Stone Cold Mage 2: Of Witches and Gargoyles Read online

  Kordelia tilted her head in consideration, then nodded. “It might be some effect from the magic, I don’t know. But… don’t try to talk me out of this. I’m ready.”

  “No argument here,” Steph said, wrapping her arm through mine. “Should be… fun.”

  “Fun,” Kordelia replied, eyeing the petite woman on my arm with a new hunger. “I want to watch him dominate you.”

  Steph blinked, turned to me, and shrugged with a hint of a smile. I stood tall, not wanting to appear meek or any less of a man in front of Kordelia but having no idea what ‘dominating’ someone really meant. After a quick breath and knowing all eyes were on me, I cast my new staff to one side and stepped forward, kissing Steph passionately and grabbing her by the ass.

  “Agh, too romantic,” Kordelia said, and then grabbed Ebrill by the wrists. The latter smiled wide, into it. Kordelia turned her around, pinning her hands to the wall, and said, “Like this, and then just… do it.”

  I couldn’t help but notice the way Steph watched them excitedly, so I went full into the role. My fingers wrapped around Steph’s wrists and I spun her around, pressing my stiffening cock against her ass as I pinned her hands to the wall. Next, I reached one hand down to lift her skirt and pull down her panties, then free my cock. Kordelia let out a sharp breath at the sight of it, her hands massaging Ebrill as she watched me slide into Steph.

  In that short amount of time, Steph had gotten surprisingly wet. My cock slid in, tight but lubricated, and she reached down and under to grab my balls. I had to help by moving my pants more, and then Ebrill was there helping me. Kordelia ripped my shirt clean off with her nails, so that suddenly I was fully exposed, fucking Steph from behind while two huge gargoyle women caressed the two of us and each other.

  “Now me,” Kordelia said after enough to get her hot and bothered. I slid out, kissing Steph on the neck as I turned to Kordelia and waited to see how she was going to dominate me. It took a second to realize she still wanted me in charge, which felt slightly off considering how large and intimidating she was. But, I supposed that was part of the appeal, so I went with it. I tore her armor off, took one of her breasts and engulfed her nipple, then slapped her ass hard. The cringe that followed as I anticipated retaliation annoyed me, but not enough to break the mood. She was into it, and Ebrill seemed impressed.

  When I tried to shove Kordelia to the bed, she kind of played along, but it was clear my shove hadn’t done shit. Instead, she shrugged and pushed me on the bed—a bit too strongly—and said, “This will be easier.”

  Suddenly, she was on me, wings spread out behind her and flapping as she sank onto my cock, riding me. I was trying to hold my own, at one time sitting and grabbing her huge, muscular ass and working with her, at another with her taking me like a plaything and lifting me to spin me around and have me go at Ebrill for a little while she went to Steph. I wasn’t sure if it was funny or scary that Steph eyed this large gargoyle anxiously, but when both were moaning a moment later, I realized we were all having a blast.

  “You’re doing okay?” Ebrill asked as I slid into her.

  I nodded, getting more into it. “Hopefully nothing’s bruised,” I joked, but then realized it quite possibly could be. It had happened once—down there.

  I quickly expelled the thought, instead focusing on how amazing Ebrill’s hot pussy felt on my cock, how our bodies were moving together with sweat and passion. Someone’s hands moved along my leg and cupped my balls, another massaged her clit so that Ebrill shouted out with bliss a moment later.

  Then I turned back to Kordelia and brought the passion her way, working every trick I could think of to make her cum. When it happened, her body shook and I thought there might have been an actual earthquake. Her fist made a dent in the wall, and then she fell back, still at last.

  Steph took me in her hand, stroking me, loving the feel of my cock, before riding me again. When she had cum twice, she laughed and stepped aside, holding up a hand and saying she couldn’t take anymore.

  Ebrill leaped on me again, mouth going to my balls and hand working my shaft until I came all over her chest. Mid O-face on my part, Aerona burst into the room. She paused only briefly at the sight of us.

