The Darkest Torment (Lords of the Underworld 12)

“You showed no mercy to your victims. Now I show no mercy to you.” Baden seized a fistful of the man’s hair, lifted his head—just do it!—and sliced the dagger across his throat. Blood spurted from the wound, and down below, the male’s bowels released.

Death was never pretty.

Baden hacked through the remaining tendon and bone, the head detaching. As he straightened, a dark mist rose from the body. The presence he’d seen in the ash-vision.

A set of neon red eyes found him, and crimson lips parted with a hiss. Baden reached out, expecting a fight. But the darkness lunged at him—and sank inside his arm. Before his eyes, one of the lines etched into his flesh thickened.

He ground his molars, a white-hot burn searing him. What. The. Hell?

He stomped through the kitchen, searching for a garbage bag. He found a potato sack, stuffed the head inside and flashed to Hades’s throne room.

Destruction went silent, as usual. Pandora was gone. The king stood in a half circle with a group of warriors Baden had never met. They were tatted up, pierced and radiated the kind of acerbity he’d only ever encountered from Hades and William.

They were young, looked to be Baden’s age, a mere four or five millennia.

A spark of memory—of recognition—courtesy of Destruction. Most of the supernatural world believed there were only three realms in hell. There were actually nine. The other realms had always preferred to remain hidden. No longer. They had taken sides in the war.

These four men were kings of their own realms. The tallest was known as the Iron Fist; he was the reason the phrase existed. The others were equally notorious. Merciless killers. Coveted by lovers. Powerful in the most wicked of ways.

“—to win,” Hades was saying, only to stiffen.

They all stiffened. In unison, they turned to face Baden.

Don’t want me here? Too bad. He tossed the sack at Hades’s feet. “I’ve earned my point.”

Hades gazed at the bolder mark on Baden’s arm, satisfaction glinting in his eyes. “Yes, I can see that.”

So. The king had known the presence would attach itself to Baden, had even wanted it to happen. “What is it, exactly?” More important, how did he get rid of it?

“That, dear boy, is my gift to you. A monster other monsters fear. One the human you killed was unable to control or use to his advantage. You, however, will not be so lacking. You’re welcome.”

“I want it.” The Iron Fist stroked the handle of his sword. “Give it to me.”

“You think to order my assassin?” Hades asked with quiet venom. “To take from him?”

The threat in his voice was unmistakable, and Baden blinked in amazement. Hades was protective of him, even though he himself had threatened Baden’s life?

A development worth exploring.

“I order and take at will.” The warrior kept his hand on the sword. “Have destroyed entire kingdoms for a single trinket I later deemed unworthy of my greatness.”

“Which is why I like you,” Hades replied. “Don’t make me dislike you.”

The other kings bristled. A fight brewed.

“If I’m no longer needed...” Baden had no desire to deal with Destruction, who would insist on participating in the battle between kings, if only to show himself strong. He longed to return to Katarina. They had unfinished business.

Hades smiled at him, colder than ice. “I will have another mission for you. Soon. Until then, stay alive.”

8

“They called me a bitch. I called them an ambulance.”

—Cameo, keeper of Misery

KATARINA LAY ON the floor of the unfamiliar bedroom, strange men and women surrounding her, talking about her as if she wasn’t there.

“Baden told us to protect...her?”

“Maybe he needed protection from her. Let’s lock her in the dungeon.”

“That’s your answer to everything, Maddox.”

“Because our enemies are wily.”

“The girl’s not a danger to anyone, least of all mad, bad Baden.”

“Speaking of, where is he? Why’d he leave? And why’d he call for Ashlyn?”

“I can answer your last question right now. He called for me because of my ability. Which means I can answer the other questions as soon as you leave the room...”

“Not happening, sweetheart. This girl is an unknown and—”

“I know, I know. Unknowns are our foes. Been there. But Baden isn’t an unknown. You trust him. He would never bring a vicious woman into our home.”