Chapter Sixteen
What is Azy still a little bit mad at Cage for basically kidnapping her? Yes.
Was she going to let that stop her from getting her own God damned happy ever after?
Not a chance in hell.
And hell's chances were looking pretty fucking slim at the moment.
Cage might be a dumbass when it came to love and feelings, but he was a master warrior. His gold dragons were already mobilized and, on their way to recruit the other Wyrs to their cause.
He would lead them gloriously into battle and she would be right there by his side.
She'd laid out the basics of her idea to Cage and Gris. She was no strategist, but she had taken science in school, and had gotten an A plus on her volcano project.
This plan took the volcano and flipped it on its head and inside out. Figuratively speaking.
They would need the power of all four elements to make it work.
Jakob and Ky were still in Africa and were gathering the troops at the oasis. Cage and his gold flyers were shuttling as many greens and reds to the continent as they could. All, except Gris. Cage had sent him on a special assignment to infiltrate Geshtianna's coven. They did not need any outside forces helping Kur-Jara escape.
She and Cage were jetting their way down from Poland. They’d gone to find Match and to see if Ninsy had gone there instead of The Lindens.
Match’s home was intact, but deserted. No one had heard from him, Ninsy, or Fallyn. Cage assured her that Ninsy would protect Fallyn and that after the battle they would all find her.
She had to accept that for now.
Azy was actually starting to feel comfortable in the air. As long as Cage was the one whose leg she could hug like a tree trunk. It helps that he flew low over the water.
“Ready, love?”
The ocean called to her like a long lost friend. “As I will ever be.”
“Okay then. I'll see you back at the oasis, hopefully with the black dragon's head on a stick.” He released her, and she dove into the water. She didn't even have to think about her shift, her tail happily appeared.
She swam like a mad woman toward the caves along the coast where she and the Mami Wata lived. Two blue dragons swooped up beside her and she rode in the wake between them, going faster than she would be able to on her own. When they approached the underwater caves, the dragons broke off and were greeted by two of her sister mermaids. Both of them wore blue soul shards.
Azynsa touched the shard on her own neck. She doubted these two would be the last to become mates to dragons. That was probably going to piss a lot of mermen off.
It was time they got over themselves, anyway.
A circle of Mami Wata had formed just outside the entrance to their caves. Several, who she counted as friends greeted her with full on arm to elbow flipping her the bird.
She couldn't help but smile. She had done her fair share of telling the fish in the sea to fuck off and given them the finger when she had first come to the Mami Wata. Many did not understand her strange behavior and in the end, she had explained that it was a war cry of her father's people.
She returned there greeting with a double fisted fuck you too.
They loved it.
“Azynsa, we are so happy to see you.” A few of the mermaids hugged her. “The dragons say you have become a warrior like them.”
She guessed she had. “Yes, and I hope to turn many of you into warriors this day too.”
One particularly beautiful mermaid with a green tail swam over and flipped her off. “I don't understand how you have done it, but there are mermen here who say things like they are sorry.”
Several of her sisters nodded and one said, “What does sorry mean?”
“It means they're going to quit being such,” she wanted to call them douchecanoes, “mean men.”
“Oh.” Several girls nodded their heads, but Azy clearly saw that they did not understand. Maybe after the battle she would help them understand feminism. She sort of wished Mami Wata wore bras, so they could burn them.
On to business. “Do you all understand what is going to happen and what you need to do?”
The green tailed mermaid picked up a rock from the ocean floor and smacked it into her hand. “We’re going to kill demon dragons, like you.”
Okay then. She hadn’t actually killed anything besides fish in her life, but if some of the Mami Wata had a blood lust going on, she was going to harness that.
“Good. Be careful. A great many of them will die in the flooding of hell, but those that escape will be dangerous.”
“Don’t you worry about them, we’ll take care of the killing.”
A group of particularly brawny mermen with wicked looking spears swam up to their group. Three of them nodded and gave her a little salute. But the one who’d had his hate on for her at the oasis was practicing his glare again.
This should be fun.
The two water dragons circled their group and one approached Azy. “Ky is on his way down. He says they’re ready at the surface, little general.”
Little general. Cute. Better than little mermaid.
“Let’s do this.”
As soon as Ky joined her, they swam into the caves, asking the sea to swell and join them. Phase one of operation Hell Freezes Over had begun.
She and Ky flooded the underwater caves and made their way into the caverns and tunnels at the base of the caldera. They pushed the water across the hellfires and Ky and his blue dragons froze it all making the heat benign.
“You’re one smart cookie, Azza. Cage is lucky to have you by his side.”
“Thanks, Ky Puru.”
“I think you can just call me Ky now.”
“No. I don’t think so. Sounds too weird.”
Ky laughed in her head. Then he swooped forward and speared the first group of demon dragons they encountered with his ice shards.
A group of mermen behind her sounded a war cry and swam past. The douchie one bumping her along the way.
Whatever dude.