  “It’s time.” She turned, hesitated with a glance back, and chuckled. “Nice,” was all she said before charging back out of there, presumably toward the roof. It was as good a place as any to fight.

  We threw on our clothes and I grabbed my staff as we made our way up, me wishing we’d thought this through and had time for a rinse, considering I was all sweaty and smelled like sex. I hoped Ebrill had found some way of dealing with my cum.

  Moving the house as I went, I turned our path into a direct route up onto the roof. We emerged moments later, me with my staff at the ready. I had to be cautious with how often I called upon the Liahona, but the weapon did help me focus, and I could use it as an elemental strike weapon when needed.

  Sure enough, enemies were incoming or already on the roof, waiting. Those damn runes apparently weren’t strong enough. At least the power of the building was keeping them out. In order to amp up our defenses, I set up a few wards with the “Ddogelu” spell, then called out “Tarian” a couple times to direct more defensive boosts at our team.

  Three of those winged creatures from before lunged at me and I knocked them back with an ice claw at one’s throat, saying “Elfenol Streic” to shoot lightning from my staff to take down the next two—but they kept coming! Seeing another go up in flames at Steph’s attack, I went with the flow and called out “Elfenol Streic” again to use fire next. That did the trick. These fuckers weren’t fans of flames.

  Kordelia was a powerhouse, tearing through them and even ripping off one head, at least, tossing it at another and dazing the latter. Ebrill focused on defenses but used her claws more than once, while Aerona had a barrage of magic working on those trying to reach us from above. My XP was rising by the second, to the point that it was coming damn close to another level increase.

  A roar sounded and the moon vanished. No, not vanished, but was blocked out by a large creature with a massive wing-span. A griffon!

  The griffon charged right through the magic, seemingly impervious, and clawed at Kordelia. Next to that thing, she looked downright tiny. I struck with my elemental strike, but the magic attacks only seemed to fuel the beast. As Kordelia struggled to not be torn apart, Ebrill hit her with healing spells fast enough to at least keep her in one piece. Steph’s wraith knights charged the griffon, but they seemed to run right through it, vanishing on impact.

  “What is that thing?” I shouted

  Aerona turned to me with eyes full of worry. “Glitonea—one of the Nine.”

  “Fuck,” I said, horrified as the griffon slammed Kordelia with a blow that sent her flying toward the edge of the roof, only to be attacked by a handful of those other winged creatures. A second later, the same happened to Ebrill.

  I wasn’t about to let another strike land, so I summoned the Liahona, called every attack spell I knew that I thought would work, and aimed with all my power. As below, the barrage of ice claws and other attacks flowed out. This time, however, the target seemed to relish the attack! Even as the griffon grunted in pain, it seemed to grow and then… was laughing?

  “No!” Aerona said as I prepared a second strike.

  “I have to!”

  “She’ll use the magic, target Avalon—you can’t!”

  Damn. If she was right, of course I couldn’t. Instead, I turned and unleashed that power on some of the minions, frying a great many of them. That little outburst shot up my XP, bringing me to level eight. A popup screen read:

  Level 8 MAGE

  Statistics

  Strength: 24

  Speed: 20

  Luck: 16

  Charisma: 15

  Mana: 720

  New Spells

  Gorffwys (sleep); Frost Footing; Ice Wall; Ice Claw; Frost Bite; Flurries; Frost Remnant

  New Magic Type
<
br />   Access to Avalon

  “I have an idea,” I said, remembering that I wanted to try that Frost Remnant spell now that I’d unlocked it, but preferably when the enemy didn’t absorb magic. “Keep her off me.”

  “You got it,” Steph said, summoning all of her wraith knights and sending out a barrage of fireballs while I knelt, my hand on the rooftop.

  Before making my book move, I used another spell that I looked forward to trying. Using the Flurries spell, I watched with glee as a flash of snow shot out and became a snow storm that hit our enemies like a swarm of bees. Each little snowflake became active, attacking the enemy. Nothing too intense, but enough to distract the enemy long enough for my team to take the advantage and me to feel comfortable to make my move.

