Chapter Three

Nova

“Did someone eat the hunter’s body, Nova?” Cloud asked as we traveled through the woods the following day.

It had been two days without food and only minimal water. I had to sneak into the City of the Dead. With the hunter’s body missing, Derrick refused to give us food. Every second I waited would make it harder for me to use magic, already so restricted by the shackles. I was lethargic as we walked. There was no weather in the Underworld—the temperature stayed the same all year. When Derrick took me to the human world, I was mind-blown the first time I saw the sun.

The strange object in the sky had been suffocating and hot. I wasn’t sure if I liked it. No matter how hard I tried to peer up, spots dotted my vision, and its brilliant beauty forced me to squint. It was strange. The Underworld was cold in comparison, but I couldn’t imagine being under the human world’s sun without water or food.

“Maybe,” I told Cloud.

It was possible that a creature carried off and ate the corpse somewhere, but what dared roam those woods while Derrick lived there? I couldn’t imagine encountering anything besides his soldiers.

“I’m so hungry,” Sofia mumbled.

“If Odin mastered the spell, we’d get food!” Finn yelled.

Odin’s face reddened. “I will get it right. Don’t worry! You haven’t had to learn that spell yet.”

No, he wouldn’t master it.

I used what magic was available to me each time Odin tried, ensuring he failed. Derrick didn’t sense me tampering, but it wasn’t the first time — or twelfth. I’d been doing it for four years. When a child didn’t learn spells within a certain time, Derrick had a goon kill them. That’s what he thought happened, anyway. He never did it personally, always making one of his men. All I had to do was convince the soldier he killed the child and disposed of the body. By altering their reality and memories, that was how I saved twelve kids after those four came into my life.

It was a small number compared to the one hundred and five who died before I realized what I could do while being trapped there. Just by entering my life, those four forced me to fight evil in my way. I had no idea what happened to the saved children. Their only chance was risking the dangerous city. But escaping Derrick gave them a fighting chance—the one thing making my life bearable. Giving them the chance I’d never get. I was the only one shackled to Derrick.

The explosion spell was the last mastered. I didn’t intervene until the final training stage, helped by the spell’s difficulty anyway, avoiding suspicion with so many failing. I faced more confrontations with Derrick, but better me than them.

“You need to stay here while I get food,” I said, spotting the City of the Dead. My legs trembled at the distance—so much walking, needing to be quick. I couldn’t risk them getting closer. Derrick wasn’t the only Underworld monster. We were food for plenty of demons. I had to walk alone.

“Climb that tree. All of you.” If a creature was out there, I wouldn’t risk them being low.

“Can we go to the river after eating?” Finn asked, pinching his nose at Odin. “Odin stinks.”

Sofia snickered. “I don’t think you stink, Odin!”

“Shut up, Finn!” Odin yelled, his cheeks reddening.

Then I sensed the hunter’s intense presence from the day before and froze. How? I killed him, but I recognized that massive energy flow—how I found him before. The sheer power sizzled the air for yards around him. He wasn’t a warlock proxy like Derrick. The magic was different, maybe not magic at all. But with his youth, I suspected it hadn’t fully developed yet, like mine.

I killed him. It shouldn’t be possible he was alive. Did he fake death and then return for revenge?

I scanned the trees until I found him. My heart sank. I sensed him in the same tree I told the kids to climb, Odin already halfway up. “Odin, get down!” I shrieked.

Odin turned too fast, boots slipped on decaying bark. None of them were used to me shrieking. As his hand slid from the branch, I sent magic to catch him.

The hunter appeared, catching Odin effortlessly and setting him down.

“The hunter’s a ghost!” Sofia screeched, running to me, terrified to see the hunter back.

“Clearly, a zombie, or whatever humans call reanimated dead. He’s not see-through,” Finn said like we had time to debate it.

Coal-colored eyes narrowed on me. “Before you say boom again, explain why you’re calling me a hunter.”

I stiffened. A trick? How could he not be?

“Come here, Odin,” I said sternly, holding out my arms for him to rush into. I slowly inspected the probable hunter. His clean white shirt and dark blue pants were foreign clothing for any man in those woods.

“You’re not a hunter?” I asked.

