by Jamie Hawke
I went to the wall, focused, and put up my hand. This time, while my hand didn’t glow and open the wall magically, the screen returned. It showed an option for “open,” so I selected it and waited.
Sure enough, my hand glowed and a door appeared. It opened inward, clunking my aunt in the head. I cringed, gently moved her out of the way as I whispered an apology, and then made my way up the steps.
73
This time, I was too freaked to bother caring about how far the stairs went or how exhausted I was. I pushed on, excitement starting to take over. As horrible as this situation was, I not only had magic, but it seemed I’d had some form of it all along. Being told you’re crazy, or have a learning disability, only to find out it’s not that at all, but a subtle form of magic? Brilliant.
Steph’s voice came from below, more indistinct the farther I went, and then there was banging, smashing. Crashing.
I was at the end of the stairs, though, and found a wooden end to the staircase. Pushing up on it, I found that it opened up onto the roof. While I failed to see how this would be the safest place, there was no denying that my aunt had been telling me to go this way.
If not for the sounds of destruction below, this would have been the most beautiful, peaceful spot in the whole city. My aunt had the place decorated with a rooftop garden complete with a gazebo and gates covered in vines, and all of it looked out over D.C. On one side, I saw the National Cathedral, lit up in a way that made it look almost purple. A cold wind tousled my hair, making me wish that I had grabbed my jacket from my room.
A laugh escaped my lips as I considered how silly it was to be concerned over a jacket with everything else that was going on. Then again, what the hell really was happening? My girlfriend had turned out to be some sort of demon or something like that, she’d brought others like herself into my aunt’s home, and killed my aunt?
The door slammed shut behind me. I jumped and took a few steps back, causing me to run into one of the vine-covered gates. I ducked around it, wanting to get away from that trap door before they came up after me, and spun around searching for ways down from here.
But, as I turned, I came face-to-face with a beautiful woman, mere inches away. Staggering back in confusion, I hit my head on the gate this time and cursed. When I looked again, I realized the woman was nothing more than a statue. A beautifully carved statue, but merely stone. And not exactly a woman, either, or not just a woman, I should say. The stone curved back from her head in what looked like four horns, under which were pointed ears. Her body was mostly on display, with what looked like stone armor and a loincloth covering key spots. She also had a spaded tail, along with great wings.
She was terrifying, and amazing.
So much so, that staring at this simple statue had almost made me forget the immediate threat. Banging on the hatch shook me from the moment, so I ducked behind the statue while hurriedly glancing around for options.
From what I could see, there were none.
That meant I could face a group of murderous demons—at best this being my delusional state taking over and they were simply regular, human murderers—or I could jump. I ran to the edge of the roof, glanced over, and decided that was the worst of the two options. While I wasn’t too high up to survive the fall, I would likely break something. And then where would I be? Lying there, crippled, while Steph and her gang came after me. At least on the rooftop I could fight, and maybe my new powers would help me.
My hand reached as I grew dizzy. Heights had never been my thing. Feeling stone under my touch, I glanced over to see that my hand was on the shoulder of another one of these stone ladies. Gargoyles, I decided. This one was perched at the edge of the roof, looking out as if to defend the house from evil.
More banging on the hatch, and this time part of it splintered away.
I moved back away from the edge of the roof, back to the first gargoyle statue, figuring that if I stood behind her, at least they might try to attack the statue first, not realizing it wasn’t real, leaving me with the opportunity for a sneak attack.
Another attack sent the hatch flying off its hinges. Go time.
Speaking of attacks, I needed to see if I had any options here. As holding up my hand had worked before, I did the same again here and found my screen floating in front of me, just off from the gargoyle’s head. Maybe I didn’t need to do it this way, and my aunt likely hadn’t needed to, but the screen helped me process what was going on.
It listed several options, but others were blurred out, new screen options blurred as well. Meaning, there was room to grow, room to discover what I was capable of. If I lived long enough.
The one that caught my attention, though, as I leaned forward, other hand against the statue’s wing, was an option that showed upon contact. It read, “Awaken.”
My eyes shifted from the screen to the statue, narrowing as I wondered if this could be for real. Could I activate inanimate objects, like making a warrior of this statue? My own golem, in a sense?
“Jericho, it’s time for the walls to come tumbling down,” Steph called, knowing I hated that shit. For the first time since meeting her, the stupid saying actually kind of made sense.
A head appeared, looking about, not seeing me yet, luckily. I thought they would spot the screen, but apparently that was for my eyes only. The figure started to climb up to the rooftop, another behind, it, and I was able to see that these were not normal people. They wore red hoods with red, glowing eyes visible in the darkness beneath, and spiked armor that looked like it had come straight out of a Medieval Times show, the sort that would only be worn by the villains. Each carried swords that had small skulls on the hilts, adding to the name that came to mind for them: death knights.
Steph emerged after the first two death knights, and she had changed. Her hair was now white, her eyes glowing red. I don’t know when she had time to put on another outfit, but she wore a black and red dress that went well with the death knights. Her hand sparked as she looked around, then an orange fire erupted, and her eyes locked on mine.