  Hand on the stone of the roof, my attention moved down through the building, to the basement and below. Into the foundations where I’d left part of the building as a staircase. Finding a location based on feeling like this wasn’t the same as being there, but I managed to get a sense of where the rune was that had been blocked and repaired to fix the magic—now I wanted to do the opposite, though. Using the bit of the house that was acting as a stairwell, I maneuvered it over to the rune and created a blockage again.

  A thud sounded and I looked up to see that Glitonea had crashed onto the rooftop. She was in human form, back arched in pain and eyes wild with confusion. She was an older, lanky woman with the sides of her otherwise purple hair shaved, the top long and pulled back into a braid. Her eyebrows arched in a fierce way that combined with the rune tattoos to give her an intimidating appearance. Purple moved along her in a way that resembled cloth rippling in the wind, only it was attached to her, almost part of her skin. Not much was left for the imagination.

  My gargoyle team made quick work of the what little was left of the enemy, now turning to move in toward Glitonea. Apparently, it only took magic to wake the gargoyles, not keep them awake—since they were mobile, the blockade of magic didn’t put them back into stone. Steph didn’t have her magic or wraith knights at the moment, but the trade was clearly the right move.

  Most of our magic was on pause, in exchange for Glitonea being helpless. She managed to get on all fours, then up to one knee, pointing a finger at me.

  “It’s not going to work,” I said, and grinned. “You are ours now.”

  Fear entered her eyes when, as I’d told her, the magic didn’t come. “H—How…?”

  “My secret.” I strode over, catching her by the wrist as she sprang up and tried to strike me. “Now, we have some questions for you.”

  7

  Keeping the magic of this place turned off for the time being didn’t seem like such a bad idea, at least while Glitonea was present. We brought her to a room that I had turned into a prison cell during a pause on the way down. Actually, being able to transmorph the building meant that after we left, I could make it so there was no door at all—but that might scare the lady to death.

  If that was possible. I wasn’t sure the Nine Ladies could die, or how the details of that would work.

  “You can’t hold me here,” Glitonea growled as Kordelia dragged her into the room. “Do you realize the pain I will bring upon you when this trick you’ve managed has worn off? When my magic returns?”

  “I realize that we’ve captured one of the Nine,” I said, “and that you won’t be the last.”

  She was such a delicate thing in Kordelia’s grasp, struggling helplessly. Now, in the light, it was clear that the purple clothing was some sort of magical situation that kept her clothed and allowed for her to shift into that griffon form. I studied her, wondering how old she must’ve been to be one of the Nine, and then shook the thought away.

  Glitonea glared at us, then spoke to Aerona. “You think I was the only one who sensed the connection to Avalon? Others will be here soon, and they aren’t all as reliant on magic as I am.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  She glared.

  “To be fair,” Steph offered, “I doubt it’s hard for them to figure out where we are at this moment.”

  “A good point,” Ebrill noted. “We’ll have to remedy that, and fast.”

  Glitonea’s glare roamed over each of us in turn. Since Kordelia had released her, she started moving along the walls, hands waving as if checking for spells. When she reached the far wall, she paused, eyes narrowed, and turned to me.

  “How?”

  “You’ll never find out.”

  “Fuck you. You don’t see me, or something?” With that, the purple ‘clothing’ receded and she stood there nude before us, runes glowing on her body. “You might have found a way to cancel out magic, but it’s never complete. Some magic is deeper than whatever this curse is you’ve managed.” She stepped toward me. “But I imagine you know that, don’t you?”

  Kordelia moved into her path. “Make a move. Please.”

  Glitonea’s runes glowed brighter still, but then faded. She cursed, then spat at my feet. “I’ll find a way around this. And when I do, you’ll all be begging for death.”

  On a whim, I stepped around Kordelia and asked, “Why the messenger?”

  “What?”

  “The messenger you sent. Or one of you—what’s the angle there, if you were only going to attack us, anyway?”

