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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 de in Hades’s throne roo 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 sis , 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 hith 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 ca 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 bloill knock some sense into him"

Bones shattered, pain a burst of sensation, but he didn’t care He stood and liain Pandora kept pace beside hiood eye and it was locked on the ht "I’m allowed to hurt him" She wasn’t exactly steady on her feet, either, but at least they had a coh," Hades said, looking bored

Baden and Pandora froze, their li in place

"Sendfroht you here to warn you Lucifer has sent an assassin to destroy you His naet because I don’t really care He’ll use--"

"We know," Baden and Pandora shouted in unison