“What am I supposed to be hunting?”

“Us!” Odin shouted.

The stranger quirked a dark brow. To avoid giving too much away, I changed the topic. “If you’re not a hunter, why were you here yesterday and today?”

The corner of his mouth lifted, and he pointed toward the city. “Observing from a distance. Sometimes you need to view from the outside to see.”

Huh? What was he trying to see?

He glanced toward me again, those brown orbs oddly hypnotic as they swept over me. “But I’m here to visit you today.”

“Me?” My forehead crinkled.

“The minions are hungry, right?” He raised his hand, and an apple materialized in his palm. Everyone gasped as my stomach grumbled.

“You can make food appear?” Finn’s mouth hung open.

“That’s so cool!” Sofia clapped.

“Why can’t we do that?” Odin asked.

Proxies were destructive, not nurturing creatures. We had nearly unlimited power as we aged, but it was all dangerous—harming, explosive, unstoppable—if we lived past eighteen. We couldn’t heal or materialize necessities.

The stranger waved his hand. A blanket stacked with food appeared at our feet — rare human dishes I’d hardly been treated to. Derrick bred mundane animals for food, rarely sharing chicken or eggs with us.

“Yay!” Sofia cheered as they rushed forward.

I recognized chicken and was drooling before regaining composure. “Don’t eat anything!” I yelled, my vision fading as Odin shoved a chicken leg into his mouth. Falling to my knees, I yanked it from him. “Spit it out. It could be poisoned.”

“Is she always this paranoid?” the stranger asked.

Odin gripped his neck, coughing.

“Odin!” Panic filled my lungs. I grabbed his shoulders. “Odin!”

Odin coughed again before laughing, spitting meat on my left cheek.

“You tricked me?” Relief flooded me as tears welled up.

“It’s good, Nova.” Odin shoved meat on my lips. “Eat. You don’t have to go to the city.” He beamed childishly, and I envied his carefree nature—something I’d never experienced.

“Don’t scare me again.” I shook him sternly.

“Can I eat, Nova?” Sofia whispered. “I’m so hungry.”

“Do you have no sense of danger?” I scolded. “I killed this man yesterday, and he comes with food…Necromancy!” I glowered at the stranger, scanning for his puppeteer. I sensed no one else.

“Try immortal,” he piped in.

My eyes slanted at his dark gaze. Immortal? Worse than I imagined. With the shackles, I couldn’t protect us. “They’re children!” I pleaded, clenching my fists. “Don’t hurt them.”

“Who are starving,” he added. “Let them eat.”

Weak from hunger, anxiety high, I couldn’t think straight. The four were choking, eating so fast. I dropped my shoulders in defeat.

There were worse ways to die, a moment of weakness said.

No! Their lives mattered, but mine didn’t. I’d never considered ending mine until meeting them… None were dying. I’d ensure they lived. Demons could survive poison, but not hunger. Food was crucial then. Picking up the chicken, I tossed a piece in my mouth.

“It’s good, right?” Sofia leaned closer, hopefulness brightening her dark red skin.

I nodded, my vision blurring from tears. “Yes.” I glared at the immortal. “What do you want? We have nothing.”

“I wouldn’t say nothing, Nova.” I jumped at the familiar way he said my name.

I studied his confident form, the way he watched me — never looking away. He had a motive. A similar roving stare from Derrick made my skin crawl, but this one sparked heat in my bones, seeping into my neck and face like the human world’s sun, making me feverish. Something I’d never experienced before. Unsure how to react, I ignored it.

“What’s your name?” Odin asked between bites.

“August.”

Au-gust. I let the word float through my head. August with the cold, black stare—almost a man, or maybe he already was. Given his imposing height, it was hard to tell. His face was youthful, but it lacked innocence. Like so many other men, there was something missing in his smile. The shape of his mouth appeared somewhat corrupted and wicked. I doubted those jet-black orbs ever softened, though my mind kept picturing it.

“Let’s hear your names,” August said. “I think I know some, but just to be sure.”

“Why?” I questioned.

He exhaled, dismissing me with a wave. “I’m asking the minions. Eat.”

