I cursed myself and my internal human mothering.

Tyler grabbed my sleeve and propelled us forward. “Let’s go!” He shoved me in front of him and we raced down the hallway.

We ran hard. After maneuvering through two hallways I called, “There’s no one here. This can’t be right!”

“We have to keep moving no matter what. This place is a maze, but I bet there’s only one front door. Here, let me go first.” He came up beside me, but I grabbed his arm.

“Wait,” I said, slowing. “This doesn’t feel right. Maybe we should duck into one of these rooms. Something’s definitely off, just like we stated before. I bet Lily lied and there’s another portal somewhere and she directed us to right into a trap.” Once again I contemplated the Sholls. The mending room we’d come out of was close by. I could smell my scent trail, but surviving the wyverns would be next to impossible without Lily.

“Jess, we need to keep moving. You’re right, this is too easy, but what else are we going to do? Come on,” he said, dragging me along behind him at a quick clip. He brought his nose up to scent the area. “I’m getting a read on something different up ahead.”

I followed him cautiously, trotting along. “Different is not good in this place.”

“You’re telling me. I want out of here so bad it hurts, and I also want a bacon cheeseburger, a regular shower, and—” He held his hand up and switched to internal. There’s movement around that corner.

We both stopped, but I couldn’t hear anything substantial. Tyler began to inch forward again. Tyler, wait. My gut is telling me not to go. Not to mention my wolf, who had begun to howl.

He stopped, turning to me. Fine, but what do we do? Are there any windows in this place? They haven’t exactly given me a tour.

No windows. In fact, the sun here burns the skin. We’re going to have to duck into one of these rooms and think of something else. I moved toward a door. This one had a knob.

It turned slowly. No movement. I braced my shoulder against the door.

Nothing.

Try the next one, I told him, gesturing down the hallway.

“That one won’t work either,” an arch voice said from behind us.

My head whipped around.

The Prince of Hell stood very regally at the end of the long hallway we stood in. He was dressed in a three-piece suit, hair shellacked, precise in all ways.

Except for one thing.

A line of fingernail tracks running from his cheek to his chin.

11

The Prince’s wounds were closing fast, but that didn’t bode well for Lily. Drawing blood, or in this case motor oil, from the Prince of Hell was no small feat. As my brother had learned the hard way. Though the demoness was already in hot water, so maybe it didn’t matter.

“You will not escape through any of those doors.” The Prince took a step forward. “They are impassable. I had not thought you would encounter” he flourished one of his hands—“the demoness, and that meeting has thrown everything off. But make no mistake, we have been awaiting your imminent arrival. We’ve made plans, but in your… eagerness… to make another defiant alliance you have managed to throw a wrench in them. So, I am once again forced to come here and take care of things.”

“My eagerness?” I scoffed. “Of course I was eager to save my brother. And I’d pair up again with anyone who would help me. And I’m sorry, but I’ve ruined everything?” I sputtered. “In this situation”—I waved an arm between us—“you definitely win the spoilsport award. If you hadn’t kidnapped my brother, I’d be home right now curled up with my mate under the covers watching reality TV. Instead I’m here fighting my way through the horrors of your world. And, by the way, this place sucks. You need to redecorate and possibly import some sunshine that doesn’t blister off the skin.”

“The Underworld is an extremely pleasant plane to exist.” The Demon Lord continued down the hallway at a slow gait. “I took your kin, because you must face your crimes. There was no other way.”

“I beg to differ. I haven’t committed any crimes that will hold up in any real court, and you know it.” I took a bold step forward, Tyler behind me, a continuous low growl emitting from his throat. “I defended myself, which is acceptable in any supernatural realm. But when you kidnapped my brother, you forced me to here—and if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be involved in any demon business at all. The Underworld wouldn’t even be on my radar.”

“It was fated you would come,” the Prince responded calmly, though I could tell I was affecting him. “It was only a matter of time. I simply sped things up.”

“I think not,” I contended. “If it weren’t for your stubborn visits to our plane and your constant aggression, I never would’ve come here.”

His eyes did the reptilian flash where the pupils elongated, making me curious once again as to why the demons were glamoured in their own realm. It would take much less energy to just be a regular demon, whatever that looked like.

“It was written. Everything that is written comes to pass. Do not question our Scriptures, you lowly mutt.” The Prince took another few steps forward. “It is offensive.”

I was tired of being called a mutt or a mongrel. If you wanted to get technical, I wasn’t a mutt, I was a reincarnated purebred. My wolf howled her agreement. “If me coming here was documented in your Scriptures, then your interference should be noted in there as well,” I countered. “Does it say, ‘The female wolf will descend to the bowels of Hell to wreak havoc, but only if she is provoked by the idiotic Prince of Hell’? Because that’s how it should read.”

“How dare you mock me?” His eyes narrowed as he continued to stroll nonchalantly toward me. The Prince’s face had already healed. Only faint lines of dried residue marred it now. “I did nothing but seek to make you pay for your atrocities. Killing our beasts and our imps is a direct crime against us. You are dangerous and will pay dearly for your actions.”

Jess, there’s something coming from behind and I’m beginning to hear movement behind all these doors. We are totally surrounded.

I was laser-focused on the Prince, who was taking his time reaching us. Twenty more yards.

Tyler continued, The bad news is I don’t know what’s coming at us from behind. They don’t smell like the regular demons I’ve been dealing with, but whatever they are, they are nasty as hell.