Chapter Ten

Nova’s Perspective Of The Following Day.

I flinched as Sofia’s fingers touched my bruised eye.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

Beside us, the boys watched nervously. Instead of answering, I gently pushed Sofia into Odin.

“Stay here. When the bands are off, me and August will come back for you all,” I ordered.

My quick act of anchoring August and me together by magic had worked. A punch to my face was a small price to pay. I winced as I tried to squint. Since the day Derrick’s shield broke, he aggressively imposed himself on me. It started with a simple kiss, but by the frantic way he stared and gripped my shoulders, that Harvest person was making Derrick unusually desperate around me. Like he feared I was about to be plucked from his shackles forever.

It was a risk bonding my body to August to block any ill advances from me. I had done it anyway. I’d chance death before ever having Derrick’s lips on mine again. And that’s what happened after we returned from watching movies with August. The camp was in disarray. Several of Derrick’s demons were dead. Someone had visited, and it hadn’t been friendly. Derrick ran and hugged me when he saw me, the relief clear on his face. But the second he tried to kiss me; the spell blasted him back. I’d never seen his face twist into fury so swiftly. He didn’t know what kept him from touching me intimately, but he knew I’d done something. He punched me, then immediately after, tried to soothe me while demanding I tell him how to reverse whatever I’d done.

The camp had been in chaos that morning as we snuck out. Derrick was busy with his men, yelling out orders by the campfire. After the beating he gave me the night before; I didn’t think he expected me to head out, so he didn’t guard our cottage either. Still, my heart continued to race as we tip-toed past Derrick while he addressed his men. A group of women were on their knees in front of him and his men, trembling. When he plucked one up by the shoulder, I turned and kept running.

“Your name is Nova now…” his words drifted off.

Oh, Hades. Was he forcing a young proxy to pretend to be me?

I closed my eyes, gave my head a good shake, then started running. Derrick was risking his life and everyone around him so that he could keep me prisoner. He really planned to fool Harvest by saying another witch was me.

After hiding the kids in a tree, I ran alone to meet August. My teeth chattered. I breathed quickly and unevenly. Not from the cold, but from the terror of my actions. If something happened and I died trying to be free, Sofia and the others would die. No, August would take them away even if I perished from the bands, wouldn’t he?

I stopped and simply stared when I saw August in the distance. His back faced me, and it looked like he had his arms crossed. He really came. And just like that, the chattering, the pants, the fear—everything ceased. When I saw August, I believed everything would be okay.

“August,” I said, gripping my dress nervously. I bit my lip as he turned. I felt like I should say something. There was a wild, fluttering feeling inside me. The emotion was so big, like it might burst out of my chest. A dazzling warmth overcame me. The crazy rush roaring inside me needed to be heard at least once. The feeling was too big to keep to myself. If I died, I didn’t want to keep them. Those feelings were the ones he’d given me. “August—”

He dropped his hands. “I can’t believe you actually came.”

Something about the bleakness in his stare shriveled up the warmth inside me.

Still, I said, “We need to hurry. When we remove the bands, it will alert Derrick. Sofia and the boys—”

He laughed abruptly. “Did you think I’d actually help you and your brats?”

August was different. Maybe not different. Maybe that cold, blank expression was something he’d kept hidden. My toes curled inside my boots. Sofia said we could trust him, and I did, and that’s why I was there, but I stiffened. I didn’t want to believe he was like the others. “What do you mean?”

“If I take off those bands, that’s unnecessary trouble for me,” he explained.

My heart sank. “August… Please don’t do the pranks right now. You said that I was—” I couldn’t believe I was about to say the word.

August pointed to his right ear. “What did I say? I don’t remember. Can you refresh my memory?”

I couldn’t speak. I could only stare as my arms dropped to my sides. My stomach bubbled with a sickness I couldn’t describe. It felt like my insides kept shrinking or pouring to the ground like acid. Only there was nothing around my feet, despite how chaotic my body felt.

With a sigh, August turned, nose crinkling in disgust, as he waved his hand at me. “Please, look at yourself, then me. Isn’t that answer enough?”

I hated that I didn’t know what he meant, and my cheeks burned. Nothing about those words sounded nice. I stopped assuming August was cruel because he had never been punishing to me.

