I edged her out of the way and took over. “The relationship between you two is clearly over. He’s giving you no more chances. That’s why he has a huge, scary beast blocking your path.” A beast who was still struggling. “Lili?” I asked. “If the Prince thought you might come back here, and he bothered to mask the door, don’t you think he’d make damn sure the orthrus wouldn’t fall to your magic too?”

“It’s not possible for him to do so,” she answered, her face appearing struck at the notion. “I am the strongest spell caster in Hell. No one here can best my magic.”

“That may have been the case before, but something has obviously changed.” I shouted over my shoulder to the boys, “I don’t think Lili’s magic is going to work on that beast! We’re going to have to come up with a plan B if I can’t find this opening quickly.”

Rourke gritted his teeth as the snake rattled in his grasp. “We’ll have to take it down. There’s no other way.”

Tyler’s face was red with effort. “This thing is not even close to slowing down, if anything it’s gaining its second wind.” The thing bucked and raged.

Instead of trying to find the door, I rushed toward the head of the beast, where Ray struggled with both heads locked under each of his arms. He was holding on, but it wouldn’t be long until the beast finally bashed him off.

I grabbed the neck of one of the heads and the thing immediately tossed me off, slamming me into the wall. I recovered my footing and launched myself at it again. Its hair was coarse and warm under my grasp and its neck was about the size of a watermelon. I had to sling my elbow around it to hold on. Tyler was right, the beast was not even close to waning.

I glared at Lili as I yelled to the guys, “I’m going to throw some magic into it and see if I can do something.” We need to find a way to take it down. What do you see? I asked my wolf as my magic filtered in. This thing was all blackness. It was a true beast of the Underworld. I used my demon magic to prod it, and it pushed me back. But it wasn’t stronger than I was. We have to find something to hurt it or disable it. This thing had to have a heart somewhere. If I concentrated a blast of my magic there, it might work.

“Go for the stomach,” Lili called. “It will trigger a mass effect.”

“The stomach?” I questioned. “Why wouldn’t I try to stop its heart?” The thing roared in my ear, as if it knew my intent.

“Hannon,” Ray said through a clenched jaw, “can you hurry it up? I can’t hold this thing still much longer.” I noticed for the first time that Ray had pivoted himself up against the wall and had braced his legs across the cave so I could hold on to the neck without getting thrown again.

“I’m working on it, Ray,” I muttered. “I’m looking for something to hurt inside this thing, but I’m coming up short. It’s all darkness inside. Like a void.”

“The orthrus doesn’t have a working heart,” Lili explained. “It has no veins. Go for the stomach. It does eat. If it explodes, it should shut down the rest of it.”

“Where is the stomach located?” Rourke shouted as he turned, keeping a firm knee pressed into the beast’s flank. Tyler had spread his entire body up against its side, grunting with effort as he struggled to keep it pinned.

“I don’t know why it has not gone to sleep,” Lili cried. “I find it unbelievable. The stomach is on the bottom of the beast—”

Rourke rammed the snake’s head against the wall hard enough to shake it silly for a few precious seconds while he drove his other hand into the beast’s underbelly with so much force the hallway shook.

The thing shrieked like a pterodactyl.

One more concentrated punch to the belly and the beast opened up.

The orthrus stumbled, losing its footing as black sludge poured out of the wound. Without hesitation, Rourke stuck his hand farther into the mess.

“Be careful!” I covered my mouth and nose. The smell was ridiculous. “I hope the blood isn’t poisonous.”

“I found it.” Rourke’s jaw was clenched and fierce concentration lined his face. “Just… one second… more.” With a final yank, the beast’s insides flooded onto the ground in a huge splash.

The beast crumpled to the ground as its legs gave away. The boys and I jumped back as it fell. I glanced over at my mate, who was covered with the equivalent of black tar all the way up his arm and down the front of his chest.

He smiled grimly at me. “Sometimes all you need is strength concentrated in the right place.”

Tyler panted, leaning against the far wall away from the beast. “That was badass,” he said to Rourke. “I’m just glad it was you and not me who had to go there.”

Rourke grunted, sluicing the sludge off his arm with his other hand and flinging it to the ground. “You wouldn’t have been strong enough, wolf.” He grinned. “It took all my strength to get through that thing.”

Tyler stood straight up, ready to refute my mate until he saw the twinkle in Rourke’s eye. “Well,” Tyler said good-naturedly, “I concede it might’ve taken me a few more hits than it took you, but I would’ve gotten through. No doubt about it.”

“By that time, we all would’ve been dead,” Ray guffawed. “It’s nice and handy to have an ancient cat around when you need him.”

It was also nice to see my mate smile. It was a rare event. But it was time to get back to business. I turned to Lili. “You have one more chance to get this right. How do we get in?” I jabbed my thumb at the rock wall behind me.

“I don’t know,” she said, panic in her voice. She knew this was it. “If the door is here, it’s cloaked from me. I’ve sent my power out all over this wall to no avail. This is all very distressing.”

I walked over to where we’d stood before and placed my hands on the wall. “How do these walls seal themselves up like this?” There were no cracks in the stone. “It looks like nothing was ever here.”

“The walls are alive, much like the ones you saw with veins earlier. With a proper spell they will grow together in a matter of hours. It doesn’t take much coaxing,” she replied.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to coax it back open again.” I scoured the wall. Wait, did you sense that? My wolf had concentrated our power and tossed it outward. It had finally struck something. That something had a taste. And the taste was familiar. Good gods, how can this be?