Page 18 of Cage Me

“The seventh gate is death. One can not pass into the underworld if they are alive.”

Shit. “I don’t understand. We’re not dead.”

“You didn’t pass through the gates to get here.” Damn it, hell was a confusing ass place and nobody seemed to know all the rules.

Cage yelled, his voice coming through loud and clear through the mirror now. “What do you mean you can’t kill an Annunaki? And where the fuck am I supposed to go, you bastard?”

Azy grabbed up one of the swords and dropped it like it’s hot. Because it was. She reached for another, and it fell over. She tried one more time, finding a sword with a dragon inlaid into the handle. It fit into her hand perfectly. Not that she knew how to use it. But, it couldn’t be that hard to at least maim a few demon dragons. “Where is this? I have to go to him.”

Fallyn shook her head. “Why would you choose someone who will end you?”

“I’m not choosing him, I’m saving his ass. I don’t have time for this. He’s not going to hurt me, he’s my mate.”

“Mates are evil, but you are not. But you are a mate, but you are not.” Fallyn frowned and shoved more daggers into her pockets.

“I don’t have time for your riddles. Where are they?”

“At the seventh gate.”

Argh. “How do I get there?”

“Run.”

“Fallyn, I’m going to break every single one of your Christmas ornaments into teeny tiny pieces unless you tell me exactly how to find Cage, right now.”

Fallyn didn’t like that one bit. She was in Azy’s face in an instant. Literal fire burned in her eyes and she smelled of smoke and brimstone.

Azy didn’t back down, not an inch. She’d learned real young not to.

Even when Fallyn withdrew one of her daggers, Azy didn’t flinch. “How do I find Cage?”

Fallyn glared, the fires inside of her burning hard. Then she lifted the dagger and tapped the shard around Azy’s neck with the tip, making the crystal ting. “It will lead you to him.”

At first Azy thought it was another of the damn cryptic messages, but then she remembered how the shard glowed earlier. That had to have been when Cage had first entered the caldera.

Yes. She bolted for the entryway to this cave of wonders, grabbing the mirrored ornament on her way.

“Hey, don’t touch my stuff.”

Azy ran, and she ran, and she ran. The shard got brighter, she’d take a wrong turn and the shard would go dark. Damn it. At this rate Cage would be dead by the time she found him.

The only luck she was having was that the Black Dragon, the Black Witch and the demon dragons all seemed to be nowhere around.

Her lungs and muscles were burning. She was not used to using her legs this way anymore. A slow jog was all she was managing at the moment. The shard was glowing again, so at least she was going in the right direction.

She held the ornament up, trying to see what was going on. It was dark. Her heart, that had just been pounding hard, skipped a beat. Did that mean Cage was dead?

“Cage, where are you?” she whispered at the mirror.

“Azynsa?” That was his voice, he was alive.

The view in the mirror fumbled around and then she was looking at his face again. His skin was marred by a giant burn mark that started at his hairline and went all the way down his face, slicing through his eyebrow and cheek.

She recognized that kind of wound. Fire whip.

“Can you hear me? How does this thing work?” The view tilted and it looked like he was banging on the side of the ornament.

He must have a mirror on his end too. “Cage. Where are you?”

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