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

eyes from a distance, growing closer with each second. We were using the connection to her to magically travel to her. In the meantime, I was very much aware of Megha sensing another force, of Glitonea arriving, of runes throughout the house lighting up in defense.

As Megha stumbled into the yard, house walls giving way for her at my command, she looked up to see Glitonea high above, purple light floating about her, caressing her, runes glowing and more runes of light appearing in the sky around her, cancelling out those of the house. Walls crumbled as explosions sounded from far off.

Screeching sounded first, then a burst of fire and ice as witches shot out of the crumbling building, going for Glitonea. The two forces, them versus her, were a spinning burst like a firework show, while Megha had picked herself up and summoned a new monster, charging into the fight at the outskirts when she could.

“Megha!” I shouted, coming in hot on Yenifer’s back. Riding like that was truly a rush.

Laughter echoed across the grounds, followed by screams and then an explosion of light. Megha and one of her creatures went flying away from the blast, although mid-fall she summoned a bulbous creature that absorbed her mad descent and sent her rebounding off it to return to the fight. The creature vanished as she began a new summoning. A moment later, Megha was laughing, riding on the shoulders of one of her titans, hands in its brain. The thing charged through enemies, spinning and clobbering, while she glanced my way and grinned.

“Come to join in the fun?” she asked.

“You know it,” I replied, and prepared my elemental strikes while watching Yenifer leap in to go up against some of the witches in the back.

I turned, Liahona ready if needed, and put my hand to the ground in search of Fatiha. As if in response, the ground opened up and Glitonea was thrust out, spinning in the air as she grappled three glowing red beasts. They vanished as one of her runes flared, and the ground filled back up, blocking the way to Fatiha. The witches pulled back for a moment, chanting and clearly readying a new attack.

“Welcome back!” Glitonea said. “Oh, and you brought him!”

“He’s my boo,” Megha said with a wink, then charged through the room on her titan, making the place shake and bringing down walls around her.

“When we last saw each other, you didn’t like me much,” Glitonea said, runes lighting up and purple shooting out to strike down two enemies. “Like me now?”

“For the moment,” I replied, and ran in to join the fight.

The two were tearing down opponents left and right as I braced myself with staff raised. A wave of shadow creatures came my way and I had lightning and fire shooting through the ranks, while Yenifer pounced to take on another group.

My XP shot up, and when I turned next to strike I took Fatiha with a bolt in the chest, and got a level up. The screen flashed to show me my stats, but I didn’t have time to look at it because Fatiha had redirected her attack at me.

Apparently, striking her had given away my position, although that was fine by me. I’d rather her come at me than any of my friends or lovers. And come she did, cackling and shooting out flames and all manner of other magic from her bag of skills and also from those she had absorbed. I could feel, even sort of see, the power of each strike, only kept alive because of my new mental runes and connection to Mizoa back at the mansion.

Finally, Fatiha paused in her assault. Where I thought she might be frustrated, she just smiled.

“Thank you,” Fatiha said, and then vanished.

“What was that?” I said, turning, looking around for her.

No answer, as Yenifer landed next to me, crouched and ready. God, I sometimes forgot how huge she was, but her crouching next to me made me feel that much safer and confident. I motioned for her to follow me, and we went looking for more adversaries to do battle with.

“There should be more than this,” I said, charging through the coven, looking for more to do battle with, searching for Fatiha. “Where are they all?”

Fatiha’s haunting laugh came in response.

“You’ve stolen something from me. Surprised me in your ability to pull that off, but let’s be honest, it’s more about your team than you, isn’t it?”

“Wrong,” I countered. “My team is me.”

She scoffed. “That’s where we differ. And soon, you won’t have much of a team left.”

Judging by the glee in her voice, she meant something by that.

Riland, I sent a message back to him. Everything okay at the house?

Under siege, was his response.

“Megha!” I called out, waving over to Yenifer, realizing Fatiha had tracked the magic as we had suspected she might be able to. She had let us come here to take this chance, knowing we would leave the house that much more vulnerable. Why she found it so important, though, we would have to find out later. “The house is being attacked!”

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On the way back to the house, I opted for riding with Megha on one of her strange creatures, with Yenifer taking up the rear and fighting off the winged beasts they sent to slow us down. Mizoa and Glitonea lingered, scavenging for loot in the form of more magical artifacts, and putting up a fight to mask our escape.

“Hope it was worth it,” Megha said.

Arms wrapped tight around her petite form, the scent of her—like hazelnut coffee, at the moment—strong in my nose, all I could do was agree. We really had no clue how much closer this would take us to finding the other stones or more of my gargoyles’ cursed friends. Since Fatiha had let us in, seemingly with the intention of gambling that she could attack our house in the meantime while all this was going on, I had to