Shit. I didn’t hesitate any longer, selecting ‘Awaken’ from my screen, and cringing as I waited to see what would happen. Nothing did.
“This is what it’s come to?” Steph said, stepping toward me as more of her death knights followed, along with two others like her—a man and a woman, both looking older than her, maybe in their thirties. She paused, one arm crossed over her body, the other with hand up, fingers moving as she played with fire. “Give it to me, and we’ll leave.”
“Give…?” Maybe it should have come as a relief that I was suddenly much more confused than scared. “Is this some sort of sick, sexual game for you?”
“What?” Her eyes flashed bright and she growled. “Not—no, I don’t mean your cock, you fucking pervert. Give me the Liahona!”
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.” I stepped out of hiding, hands up to show her I wasn’t a threat. “Call this off, go home. Maybe this is all a dream, I don’t know, but it needs to stop.”
“A dream?” She laughed. “A fucking dream? J, if this was a fucking dream, my mouth would still be around your cock. Do you see my mouth around your cock? No. So, wake the fuck up and tell me where it is!”
I wanted to say, ‘in my pants,’ as my response would’ve been to Steph any time before this strange experience. But, I knew she was referring to whatever strange object she was looking for, and I had no idea what that was or where it would be.
When I shook my head, she threw fire my way. A small ball of fire that surely would’ve taken out an eye or worse, had I not dodged back behind the statue. It hit stone, and there was a rumbling sound. The rooftop shook slightly, and Steph’s team looked around in confusion.
She, however, hadn’t broken her focus. “Tell me where to find the Liahona.”
“What the fuck, Steph?” I shouted, scrambling back past the statue, behind another gate. “This isn’t funny!”
“Do I look lik
e I’m laughing?”
Hands snatched me up, the man who had been with her with his face inches from my own, and then we were moving through the shadows, him pinning me down in front of Steph. He was tall but wiry, with more pronounced cheekbones than looked natural, and a sickly yellow shade to his eyes.
“Best give her what she wants, boy,” the man said, and then pulled back as Steph and the other woman—wiry hair and eyes of all black—leaned over me.
“Last chance.” Steph pointed at me with long, red fingernails. Almost claws. The fire was moving between her fingers as if it had a life of its own. “Give me the Liahona, or die.”
Another rumbling, this time enough to create a crack in the roof, and cause the wiry-haired woman to lose her footing and stumble back, falling on her ass. The death knights took up positions around Steph, and she turned, eyes narrowing.
For a few more seconds the rumbling continued, then all eyes turned, and I pushed myself up to see what had drawn their attention. There in the garden, the gargoyle statue I’d hidden behind glowed purple, light shining from cracks in the stone. The cracks spread and a heartbeat later the stone broke off, shooting out as the female beneath burst free, eyes glowing for a moment before the magic light faded and she was left standing there, glaring our way.
A beautiful, in the flesh, real-life gargoyle.
74
“What’s the meaning of this?” the gargoyle asked in a soft, sensual voice. It was hard not to notice her barely-covered body, even as terror filled me. Her long, black, wavy hair fell over one shoulder. Her smooth skin had a slightly purple tint to it, and her horns and wings were red. Large breasts were held only by armor, the loincloth falling into place where it was needed below. She wore armor on her legs, forming at the feet into what looked almost like stilettos, but I imagined might have to do with a gargoyle’s foot shape.
I kept telling myself that it had been me who woke her, so there was no reason to be afraid. But, that didn’t stop the terror from seizing hold, even more so than when I saw Steph with her new magic and her retinue of death knights.
Instead of answering the gargoyle’s question, Steph attacked with her fire. The flames around her hand shot out in three bursts. Her death knights raised their swords and moved forward as the gargoyle rolled out of the way of the first two shots. The third hit the backside of one of her wings, but only singed it lightly before dying out.
A growl escaped the gargoyle as she stood and thrust out a hand but… nothing happened. She seemed confused, then glanced back at her wings, seemingly equally confused, and let out a groan as the first death knight’s sword came down on her. Suddenly, as if purely on instinct, the gargoyle became a fighting machine. She dodged the blade and came up with claws that tore into the man, tail whipping around to stab at his throat, wings flailing to catch a gust of wind and pull her back and out of the way of three more blasts.
The expression of anger and confusion on her face was priceless, and I almost felt bad for the death knights as she tucked her wings, diving back in to give them hell. Two vanished in puffs of smoke from her attacks, but the third managed to knock her back, sword raised. She spun, sweeping out his legs and snatching his sword, then plunged it into the knight’s face, causing him and his sword to puff out of existence.
“What magic is this?” the man next to me demanded, staring wide-eyed at me.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Steph cut in, angered, as she threw another burst of fire. “The boy doesn’t have this kind of power, and the searcher is dead.”
Searcher? I assumed she meant my aunt but had no idea what was meant by the title. Then again, it seemed there was a whole lot I hadn’t known about her.
“A mage in the mix?” the woman asked, pulling a wand from her cloak and turning, eyes darting about.
Meanwhile, the gargoyle managed to dodge around the death knight and pounced in our direction.
