He rose quickly, closing the distance once again, ripping away the beam with a swipe of his arm. “Can you walk?” Blood leaked from a wound hidden underneath her skirt as he helped her stand.
She should have cried.
She didn’t cry, and it almost broke him. Nothing should be denied to her, not even tears.
“I think so,” she said, her voice trembling. Streaks of dirt coated her cheeks. “What’s happening?”
“Up there!” Pandora shouted.
If not for the soul-curdling screech that erupted from the sky, Baden would have ignored her. His gaze shot up, quickly finding a hideous winged creature hovering above the fortress, smoke wafting all around him. He had crimson skin, two thick horns protruding from his scalp. Sharp yellow claws extended from his hands and feet, and a smaller horn protruded from each of his heels. He wore a flesh-colored loincloth. Leathered human flesh?
With an evil grin, the creature held out his hand. A ball of fire grew over his palm, the flames a mix of black and red. He aimed at Baden.
All Baden could do was grab Katarina and the dogs and flash to the holding cell where Aleksander remained, before the three were hit. The room was untouched by the violence that had taken place aboveground, the bastard still chained to the wall. He would be unable to reach Katarina.
“As long as you stay on this side of the cell, he can’t hurt you,” Baden told her. Destruction banged against his skull, enraged, ready to return topside and kill. “Patch your thigh and stay here.” Not that she could leave without him. “Do not get near the man.”
Boom!
The walls rattled, and dust filled the air.
“Don’t leave me here, Baden. I—”
No time to argue. He flashed to the fortress. Or, what remained of it. Amidst the rubble, he caught sight of a fine-boned hand, fingernails painted pink. Ignoring the beast’s desire to hunt the new enemy, he rushed over and dug through stone and debris. Strawberry-blond hair finally came into view and his stomach sank. Gwen—Sabin’s mate. Her eyes were cloudy, her chest motionless. Soot and blood caked her cheeks.
Baden freed her, wondering if he would find the keeper of Doubt nearby, dead. As he pressed two fingers into Gwen’s neck to check for a pulse—be alive, please be alive—the bands on his arms heated. No. No! Not now. But he was helpless to stop the pull and dematerialized...reappearing in Hades’s throne room, Pandora beside him.
“Send me back,” he commanded, trying to flash and failing. “Right now.”
Hades stood at a long rectangular table, the four kings surrounding him in a show of support.
The Iron Fist was shirtless, revealing tattoos similar to Hades’s. Strange and...alive? Those markings moved, slithering over his skin. He had long, wavy black hair, a thick beard shadowing his jaw.
The warrior with a slight bluish tint to his skin, eyes surrounded by black paint—surely he hadn’t been born with such coloring—and staple-like piercings that stretched the length of his eyebrows, laughed. “Your puppet thinks he’s in charge. How adorable.” He had a slight accent. What he didn’t have? Hades’s essence.
Destruction snarled with hatred.
Baden leaped at him and threw a punch, the strength of an army in his arm; he could feel it, the bands so hot they blistered his skin. The male merely stumbled back a step and worked his jaw.
“Not bad.”
“I told you he was strong,” Hades said, sounding like a proud papa.
“But he’s not overly bright.” The new voice came from behind him, warm breath fanning his neck just before he was lifted over the head of the Iron Fist—must have flashed behind me—and tossed across the room. “Perhaps the blow will knock some sense into him.”
Bones shattered, pain a burst of sensation, but he didn’t care. He stood and limped over. Threat. Will kill.
Once again Pandora kept pace beside him. She still had only one good eye and it was locked on the male responsible for Baden’s unplanned flight. “I’m allowed to hurt him.” She wasn’t exactly steady on her feet, either, but at least they had a common enemy in sight. “You’re not.”
“Enough,” Hades said, looking bored.
Baden and Pandora froze, their limbs locking in place.
“Send me back,” Baden repeated, his rancor echoing from the walls.
“This is the thanks I get? I brought you here to warn you. Lucifer has sent an assassin to destroy you. His name is...something. I forget because I don’t really care. He’ll use—”
“We know,” Baden and Pandora shouted in unison.
“He’s at the fortress,” Baden added. “Which might have