The dragons and mers divided and conquered the hordes they came across, but so far, they weren’t all that many. They weren’t to the main caverns and tunnels yet though.
When they did, Azy had a little mission of her own.
“Jakob and his greens are ready for phase two, gang. Hold on to your butts.” Ky’s warning rang out through everyone’s heads. The walls around them rumbled and rocks and debris began to fall in great chunks.
Azy took a deep breath, closed her eyes and concentrated on the spirit of the water element. She felt it’s power swish and sparkle around her. “There you are old friend. Help me keep our justice fighters safe from the chaos around us.”
As if it was replying, a bubble of lava jumped up under Azy and the water pushed the danger away, creating a sculpture of newly formed volcanic rock underneath her.
“Thank you.”
The ceiling above her opened up and she filled the newly created cavern with more water. Just ahead she recognized the dark room where Kur-Jara had whipped Fallyn and Ky. They were deep underground now, but the earth above them cracked open and rays of intense sunshine lit up the darkness.
“Hello, love. Having fun yet?” Cage swooped down into the crack in the earth and ran his wingtips along the surface of the water.
Azy poked her head up above the surface of the churning water.
“Not yet. But, I have plans to have a lot of fun with you later.”
“Promise?”
She waved him off and dove back down into the water, heading for one tunnel in particular.
“Be careful.”
His words didn’t feel oppressive this time. She knew he was genuinely worried about her and at the same time, giving her room to fly, or swim as the case may be.
She swooped through the tunnels until she found the cave she was looking for. The water held everything in the room in suspended animation for her. Not a sword or Christmas ornament was out of place.
Azy opened the bag she’d drug along and began placing some of the treasures inside. She’d take away Fallyn’s right to choose her life. The least she could do was provide her with what little comforts she’d had down here.
She wouldn’t be able to get them all, but a handful were better than none. The last one she grabbed was the mirrored one Fallyn had gifted her to find Cage. She reached for it, but it shattered in front of her eyes. Hit by a spear.
“The water may have protected you once, dragon’s whore. I won’t miss again.”
Azy spun and was not so surprised to see douchie dude blocking the exit to the cave.
“For fuck’s sake. What is your problem?”
“You are.”
“Get the fuck out of here. We’re not fighting each other. We’ve got Kur-Jara to worry about.”
“Oh, he’s long gone. You don’t think we’d let our greatest ally—”
Azy didn’t let him finish that sentence. She grabbed one of Fallyn’s shiny sharp swords and shot it through the water at his head. “You have betrayed your own people.”
“You’re the one who has betrayed your people. It’s disgusting how you have become the whore of a dragon.”
“Are you fucking kidding me with this right now? Who died and made you the king? Oh, that’s right nobody. You’re just a scumbag who doesn’t know his ass from his face.”
Okay. That pissed him off.
He exploded across the water and grabbed her by the throat and hair.
“You’re an abomination. But, we don’t punish the child. Only the sinner. Your mother paid the price. Don’t make me kill you too.”
This merman was a total bag of dicks.
“You, you, you killed my mother because she had me?”
“She sullied the bloodline. We can’t allow that to happen again.”
The rock above them opened up and some big ass sharp talons grabbed the merman by the shoulders and slammed him into the newly formed side of the crevasse.
“Sorry, babe. Just wanted to help. I’ll hold him down for you and you kick his ass.”
Cage hovered an inch over the water and held the merman against the stone wall with a talon through his shoulder.
“How did you know?”
“We’re connected. Always. Now show this asshole whose boss, huh?”
Adorable. No one had ever held someone down for her to beat up before. Offered to beat an asshole up for her, sure. But, hold him down while she did it herself? How sweet.
Azy propelled herself up through the water and into the air. She popped up just far enough to kiss her dragon on the cheek before she dove back down into the water.
The water sloshed and swirled around her and she used its energy to pick up Fallyn’s collection of swords and aimed them all at the merman.
“Go ahead. Kill me. There are plenty more who feel like I do and we will never let you and your kind—”
“Shut up, you piece of shit.” Azy aimed one very long, thin dagger straight at the merman’s dick and shot it through the water, chopping his appendage right off. He screamed and passed out.
“Ooh. That’s gonna leave a mark.”
“Take him to the oasis. He’s been working with Kur-Jara, warned him we were coming. We can probably learn more from him about where he and Erishkigal have gone.”
Another gold dragon swooped down and grabbed the merman, or mer-eunuch, taking him away.
“Can I give you ride, my lady?”
The water and earth swirled around her in a giant muddy crater. Jakob and his greens had opened the earth up, inverting the volcano. The blues had flooded it with water, while the golds had filled the darkness with their light. The reds had dived deep into the earth via the lava to ensure no demon dragons were left in hell.
It was hell no more.
Kur-Jara and Erishkigal had escaped, but together she and Cage had tipped the balance of power out of his favor.
“Yes, please. Let’s go home.”