Red Blooded
Page 47

I dropped my hands and turned around.
Selene was positioned farther down the hallway, leaning with her back against the tunnel, her head down. Rourke picked up on my unease.
“What is it?” he asked. “What’d you find?”
“Something has indeed spelled the wall, but unfortunately the signature is all too familiar.” I glanced down the hallway again. I cleared my voice. “Selene, have you been here recently? Did the Prince bring you here?”
Selene’s head came up. “What?”
“I asked you if you’d been in this hallway recently. Did the Prince task you to spell this wall?” I rapped it with my knuckle. It made sense the Prince would’ve used the only thing that might trump Lili’s magic or at least give it a run for its money.
Selene glanced around her like she’d just discovered she was down here. She shrugged. “How should I know? These tunnels all look the same to me. It’s like one big caveman subway system around here. I’ve been through plenty of them during my stay in the land of awful.”
“Selene, I’m asking you because I detect your spell signature in this wall. But it’s a little… off.” I had no other way to explain it.
“What do you mean off? What’s wrong with it?” Ray asked, moving forward and placing his hand on the wall.
“I’m not sure, but it feels like an echo of some kind,” I said.
Selene pushed off the wall and came forward. She placed her palms on the hard surface and gasped. “That’s not my magic.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. No two magics were ever the same. “Selene, this feels too close to yours to be someone else’s. I’ve felt your magic firsthand.” I probed along the wall again to make sure. “The spell is red, just like your signature. Everything about it is yours. It’s just not as… precise.” Maybe the Prince had tapped her to do it after he’d had most of her magic drained?
She dropped her hand. “It’s not mine.” Her voice held a dull ring.
I turned to Lili, who had her brows drawn. “What gives?” I asked.
A dark look came over Lili’s face. “He must have made a clone.”
18
“Please run that by me again,” I demanded. “A clone of Selene? How is that possible?”
“The results are… unpredictable at best, but we do have the technology and magic to make a demon clone,” Lili answered as she turned toward an emotionally deadened Selene, who had taken a few steps back. “It makes more sense to me now why you are like you are.” She ran her eyes over Selene’s body. “Clones are made directly from your power and magic—like sucking the life out and leaving a shell—but when the demons finished making the clone, I’m certain you were supposed to die, but somehow you prevailed. I had not thought it possible to survive a cloning, so I never even suspected it.”
Ray whistled. “That’s a pretty shitty way to go, but it explains why she’s still here.” By the inflection in his voice, I could tell I wasn’t the only one who felt a little sorry for the villain in our midst. That made me feel better. Selene had basically caused Ray’s brutal death by convincing Eamon she loved him, so if he could find a way to forgiver her—any of us could. It made me immensely proud of him.
If Ray managed to hold on to his humanness, as I did, I believed he would fare much better in the long run.
“If the Prince had Selene’s doppelganger spell the entrance, then there’s a good chance the clone is awaiting us in his chambers,” Lili intoned. “We must tread with caution.”
“Sounds like there’s a new mistress in town,” Tyler muttered. “And if she’s exactly like Selene”—he eyed the former goddess—“except more powerful, we’re going to have another epic battle on our hands.”
“I can break the spell in the wall. It’s enough like Selene’s,” I said, “and I’m familiar with her signature. But once it’s broken, is there a way we can quietly sneak up on this clone if she’s in there?” She had to be in there. The Prince of Hell needed a new resident spell caster to protect what was his.
Selene finally seemed to understand what we were saying and elbowed me out of the way. “If anyone is going to break this spell and kill this imposter, it’ll be me. I deserve retribution more than any of you, and think I know the best way to defeat myself.” She smacked her palms against the wall and closed her eyes.
Selene had little more than an echo of magic inside her, but as I watched, it seemed to be enough. The wall began to vibrate.
“How are you doing that?” I whispered, my head next to hers. “You shouldn’t be strong enough.”
“I created these spells. They were mine even if I didn’t wield them. This is one of my less extraordinary ones. It’s meant to mask something’s true nature. The door is here, it only seems as if it’s not.”
I stepped back and gave her room, turning to the group. “We’ve been lucky so far, no demons have found us. The Princess must still have them on lockdown, but I’m sure that will be over soon. When we get in, we deal with imposter Selene and figure out how to help the Princess defeat the Prince.”
That sounded easy, right?
Rourke gestured at Lili. “And once we get in there, I want to know exactly what’s in the new Scriptures you found, demoness.” He narrowed his eyes. “No evading our questions. We need to know what we’re dealing with and why the demons will go to war with each other—especially why the Princess of Hell is willing to help us escape. If you leave anything out, you will feel my wrath.”
Lili appeared uncomfortable. She wasn’t going to share the news willingly. I put a hand over my nose to block the increasing stink of the dead orthrus as I added, “Lili, there’s no way to get away from this. We need to know everything.”
She shifted on her feet. “What is written in the Scriptures is for demons only. We are not allowed to… share with others. It is forbidden.”
Rourke took a step forward, still bare-chested, his forearm tattoos jumping as he fisted his hands. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about your demon rules or laws. My mate’s name is written in your history books and I want to know what we’re dealing with, do you understand? I didn’t arrive in Hell to free her, only to find myself here”—he motioned around the tunnel—“for nothing. The only reason we haven’t escaped and gone back to our plane is because Jessica wants to be done with this ordeal. I agree, but only up to a point. Now it’s going to be your job to tell us what we need to know.” He bared his teeth.