Cherie lived in one of those cliffs. I’d thought they were solid all the way through, but she led me up to one that had a clear piece of the stone next to the ground, except bigger than the one I’d seen that guy in.

I didn’t know what she was doing. Angels were all around us, some of them glaring at me, but most of them ignoring us.

She pushed on the clear stone.

It went in. There was a cave back in there.

She stepped inside, then pressed her wings back against the piece of clear stone and looked at me.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“How did you make it go in like that?” I frowned at the stone. “I pushed that one up high on the cliffside, and it didn’t move.”

She grinned. It was one of those confused bearded lady grins, except prettier. “The what?”

Cherie couldn’t be stronger than me. That’s not how muscles work. Girls don’t get more of them than guys, and the ones they have aren’t stronger. Even a scrawny guy, like Johnny, was stronger than Hex, and she was the strongest girl I knew.

I didn’t know how to say what I meant about the clear stone, though, so I just shrugged. I cared a lot less about figuring out the answer than I did about Cherie wanting to see my mating dance. Better not chance her changing her mind.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I followed her inside.

It was big for a cave, and dry. Just like the outside, everything line weirdly straight.

She followed me away from that pushed-in clear stone and it fell backward, until it closed off the cave entrance.

I stopped where I was. “You can get that open again, right?”

She giggled and nodded. Tucking her hair behind her ear, she pulled the clear stone this time. That looked like it took a little more work.

“Good.” Then something else occurred to me. “Can monsters get in, too?”

“No, it’s protected against anything but angels. See the [][][][][][?” She pointed at the clear stone when she said it.

“This?” I pushed it. It didn’t move.

“No, this.” She grabbed my hand, separated my fingers, and stuck one on the stone at about my waist-height.

There was a dip there, almost too small to see, but my fingers could hook into it. I leaned back like she had and pulled.

It opened.

“There’s a [][][][][][ on the other side, too,” she said. “You push that one. Well, if you’ve got fingers, you can. Monsters don’t have fingers, only claws.”

“Tell me about it.” I grinned and pointed to the scars raked down my side.

She gasped, pressing a delicate hand to her lips. “You’ve seen a monster?”

“You haven’t?”

“They don’t often come this far in, and never before dark. Everyone’s inside by then.”

“In a cave?”

“In their []][][[.”

Maybe that was just how they said cave.

“So what do the guys do around here? Just find food and god drops and stuff?” That sounded pretty good.

She laughed. “The gods put our food in our []][][[.”

{cave} I said in my head. Cherie went on talking.

“No one has to look for it.” She rolled her dark eyes and shrugged, giving a little shimmy of the wings. “Unless they’re really dumb. Then the gods kind of have to push them toward it. After a while, even the really dumb ones start to recognize that it’s their food.”

That didn’t sound like the gods I knew. Maybe they had different ones here.

“So, do you want to see my mating dance now?” I opened my wings and raised my arms.

Cherie’s face turned that pretty red again. “Wait! Come to my {cave}. No one will see us there.”