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

of response, reminding me that nature and the world had its own beauty, its own sense of awe.

My cheeks were warm, ears itching, both at once, causing me to turn to my parents and see them staring at me in shock.

“It’s happening, then,” my mom said, simply.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“The fight. The battle, or whatever.”

“Magic,” my dad said. “That’s what this is, right?”

“Yes,” I replied, slowly, uncertainly. “But… why aren’t you freaking out?”

“My sister—I mean, Gertrude, came to us,” my mom explained. “She explained that she was dying, and what had happened, including about how we’d become estranged and why it was necessary. It was like this, but in a shared dream. You know us, being spiritual, when we both realized it was shared, we were on board.”

“Hard to believe, but… you’re here.” My dad cocked his head. “Sort of.”

“Right, sort of.” I chuckled. “I’m still in D.C., technically. And all that prep-work you two had me do? Kind of useless in my current predicament, I gotta say.”

My mom laughed and tried to playfully hit my arm, but her hand went through me. “The point is to always be ready.”

“Always be ready,” I said, repeating the words she had often used as an excuse for getting me to try all manner of sports, chess camps, and programming classes growing up. “Why couldn’t you have had me ready with survival training, or hand-to-hand combat? Stuff like that?”

She scrunched her nose. “Too violent.”

My dad grunted. “Ironic, we know.”

“I came to check on you, that’s all. See that you’re safe, and well.”

“And you?”

“Safe?” I grunted in a ‘safe as can be’ sort of way.

“Well, stay that way. We might not have been the best parents while you were growing up, but we’ve been talking a lot on this trip… and someday, when this is over and you’re ready, we’d like to try to make up for that.”

“Really?” I asked, shaking my head. “A dollar short, or something like that.”

“You’re still breathing, and so are we,” my mom countered.

“As long as neither of us gives up, we win,” I said, remembering what Mizoa had said. With that, I nodded. “I’d like us to spend some time together. Like you said, when this is over.”

“Stay safe,” my dad said as I felt myself starting to fade.

“You too,” I replied, and then I was back in the tunnel, ready to find my team and get the next stage of this battle moving.

138

I rarely lingered around Aerona when she was stone, maybe because I hadn’t, until very recently, been as intimate with her. Now that I had, I paused, gazing up at her, and realized her stone form had the same gold tint to it that her skin had when she was mobile. Running the back of my fingers along her cheek, it felt smooth, more like actual gold or some other sort of metal with a golden gleam.

“There you are,” Steph said as she entered the room.

“Hey. You ever notice—”

“How she’s different?” Steph nodded. “My guess is it’s because she was there longer, in Avalon. The magic affected the stone.”

I nodded, rubbing my chin. I could buy that, but still would have liked more of the picture. That could be a conversation for another time, though, so I went over to Steph, kissed her, and glanced around at the other two stone gargoyles. Shisa was sleeping at Kordelia’s feet—which was ironic, because the lion-dog didn’t need sleep, as far as I knew. Maybe he was becoming more ‘real’ the longer he was alive, or maybe he just liked the idea of sleep and was pretending.

“Where’s Megha?” I asked, glancing around.

“Went to get supplies,” Steph replied. “Groceries and whatnot, I think? Should be back soon.”

“Smart,” I noted. “We should probably have a system for that.”

“Details. I think that, at the Senator’s house, it won’t be a problem.”

I chuckled at that, thinking about the style of life people like senators likely had, a level above anything I had ever been exposed to.

Something moved out of the corner of my eye and I turned to see Shisa there, watching us.

“Waking time for some,” Steph said. “Good boy.”

“Oh, you’ve decided Shisa’s male, too?”

She laughed. “Of course, he is!”

The magic of watching the waking gargoyles was never lost on me, and I was certain it never would be. First Ebrill broke free, the blue magic of it lingering in her eyes a moment before fading to reveal the loving look she often graced me with when she awoke. Then came Kordelia, who broke free as if escaping a prison—throwing her stone aside and roaring. Aerona was last.

“What did we miss?” Ebrill asked.

I filled them in and they shared worried looks, annoyed as always that they had to miss what was happening during the day. Nothing we could do about that yet, though. They agreed we needed to ensure I wasn’t left alone like that too often, and we moved to see if Megha was back so we could eat. On the way, though, I pulled Aerona aside, lingering in the room.

“What is it?” she asked, as a worried expression crossed her face.

I’ve been thinking,” I said, hand pulling Aerona close. “I want to make it up for you.”

“Make wha—oh!” Her smile showed she had caught on. My hand moving down her back and grabbing a handful of ass helped drive the point home. “Now?”

“I’m up for it.”

She licked her lips, hand grabbing my crotch. “Really?”

I laughed. “Not literally, yet, but… that’s a good halfy you’re feeling there, you know. My soldier sometimes waits to commit until he knows there’ll be a true battle to be had.”

“Did you just say your penis was going to battle my vagina?”

“When you say it like that…” I grimaced. “I’ll just show myself to the door.”

Pride hurt, I started to turn and go, but she squeezed a bit firmer on my package, shaking her head. “Oh, no, you don’t. You owe me.”

“I do.”

Our lips met, my hands caressing her golden skin, but I pulled back.

“What?”

“Is