“I don’t care if you help us after you take off the bands,” I lied, thrusting out my arms. “But at least do what you said.”

“No.”

“No?” I echoed. That… Couldn’t be happening. August’s face had been so clear the day before, so earnest in the depth of his black orbs. As I stared at him then, I noticed his mouth appeared crooked, warped, and shadowy . I blinked and rubbed my face. August was still there. Not a monster, but that’s what he felt like. Did he really play such a wicked game with me? Dangle hope, then snatch it away?

“Nice knowing ya.” August tossed his hand up and turned.

Really? That couldn’t be the last thing he said to me.

The kids were waiting. We couldn’t go back to the camp. Death awaited us.

“Please, please, ” I begged him. “If you don’t free me, I don’t know what awaits us. We might die.”

He glanced over his shoulder and quirked a brow. “And?”

My shoulders drooped, and it was like a bubble popped inside my head. How could he fool me so easily? I gripped my chest. Hades, no amount of pain could ever prepare me for August’s indifference. It hurt more than my bruised eye. More than anything I’d experienced. Stumbling back, August disappeared. My lungs closed as if it refused to accept my next breath. No… What? He wouldn’t—but why?

Jerking around, I started running back. Everything blurred. I wiped the tears away, but they kept returning. We had to get back before Derrick realized we were gone. I screamed when someone snatched me by the hair and pulled me to their chest. “Ah, now that you said your farewell, I think it’s time for you to come with me.”

Tilting my head, I glimpsed over my shoulder. The first thing I saw was the flames on the pale man’s head. His terrifying face loomed over me. “Let go of me!” I kicked and thrashed.

That made him laugh. “So, I guess you know why I’m here.”

I stopped and acknowledged his words. Was he Harvest? He must be. Why else would he grab me?

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“Nova!” Odin yelled.

My heart lurched as I stared ahead. Odin bit his captor’s arm, and the captor backhanded him. The others were in the same shape, kicking and thrashing in a demon’s arms. I didn’t recognize the species. They looked so… dead. Stitched and woven in such a way that had chills running up my arms. One had tentacles sown on his shoulders while the one holding Sofia seemed stuck between werewolf and man. One side of him was wolfish, the other was human.

“Let them go!” I lunged for them, but Harvest petted my hair and held me in place.

“Let’s go find Derrick, shall we?” was all he said before pushing me to walk.

____

“See what happens when you try to hide something from me?” Harvest scowled at Derrick, who was on his knees before the entity. Derrick’s lips bled, and his left eye swelled shut . In any other situation, I would have reveled in Derrick’s torture, but the immortal between us might be a scarier monster than him. Harvest could subdue and punish Derrick. Harvest must have known Derrick planned to pretend someone else was me. “I would have let you keep her until I needed her.”

My chest hurt with how hard my heart continued to thump rapidly. What did Harvest need me for? Derrick said Harvest wanted to start an apocalypse, but what did that have to do with me?

As soon as I locked eyes with Derrick, he lowered his head and said, “You wanted her dead. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Sofia’s whimpering filled the room. She and the boys stood crowded in a corner of Derrick’s cottage, flanked by two of Harvest’s demons. Derrick’s demons were dead. They had scattered the corpses of the demons around the camp.

The flames on Harvest’s head flickered as he ran his fingers through it. “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood now that I have the missing puzzle piece.”

Panic set in my bones when he turned to me.

“Let the kids go. I’ll do whatever you want.” It was the truth. I’d do anything to protect them.

“It seems you believe you have a choice. You don’t. You’ll do what I want, whether or not I kill them.” Harvest stepped forward and grabbed my chin. “Did Derrick tell you what you are?”

“Some sort of key,” I mumbled, glancing behind Harvest briefly. The demons guarding the kids weren’t paying attention, too busy watching Harvest. Odin said something to others, then pointed. Acid filled my stomach. Please don’t run . Harvest and I blocked the only door.

“Yes, you’re the key to the Armageddon.” When I said nothing, Harvest grunted. “Would you mind opening the door for me? It is necessary for me to secure what rightfully belongs to me by walking through first.” My body jerked in response to his hand encircling my neck. The other grabbed my hand.

