Lili laughed at my discomfort. “You gave your DNA so nicely when I asked. Your handprint was so generous, as it gave us so much good data. We just needed time to grow the shell, but we had that in spades as I ran you through the Sholls, and even better when you spent all that time in jail worrying about the fate of your brother.”

Ohmygods, I said to my wolf. All those times she asked me to help her she was collecting DNA samples. I was nauseous. That can’t really be me. My wolf’s ears were pinned back, canines exposed, nose scenting. My lifeless clone had no smell. That’s a good sign, right?

“The best part was that your signature was already mixed with demon essence—due to your own stupidity, which made the growth extremely easy. Usually it takes much longer to copy a non-demon, but this was a piece of cake.” She clapped her hands together as the crowd cheered at her brilliance. “Now we just have to transfer your life-force into the clone, along with the Princess’s heart, and I become the most powerful supernatural the world has ever seen.”

Rourke, I said urgently. We have a definite problem here, where are you?

Just… breaking down… a few doors. It seems the Prince is being held in… some place they keep their animals.

Lili made a clone of me.

What? I sensed his body still.

I don’t quite understand. I swallowed. But you need to get up here. Now.

I’m on my way. I’ll leave Tyler and Ray here to get the Prince. I felt him running. Hold tight, Jessica. She’s not going to get away with anything.

We can’t leave my clone alive, I whispered. My attention was forced back to Lili as she waltzed over to me. “This will only hurt for about fifteen minutes.” She smirked. “But it will hurt like the fires of Hell are raging through your body, tearing you apart and sizzling you from the inside out.”

My wolf had already wrapped us in ribbons of magic, forcing it outward to create a barrier against her. I began to push the demon essence that we’d separated out past the shell, coating it all around us to make an oily bubble, which I hoped would be a direct repellent against Lili’s demon magic.

I gritted my teeth as I spit, “Go ahead, Lili. I’d love to see how this is all going to turn out.”

She smiled as she lifted her hands, her magic shooting forward.

Only to be rebuffed.

The reverberation of the backlash forced her to take an inadvertent step backward, which caused instant chatter to erupt in the audience, especially among those closest to us, who had seen what had actually happened.

She recovered quickly, her eyes narrowing.

But instead of trying it again, she spun with a flourish. “I just tested my magic on the female wolf, and she is primed and ready. But first, we must take the heart from your beloved Princess and place it in the host body.” She nodded toward two demons and they proceeded to maneuver my cloned body into the circle, so it was situated right next to the Princess, the two gurneys side-by-side. New fear emanated from the demons in the audience, and Lili responded with, “Have no fear! Your Princess will rise again in this new form, as all clones do. Her heart will feed the body. She will not be lost!”

After selecting a knife from the table, Lili sauntered back into the circle and over to the Princess, who I witnessed from my proximity stiffen ever so slightly. The Princess was nervous. Something was up. This is not going to end well, I told my wolf as Lili positioned herself over the demoness, the wicked-looking blade clutched tightly in her hands. It was long and sharp—the kind you use to skin a hide.

Lili flourished the knife over the Princess’s heart and brought it down, and as the tip of the knife entered her chest, the Princess’s glamour began to drop with a loud rushing noise. She had remained perfectly still as Lili struck her with the knife, but now her body undulated beneath the blade.

Lili had no choice but to bring the blade up to give her room.

The crowd took in a collective breath. I took one in along with them. Holy crap! I was too stunned to move.

The Princess’s hair flowed outward, longer and thicker. Her lips thinned as her skin took on a different sheen, almost opalescent. It was beautiful. She continued to undulate on the table as a demon yelled from the crowd, “The true Princess! Swy sliy hlefpyzz! She should be Queen!”

Lili’s face turned dark, but she hid it quickly. “Yes, our beloved Princess. She is so important in our world. But there can only be one true Queen of the Underworld.” Lili turned her head toward the crowd, raising the knife above the Princess, ready to pierce her once more. “Have no fear, my fellow demons, the new reign will choose the demon who is most worthy. This has always been our way. Make no mistake!”

The Princess’s body was shifting in earnest now.

I tried not to gape. What’s going on? My wolf had no answers for me. Demons aren’t shifters. Has she been glamouring her size all this time?

There was a collective ooooh from the crowd as her chest definitively rose on the gurney. Good grief! Are those wings? The Princess’s skin turned luminescent, like beautiful see-through scales, as soft, black, feathery wings erupted out of her back, spreading over the sides of the gurney.

Wings were something Lili was sorely missing.

“The true Queen!” a demon yelled from the crowd.

“Raise her up!”

“She shall rule us all!”

Some of the comments were shouted in both Demonish and English and there were many more, one on top of the other as fast as the demons could spout them off.

“Silence!” Lili cried, turning to the unruly crowd, spreading her arms wide, blood the color of motor oil dripping off the knife blade. “Your Princess and I will rule Hell together, with both strength and power!” There was an instant hush and Lili smiled, before continuing, “She will not die as long as her heart is preserved. Only the Princess is strong enough to give this powerful clone life. It is written that a female shall rule, and with her heart and the Lycan’s power, we shall together be undefeated! The supernatural world will bow to us!”

The crowd cheered their agreement, even though Lili was selling the same thing in different words.

There was no chance Lili would step down, and any demon who believed that was a fool. She would kill my doppelganger, power and all, with the Princess’s heart inside, before she’d let that happen. But the crowd had bought it.

It was time to throw a wrench in Lili’s plans. “Prove it!” I yelled, my voice clear and strong. “Prove to your demon constituents that the Princess will live on!”