“I’m Sofia,” she answered with a vibrant beam. “That’s Odin—he’s loud. Finn is the redhead and Cloud is over there.” She cupped her mouth, whispering, “Cloud is the gloomy one. We love him, though.”

Cloud, rolling his eyes, continued eating.

“Did you poison us?” Sofia blinked innocently at August, prompting me to avert my gaze.

“No.” August squatted beside her, plucking meat from her chicken to eat while focusing on me. “Imagine what might happen if you pass out from starvation because you’re too stubborn to eat, Boom?”

I opened my mouth to yell, but he stuck food in it, his finger grazing my lips. I jerked away.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I covered my mouth, not daring to spit it out, barely chewing before swallowing. “And did you just call me…” The word was so easy to say, one of my favorites, but I mouthed it. “ Boom. ”

Smack! My head swiveled as Derrick’s palm struck my cheek, the metallic taste filling my mouth. I jerked forward, nose-to-nose with him. “How many times must I tell you to stop it? Stop saying boom! You don’t alert the enemy! You’re nothing, Nova. Nothing. So be silent and do as you’re told.”

I fisted my hands, rage bubbling up at the memory of Derrick silencing me. Why did I have to be silenced? I wanted my presence sensed, heard, felt, touched. Free .

Yet, beaten to silence.

August tilted his head to speak when Sofia smacked her palm over his lips. “Don’t make Nova say it. He hates when she does.”

“He?” August’s eyes rimmed with blackness before furrowing his brows at me. “What are you doing out here?”

Sofia sucked her cheeks in, ready to tell our secrets, so I spoke first. “None of your business.”

“Are there homes in these dead woods?” August quirked a brow, pupils returning to normal as he glanced around.

“If Nova says none of your business, it’s not your concern,” Odin stated, eating August’s food.

August’s lips curled. “Peculiar gratitude.”

“We didn’t ask you to feed us,” Odin said truthfully.

“While true, doesn’t mean I won’t ask for payment.” August’s stare swept over me and stopped at my dress.

I stiffened. “We have nothing.”

He waggled his brows weirdly. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

Twice he had said that while staring at me. Straightening my shoulders, I held his steely gaze determinedly. New heat spread over my cheeks and chest. I didn’t glance away—I faced evil daily.

He cocked his head suddenly, lips curling upward to reveal white teeth, brightening his face. But the cruelty within his slanted brows kept me from believing it was genuine. “You didn’t avert your gaze.”

“What?” My nose scrunched.

“Want to leave here, Nova?” Still squatted, August reached his long fingers toward me. I flinched away before he could touch my face.

“You’re mine. I won’t let anyone have you. Not even Harvest.”

Derrick’s words echoed. I stood quickly, anger sparking. August called himself immortal. I knew no immortals by that name — but everyone knew the Devil’s entities: Jackal, Fear, and Harvest.

Was he Harvest? A trick to get me to lower my guard? It made sense.

“Why!” I screamed. “Are you the one coming for me? If so, why? I am nothing and don’t want to belong to anyone!” I just want to belong to myself.

“Who comes for you?” His brows knitted together.

“I’ve never heard of an immortal named August,” I said instead.

August stood, jaws tightening. “Everyone will know my name, little star. Everyone will probably loathe me. And I will be the one coming for you.”

“Do you know what I am?” I seethed.

“A witch,” he answered.

“A proxy,” I retorted. I was tired of him pretending!

His jaw dropped. “I’ve heard of those. I didn’t know such power still existed.”

A shiver slithered over me. What I admitted wouldn’t stop ringing in my ears. Even if August wasn’t Harvest, I gave him a reason to be someone like that. Everyone wanted to own us. No one wanted to save us.

“I had a feeling you were powerful, but why can’t I sense your magic?” August asked.

Because it was bound and restricted by Derrick.

Before I had to say anything, August nodded. “Whoever you’re afraid of, I’m not him. I see hate in your eyes when it comes to me. I’m Greed, Nova. We don’t choose, sometimes we just are. And what you are is now something I’m wholly invested in.”

Fear seized my chest. Lifting my arm, August’s gaze darkened, “Don’t—”

Boom. I squeezed my hand into a fist, imagining it being August’s heart. His words cut off quickly and his body slumped.

No. Just another person who wished to own me.