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And yes, she knew her math was off Such an impossible topic called for skewed nuhty-year-old Katarina, I would break her hip"

The deadpanned response broke through her growing upset, and she burst out laughing "Most e doesn’t matter"

He reached up and caressed her cheek A touch he would not have initiated weeks before A touch she thrilled to receive "I’m not most men I kno quickly the human body withers, have seen it happen toowith er If someone were to hurt youto injure you beyond repair"

She struggled to maintain her composure amidst such a sensitive topic "How about I stay with you until I get ether was better than no time at all

"No" He shook his head with a deterree "We’ll find a way to s

No! She couldn’t Not outright He wasn’t just Baden, he was Destruction, too She had to proceed with caution

She petted his chest the way she knew he--they--liked "Let’s back away fro for a bit I’d rather talk about hellhounds and the people who survived their bite"

Baden gazed at her as if he’d give her anything she asked--and how heady was that? "I know of only two such cases Zeus ordered his army to capture the er than before, with claws arcing froers and toes They were also crazy, constantly pulling at their hair and hitting their temples On the way to Mount Olympus, a pack of hellhounds a the bitten ets, the first killed"

"But why? The bloodlust alone?"

"I think the hellhounds wanted no outside tie So many had tried to control them Some, like Hades’s tormentor, had even succeededfor a tio crazed? Crave living beings for her in to eye her as a meal-on-heels?

"Were the hounds immortal?" she asked

"No They had the life span of a huest one ever lived"