“Me?” I said. “How do I break the ward?”

“Your magic signature contains demon essence, as I noted before. It should be enough to break this ward. We are on a lower level of Hell and the security here is less than above, because none willingly venture here. The beasts provide their own security.”

“It’s that easy to break?” I didn’t believe it was. “How can I possibly get through something you can’t?”

“I have done it too many times already.” She shrugged. “They have found a way to keep my magic signature out. But I know you can do this, and you must. They will be arriving shortly, which means we have a limited time to get to the Sholls. If we do not, we die. It’s that simple.”

I switched places with her reluctantly. “So many ways to die, so little time,” I grumbled as I placed my palm on the flat surface as she had done. A strange pulse immediately needled at my skin, pulling and prodding it like sharp fingernails. “What is it doing?” My wolf snarled, wanting us to pull back immediately. But a powerful suction had glued my hand to the wall. If I yanked it back, I would tear it open.

“It’s trying to figure out what you are,” Lily said patiently.

“Then what?” I asked as I envisioned a demon face with very large teeth coming out of the wall and gobbling me whole.

“You must force it to acquiesce.”

“How do I—” A gurgling sound shot out of my throat as I morphed into my full Lycan form. The plate had tugged raw power out of my body so fast it had plastered my palm to it with the force of a cyclone.

“You must push your power against it. It thinks you are a demon, so use it to your advantage. Throw your magic at it,” she ordered. “Hurry, do it now.”

I gritted my teeth. It felt like my hand was being skewered open. My wolf barked, angry at me for doing something so stupid. Instead of griping, help me get our hand back, I told her. Throw our magic at it. Together we shoved magic into the wall. It immediately bounced back and we had to force it outward again. Very slowly magic began to seep into the wall. “I think… it’s working.”

“You must override it now. You will not get another chance.”

My wolf howled and we shot a big burst of power into the wall. The energy exploded into the wall, knocking me back, finally freeing me. The force of it sent me reeling into Lily.

The wall panel was smoking.

Before I could regain my footing, the door slid open like something out of a sci-fi movie, exposing what appeared to be another dark, dank tunnel. I righted myself and glanced down at my hand. It was totally healed. No damage whatsoever. It still tingled a little, but that was minor, especially since I’d thought it would resemble raw hamburger. “What do we do now?” I asked.

“Now we go. And it’s a good thing, because we have no more time to lose.” She exited through the doorway and I followed.

I immediately noticed the new tunnel walls were veined with something other than flint. Instead of being glittery, these walls had long, tubular vessels spreading out in every direction. I squinted. It almost appeared as though blood were pumping through them. “Why does it look like this rock has blood-filled veins?”

Lily grabbed my shirt sleeve and tugged me into an alcove. She punched a button and the same watery gel as in the gazebo coated us, cleaning us instantly.

Lily pressed another button and a fan dried us in moments. “To answer your question, the cave walls are alive and those are veins. They bring nutrients to the rock.”

“What do you mean alive? As in living, breathing, with a soul?” I asked, trotting behind her as she took off down the tunnel.

“No.” She tossed her head back at me in exasperation. “Alive, as in like a tree or a flower.”

“Flowers and trees don’t have blood running through them,” I helpfully pointed out as we turned and ran down another passageway, the creepy veins intertwining all around us. “If the cave is alive and grows, it must constantly shift.” I had to admit it was a little hard to wrap my mind around living rock.

“Yes, the cells here shift,” she said absentmindedly as we ran faster. “They must be maintained, but the benefit outweighs the effort. The beasts housed here can feed directly from the wall themselves, so they require very little upkeep. It is a harmonious pairing.”

Harmonious? How about… strange and… weirdly primal? We started to pass row after row of short, solid doors. Various noises and snorts were issuing out of all of them. I did not want to find out what was inside.

“What’s the plan?” I called. “You said something about going to the Sholls?”

“Yes, we are heading to the Sholls. It’s located the in between and is the only place that will provide us with cover.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I almost tripped. Heading into an “in between” sounded tricky, but going in between the Underworld and gods knew where sounded bad.

“It is the only way,” she urged. “Come, we must hurry.”

“This ‘in between’ doesn’t sound great to me,” I said. “Isn’t there a place here we can go? I came in through the garbage dump and there wasn’t much action there.”

“In order to lose the guards, we must become undetectable, and to do that we have to leave this tangible plane. Once we are there, we will cross to the courthouse where your brother is being held and go back through a portal. Not only is it necessary to lose our tail, but it’s efficient as well.” There were shouts in the distance. “Very few demons know the way to the Sholls, and once they enter they cannot navigate it. But I am not one of them, so this has just become your lucky day.”

“It’s not feeling lucky,” I muttered. “This trip has not gone according to any plan we’d formulated.”

“Really? And what exactly was your master plan? Arrive in the Underworld and defeat five hundred thousand demons by yourself?” She turned a corner quickly and the topography changed instantly. This tunnel had a blue hue and no veins. It resembled water. I wondered if the beasts drank from this rock.

Tally had never mentioned how many demons lived on this plane, but five hundred thousand seemed like a lot. Most Sects were lucky if they had numbers in the hundreds. “No, that wasn’t the plan,” I answered as I jogged behind her. “But I was supposed to have some of my team with me and, at the very least, spells if I ran into trouble.”