“Figure it out later,” Steph said, moving her hand in a strange pattern and creating a shield of flames that caused the gargoyle to change her trajectory, going for the man instead of Steph.
The gargoyle plowed into him, lifting him, and while dark shadows began to pool around his hands, she threw him from the roof. Next, she was on the woman, who shouted words I didn’t understand and flicked her wand, sending the gargoyle back with a black and green explosion.
A grunt, and the gargoyle was back at it, this time going for me. Both Steph and the witch watched this in confusion, neither moving as the gargoyle shouted in my face and attempted to swipe me with her claws. Only, she stopped with them an inch from my neck, sniffed me, and looked at me with curiosity.
“We’re getting out of here,” she said and rolled, grabbing me as she went, coming up on the other side and running with me held in her arms. Magic hit her and she almost stumbled. A death knight appeared a second later and nearly landed a blow on her, but then we were off, soaring through the air.
Not flying, I noticed, but gliding.
“The other one,” I blurted out, realizing what was happening. “Your sister, or friend, or—”
“What?”
“She’s back there, on the roof! They’ll destroy her!”
The gargoyle looked at me in her arms, growled, and then adjusted course, flying back to land on a balcony one level below.
“You. Stay.” She turned and leaped, claws digging into the side of the house, and started to climb back up to rejoin the fight. If we could wake the other one, I figured we had a shot at taking Steph and the others down.
Only problem was, I was apparently being left out of the fight.
“I have to come,” I blurted out. “You need me to wake her.”
She paused, glanced back, and asked, “It was you? You woke me?”
I nodded.
“Well then, great mage, hop on. I’ll need you up there.”
For some reason, I was smiling as I ran forward and jumped. Her tail hooked me under the arm and pulled me up so that I was on her back. The enemy hadn’t realized that we had come back yet, apparently, because they were still shouting at each other about letting us get away.
There we were, climbing back into the thick of it like idiots.
“It’s witch, actually,” I mumbled.
“What?”
“I just… nothing.” Thinking it over, ‘mage’ did sound cooler, even if my game screen said I was a witch. “Just, I’m only a level one mage, so…”
“Your words are gibberish.”
“I mean, I’m not very powerful.”
“But you woke me, meaning you’re powerful enough. Worthy of saving Avalon, I’d wager.”
As we reached the top, my mind spun with confusion over the words she’d just said, but the fact that we were about to charge back in against an enemy who seemed likely to kill me took precedence on my worry meter.
“What spells do you have?” she whispered.
I frowned, held up my hand, and looked over my screen. Aside from stats there was a passive skill called ‘Searcher,’ just like Steph and her friends had referred to my aunt, but otherwise, there was nothing.
“Stop that, you look like a fool.” She glanced around, sticking low, wings folded against her back. “Tell me, what spells?”
“I’m checking,” I hissed, trying to find out how to access other screens, hoping I was wrong. Giving in, I said, “Right now, none.”
“That doesn’t make sense. You said you were a mage.”
“I… yes. But only level one. And I imagine I have to learn the spells, don’t I?”
With a nod, she pursed her lips. “I can’t believe you lived long enough to make it this far. How did you wake me?”
“I… touched you.”
Her left eyebrow arched, the corner of her lip going up, but then the coldness returned as she gestured toward the edge of the roof. “Stay out of the way until we’re ready. I’ll charge over, distract them in battle, while you wake the other. Think you can handle that?”
�
�Yes.” I projected confidence, in spite of the many deaths of me running through my mind. A fireball through the face, green magic turning me into a pile of dust, or whatever the hell that man was capable of, if the fall hadn’t taken him out of the fight. Then there were the two or three remaining death knights and their swords. How could I forget about them, when the threat of my head being chopped off loomed over me?
To my horror, she was already slinking along the roof, to the left of where I had first awoken her, leaving me with a clear shot for the other one. I did a quick scan to confirm it was the only other gargoyle statue up there, then crouched, legs ready to sprint.
A roar filled the night and she was on them—throwing a death knight from the roof and leaping to dig her claws into the witch. That was it, my chance. I sprinted all-out, making for the statue, and reached it as the gargoyle flew off the witch, taking a chunk of flesh with her. The witch was screaming, flinging hexes left and right without a target, and then I saw why—the gargoyle had not only torn flesh, but managed to scratch out her eyes. Damn.
Steph, meanwhile had her shield of fire again, shooting flames at the gargoyle while the last two of her death knights took up a defensive position. If they’d given up the offense, that meant we were looking good.
“Steph!” I shouted, reaching for the other gargoyle, smiling. “Let’s see how well you hold up against two of them!”
My fingers touched the hand of the second gargoyle as Steph cursed and waved her hand to make her last two death knights vanish, then her. The witch was still there, moving her head about as she tried to work out what was happening, while the gargoyle was back up and preparing to pounce, but looking my way as I awoke the other.
I held up a hand for the screen as before. Only, this time the ‘Awake’ option wasn’t there. In fact, it showed an image of a gargoyle in the upper right of the screen, along with what looked like a depleted mana bar.