  The confusion on the woman’s face as the purple clothing moved back into place was enough of an answer. She had no idea about Galahad, and I purposefully didn’t name him.

  “My turn.” Glitonea eyed Steph. “How is it that you broke free, little birdy?”

  Steph, visibly shaken, simply turned and walked out of there.

  “We’ll come back to get answers out of you,” I heard Ebrill say as I went after Steph.

  “She’s captured, you don’t have to worry about her,” I said, taking Steph’s hand. “I’m with you.”

  “I know. But… seeing one of them, having her address me like that, it was too much.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She nodded, then looked up as the others emerged, closing the door behind them. Deciding there was no way I was letting that ancient bitch out of the room, I melded the door to the walls. Fuck her.

  “We’ll either get answers or use her as bait,” Aerona said. “Either way, we’ve captured someone very powerful tonight.”

  “Jericho, do you think you can find a way to target the runes?” Ebrill asked.

  “Make it so certain parts of the house don’t allow magic,” I said, catching on. “Honestly, I have no clue, but we should try.”

  “During the day, maybe that’s something you can experiment with?” Kordelia grunted. “The irony is, that woman in there is likely to be the most knowledgeable on the subject.”

  “We all noticed,” Ebrill said, eyeing me.

  “I wasn’t checking out her tits, if that’s what your look is insinuating,” I said. “Shit, she’s like… how old?”

  “Ancient, but you could argue that so are we.”

  I frowned and shook my head. “Doesn’t count.”

  Aerona chuckled, but met Steph’s eyes. “You’ll be okay with her under the same roof as us?”

  Steph nodded. “I hope so.”

  “For now, let’s get some rest.”

  “And then?” Ebrill asked. “We can go to their coven first, or go after Fatiha.”

  “What’s the advantage of going after Fatiha?” Steph asked. “And… do we even know where to find her?”

  “She knew how to summon Thiten,” Aerona explained. “And my guess is that Thiten is the key to finding the others of our team. As to where… No, but I imagine we can get her to come to us.”

  “And this?” I asked, holding up the invitation Galahad had given me.

  “When’s it for?” Ebrill asked.

  “Not tomorrow, but the following evening.”

  She glanced around, got a nod from Aerona, then said, “We learn what we can until then, stick to the plan, train… and then give it a try.”

  “Sounds l
ike a plan.” I yawned, still not fully used to the new schedule.

  “You rest,” Ebrill said, hand on my forehead and healing my body so that rest would come easy.

  I agreed, although Steph wanted to stay up with the other ladies a bit longer to, as they put it, have their ‘girl time.’

  The bed welcomed me and sleep took hold instantly, but it couldn’t have been long before a creaking sound woke me. My eyes fluttered open to see Aerona, her gold skin with a slight blue hint to it in the dim light. The effect was magical, making me wonder if she had found some way of working around the block. But no, it was simply the light and her natural glow.

  “Can I help you?” I whispered.

  “Maybe, or maybe I can help you.” She sat next to me, awkwardly, then put her hand on my leg in an even more awkward way.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Are you… hitting on me?”

  She withdrew the hand. “No.”

  “Aerona, what’s going on?”

  Her eyes went to the floor, then back to me. “The thing is… and the others agree… I have something to show you. Maybe.”

  “Meaning what, exactly?”

  “We should sleep together.”

  I nearly coughed. Without a doubt, I would enjoy it. But, judging by the awkward way she had put her hand on my leg, I wasn’t sure how this would work out.

  Her eyes went wide with realization. “Oh, I didn’t mean that. I meant… sleep. Actually sleep, side by side. This is what I spoke about with Rianne. For you to… travel.”

  “I thought that was done?”

  “We think that it might not be. Not done with me, anyway. Rianne had ideas of other ways it could be used, and now that we have Glitonea, I think the chances are increased. I sense something from her… a connection to another place entirely.”

  “But why?”

  “There are… things left undone. Unsaid?” She took my hand in hers. A delicate moment, eyes meeting. “One way for you to find out would be to trust me. Do you?”