My heart kicked into overdrive when I saw spidery, black veins racing down his arm, leading to his hand. Veins couldn’t travel over and under the skin like that. The blackness wiggled and thickened on his skin as they moved, reminding me of snakes. When the things slipped out of the tips of his fingers, I gasped. Too late, I noticed what was happening. No! I jerked as the darkness stretched out and onto me. My skin prickled as it stretched up my fingers.

“What are you doing?” I panicked in earnest, thrashing against his hold. The immortal didn’t budge under my kicks and pulls.

“Shh, relax,” Harvest demanded. “You’ll know nothing, feel nothing, but what I tell you soon.”

What? What would that make me? Nothing? I thought being shackled was terrible, but to be nothing?

“Stop!” As I screamed, the blackness pierced through my skin. The stinging pain was instant.

“See,” Harvest began. “You won’t have to worry about choices or anything before long. Once my darkness claims you, I’ll decide for you.” Just as quickly as he started speaking, a yellow roll of magical power shrouded me. It weaved around my arm, the very one the darkness sank into. Tiny hisses came from the odd wiggling blackness. I’d never seen that yellow magic inside me before, but it was pushing against it. The blackness started pulling out of my skin and the warm essence chased after it. The black lines shrieked away and slithered up Harvest’s arm until I no longer saw it beneath his skin. That’s when Harvest reacted.

He lifted me off the ground by the neck, squeezing tightly. My feet dangled, and I tried kicking. I sent out an explosion that shredded into his shoulder. Meaty chunks blew onto my dress and the floor. He didn’t flinch, and I watched in eerie fascination as his body mended together as if he was a pile of mush. When he squeezed again, it felt like the veins on my forehead would pop out of my flesh. My eyes burned so badly. I feared they might pop out, too.

“What did you do?” he yelled.

“Nothing.” I choked, then tried gasping for air. It didn’t help. I couldn’t breathe.

“What is this?” With a snarl, he pointed at the strange power swirling around me. “Why do you have a power like that? How? Do you realize what you’ve ruined?”

“I don’t know!” I screamed, and he dropped me. Grabbing my neck, I coughed until saliva dripped down my chin. Between the gap in Harvest’s legs, I saw Odin shoving Sofia in the pantry cabinet, closing the wooden door.

“Bring the angel to me,” Harvest ordered a demon, and my mouth fell open. Angel?

A second later, a tall, lean man landed on the floor beside me. His torn and dirty clothes showed he had received more battering than Derrick. He was an angel? He looked no different from any of us. Harvest bent down, grabbed the man by his blond hair, and yanked him forward until they were nose to nose.

“Is there someone else like Nova?” Harvest asked him.

“No.” The angel’s voice was soft, but I wondered if it was because he was weak.

“Don’t lie to me.” Harvest gripped his hair harder, pushing him back slightly. “You’re already a disgrace to Heaven, succumbing to seduction. You lost your powers—your light. Heaven forsakes you. You have nothing left to lose, so tell me.”

“I’m not lying,” the angel muttered. “There won’t be another key for a hundred years.”

“Give me a name!” Harvest shouted.

“Isabella Wen.” The angel’s head drooped forward, and Harvest shoved him. “Heaven, forgive me.” The angel cried.

Harvest turned back to me, lips quivering with his fury. “Useless. You are useless. Without my darkness in your veins, you can’t—” Harvest sneered. “Because of you, I must wait another hundred years. Here’s what you’ll get.” A blade materialized in his hand, then with a cruel sneer, he spun around.

My entire body tensed, locking up, when I saw him approaching the kids.

“No, no, no. Please,” I begged.

When I tried to move, it was like something held me down, but nothing touched me. I tried my magic next and nothing! The same helplessness I’d experienced all my life still consumed me that day. I couldn’t do anything more than watch as he stole my small bit of happiness.

Harvest lifted his blade over Cloud’s head. Finn burst into tears. Beside him, Odin stood beside the cabinet door, chest rising and falling as he stared at Cloud’s fate first. Tears spun like ribbons down my face. Odin glared at the immortal then, bracing himself against the door hoping that no one reached Sofia. Cloud looked at me. His lips moved as he mouthed something. Hades, he smiled next, then he dropped his head, closing his eyes.

It’s okay, he had told me.

But it wasn’t.

“Don’t worry, you’ll all be together on the other side.” The blade swung as Harvest laughed…