. My magic told me that there had been a major shift. I closed my eyes to reach out and feel my surroundings. It was true—the armies of darkness were gone, mostly defeated. Others pulled back and retreated into the shadows and underground even as waves rode over the land, submerging much of it in magical water.

Avalon was no more, although it didn’t seem to have ceased to exist. It was simply not there anymore, not where it had been. It was as if the water had taken all of Avalon to another place. Maybe that would make sense to me in time, but for now, I only knew that I needed to keep my end of the promise.

I clutched the Liahona to my chest with both hands and stepped into the portal.

92

“It’s not a vault,” I said, waking to find the shisa eyeing me, Ebrill and Steph both standing over me. “It opens the way to Avalon. A magical land, where—”

“Where Rianne will be waiting,” Ebrill said, eyes flooding with excitement as memories hit her.

“You remember?” I asked.

She nodded. “The rest of us… couldn’t make it back. When Avalon vanished, only she stayed.”

“And the attack here?” I asked, realizing that all was quiet. “What happened?”

“On pause,” Steph said. “Although it might be the calm before the storm.”

“Is that… it?” Ebrill stepped toward me, hand out, eyes on the Liahona.

“It is.” First, I connected with the building and moved our protective layer aside to get a good view around. No attacks came. In fact, it was a peaceful night. The moon shone large above and the twinkling lights of a business not far off reminded me that some people were simply going about their lives while mine had been completely thrown on its head.

I took a step toward the statue of Kordelia, memories flashing of the real her, and how odd it had been that I hadn’t known her at all when I went to sleep. So much had changed, while here it seemed that barely any time had passed. With a glance back at them, I held up the Liahona. “We’re ready?”

Ebrill nodded, then Steph. The shisa nudged my leg, reminding me that it was there. I scratched it behind the ears, impressed with how soft its fur was, then pulled up my screen. In part it was to get this going, and also to move my focus away from how creepily large the shisa’s red eyes were. My screen had the option to wake Kordelia, so I selected it.

Blue light glowed from the ball in my hands, then from her as the stone started to crack. Ebrill moved up next to me, hand on my shoulder, and the power flared. In an instant, Kordelia was free! She rose from the stone, roared as she stretched, and then turned to me, the blue light fading from her as she became a normal gargoyle.

Her eyes met mine, and she considered me. “Seems you were destined for greatness after all. What is this place?”

“The future,” I replied. “And… in a sense, Gertrude’s house. My aunt… I thought.” Turning to Ebrill, I added, “But—”

“She died,” Ebrill replied with a nod. “And yet, she was here…”

“My guess,” Steph chimed in, earning her a confused look from Kordelia, “is that although she died in our timeline, it didn’t affect the actual past where she once lived. Our timeline isn’t affected by going back in time, in a strange way.”

“So… not following the Back to the Future-style travel at all,” I said. Now both Kordelia and Ebrill were looking at us like we were nuts. I shrugged, realizing there was no way we could explain all of that to them at the moment. “Point is, Gertrude was still alive in my time, until recently. I don’t understand how that’s possible if she died in my past.”

“And you thought she was your aunt?” Kordelia asked.

I nodded.

“Too bad. She was always known to be good in the sack.”

Ebrill hit her playfully. “Don’t tell him stuff like that about his aunt.”

“If she even was his real aunt. We all knew she had no sister, and… judging by this time period, wasn’t from here.”

As far as I could guess at it all, she was right. Gertrude had managed to escape