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

how that works out for you. Assign your Ichor like this…” She motioned to the screen and started moving through options, then indicating the class section, highlighting Warrior for me. It lit up and I clicked the accept option. “And then assign your prana in areas that will support your class.”

“No need for mana then?” I asked, kind of let down by that thought. As much as I wanted to be the baddest warrior in town, using magic would be cool.

“Not until we hit those subclasses.” She went for the door, opening it a crack and glancing out. “Come on, hurry.”

As I finished, I felt giddy. It was official—I was on my way to becoming a modern paladin. Chris would never believe this… and unfortunately, I’d never be able to tell him.

“I should tell you this part too, I guess,” Pucky said as I finished and closed the screen, feeling stronger and more badass already. “Ichor will help you upgrade your class with class-specific skills, but later you can use it to bond with a weapon—such as Red with her dagger. Then you can actually level up the weapon, in a sense. It gets complicated, but is damn good fun.”

“You had me at ‘bond with a weapon,’” I said, grinning. If nerdgasms were a thing, I was having a billion at once. I took her by the face, kissed her firmly, and then wrapped my arm around her as we strolled out of the bathroom and nearly knocked over a woman who looked to be in her forties.

She looked from us to the bathroom, then back to us, and said, “Ugh, gross. Get a hotel next time.”

I just laughed. Pucky turned red, as we kept on without another word.

“You know, I’ve never really been on a date,” Pucky said as she led me back out to the entrance, where Red was waiting.

“Does this count?” I asked.

“Should it?”

I thought about it, then shook my head. “If we don’t die, I’ll take you on a real one.”

“Deal,” she said, wrapping her arm in mine.

“Eat in the car, folks,” Red said, holding up the doggy bag and gesturing to a car waiting for us. “It’s go kick some bad guy ass time.”

11

As the car sped along I stuffed my face, loving the chimichanga and the memory of what had just happened a few moments ago when I ate my last one. In between mouthfuls, Pucky asked Red to tell us exactly what was going on.

“When they had me, they were talking,” Red said, “and I overheard them bragging about which Myths they’d captured.”

“And?”

“Well, at first I was listening because I know we need to track who we’re going to have to save, if we can ever find their hideout. But then they mentioned a name that got me all wet—”

“Red!” Pucky laughed.

“What, this guy?” she indicated me and grabbed my crotch. “You just gave him head under the table at the restaurant while he was eating a chimichanga. I don’t think he minds my crude mouth.”

I really didn’t, but the grabbing my crotch thing whenever she wanted… was nice but also kinda weird, so I grinned and took her hand. She looked at my hand in hers, blew me a kiss and took her hand back.

“So the name?” I asked, trying to get over that weird moment.

“Right… Elisa.” Red beamed and Pucky put a hand to her mouth.

“We got them,” Pucky said. “Fucking A, it’s legit. We got them.” She turned to the window now, leaning to look up and glance about.

“Can someone explain?” I asked.

“Oh, sorry.” Red turned to me, excitement practically boiling out of her. “Elisa, the Swan Princess.”

Again, nothing.

“For the love of St. Nick,” Red said, shaking her head and laughing. “Listen, noob, here’s the deal. The Swan Princess has her brothers, basically not real brothers anymore, but powerful Fae that take the form of swans and come to her when she beckons them. They can do various things, but in this case we only need them for one very special reason—they’ll guide us right to her.”

“And if they’re keeping her in the hideout, which we hear they are,” Pucky interjected, “we find the local hideout we’ve been searching for, for what? About a year now?”

“Ever since we learned they might be keeping the actual Excalibur somewhere on the West Coast, yeah,” Red replied.

“Wait—”

“Yes, the actual sword of King Arthur.”

“Fuckkkk,” I said, totally giddy now, also leaning out over and looking up at the sky.

“So Mowgli and the others,” Pucky said, “they were confirming that, and checking with the locations of the swans?”

“Right, and following up on another lead, along with ensuring it wasn’t BS. From what I hear, the Swan Princess has been playing them for some time now, undercover as Maleficent. But it’s true, her cover’s been blown.”

“And the real Maleficent?” I asked.

“Oh, we’ve got her deep in the dungeons.” Red chuckled, and I had a feeling she was both involved with capturing the woman and very glad they had done so.

“There!” Pucky said, and sure enough, the sky lit up with a ray of sun as the clouds parted, white streams of them forming into what looked like swan-shaped clouds at first, and then there really were swans gliding along, leading us west of our current location.

“Follow those birds,” Red told the driver, and then we were off in pursuit.

“What do I need to expect here?” I asked. “More of the same?”

“Worse,” Pucky said. “They’ll have some sort of guardian for sure, especially since if this is one of their actual fortresses, they’ll have at least one magical item. Our hope is Excalibur, but that’s a high-ticket item.”

“Right, King Arthur, you mentioned him before.” I took a moment, trying to wrap my head around it all. “He was real. And… like the stories say?”

Red guffawed. “Sorry, it’s that no—none of the reality was exactly like the story versions.”

“And in this case,” Pucky turned to me, hand on my leg, “brace yourself… Arthur went dark.”

“No…” Every cartoon