Chapter Six

Nova

Derrick smacked Odin around that morning. His frustration grew each day the kids showed no promise of mastering the spells. He gave us more bread, complaining that we were getting too weak for the spells. That wasn’t the case. The kids nor I had never felt so energized. Derrick didn’t know we had been eating the last few days, and my stomach knotted imagining him finding out.

August was a fool. No one scared me more than Derrick. August didn’t realize who he was dealing with, so he kept coming back.

But… August was the first thing I thought of that morning when we woke. Would he be there that day? As we ventured to the river, I knew I wasn’t the only one thinking of the infuriating boy. Quiet Cloud asked if I thought August would keep coming.

I didn’t know the answer to his question, but Sofia responded, “As long as he has affection for Nova, August will come.” She bounced and laughed as we walked. I was envious of her nature, her cheerfulness, and the way she saw August as some sort of prince, like the ones in their stories. Those fairy tales were all they wanted to talk about at night. I had to scold them for fear of Derrick overhearing. But they were good kids and listened to me after a stern lecture.

Unlike them, I saw the truth. Villains were the only thing that existed in our world. Someone must have given all the princes to the humans. Besides, I didn’t need anyone. What I needed was to be free. Then I could save all of us. I walked on a tightrope that threatened to break. If Derrick found out that it was me who withheld their powers… Or Hades help me. Derrick found out we were meeting someone at the edge of his boundaries. I shook the terrifying thought away.

August wasn’t in a tree that time. He appeared out of thin air in front of us instead. Sofia stumbled and fell while the boys held up their hands. When August quirked a brow, the four of them lowered their arms and smiled.

“I’m sorry Nova keeps killing you,” Sofia said while dusting off her butt.

“Maybe one day Nova won’t want to.” August patted Sofia’s head while grinning at me. “Nova.”

I stiffened at the odd way his voice deepened when he spoke my name. “What?”

When August held out his hand, I knew what he wanted. With a grumble, I handed him my hair tie. “Why do you keep asking for that?”

“It’s the only thing you own I can take that I know won’t inconvenience you,” August informed me. “You’ve been wearing the same rags for days.”

My face heated. “I—”

“Why do you want to stay here?” August scowled. “Let me take off those disgusting shackles binding you to another person and get you all out of those filthy rags.”

My heart raced as he stepped forward.

“You can’t!” I screamed as he neared. My vision hazed as a memory resurfaced.

“Go on. Try to take them off.” Derrick lifted my arm and grinned at the restraints on my wrists. “I would never allow it to kill you. You’ve sought after death too much in your younger years for me to give you such an opportunity.” I flinched as he slid his finger up my arm. “It will only render you unconscious, but know this, Nova: Anyone who tries to take it off will explode and everyone within a mile radius will keel over from the magic that will pour out from our broken bonds. No one will sever our connection. No one.”

August snatched my wrist, bringing me back to the present, and I jerked free of him quickly. “And why not?”

“The bands have a spell that kills anyone who tries to take them off.”

His dark gaze seemed to twinkle as he smirked. “It’s a good thing I’m immortal, then.”

“That’s great,” I spat, then pointed at the others who watched us warily. “But what about them?”

His brows furrowed. “Boom, what kind of magic do those bands possess?” he asked, his brows furrowing.

I exhaled and dropped my head. “The worst kind. If taken off, it will detonate and kill everything around me. But me.”

“How far do they need to be away from you?” he asked after a lengthy pause.

I tilted my head. He couldn’t possibly still be considering it, could he? “I’m not sure. Just really, really far.”

“They can hide in the woods. We can come and get them after I free you. Hell, I could fade you somewhere, so we are alone. No one will get hurt.”

A knot grew in the pit of my stomach, but my chest… I couldn’t deny the warmth, the temptation in his words. With those shackles gone, I could protect us. I could even get away from August, who I didn’t know if I could trust or not. With control of my powers, no one would dare touch us. Hades, I could kill Derrick like he had so wrongfully killed so many children.

But…

“Why are you doing this?” I questioned August. His dark stare roamed over me, and I closed my eyes. I already knew, but I wanted a different answer. If there was someone, anyone. I needed someone to help us because we were worth saving. Not because they wanted to own me next.

“Because…” August grabbed my chin and lifted. All I could feel was the helplessness from a few days ago when Derrick had done the same thing.

Stumbling back, my voice shook. “Don’t touch me like that ever again.”

His mouth parted as his eyebrows raised. “Nova…?”

“You’re all the same,” I whispered.

August’s forehead crinkled. “Are you comparing me to someone else?” When I didn’t answer, his mouth twisted. “I’m not the one that has you shackled.”

“Then don’t touch me like that! Ever. I don’t want to be touched. By you. Or him. No one,” I seethed as I gripped my fists.

The whites of August’s eyes blackened as his jaws tightened. “He… touched what’s mine?”

With sagging shoulders, I mouthed. “Boom.”

August gasped, eyes widening before he hit the dirt.

As I thought, even if…. Maybe for a moment, I had hoped August would be different. He wasn’t.

____

“Wait and let August materialize us food first before you kill him,” Finn nagged from the hilltop where the boys waited. They washed first, then Sofia and I went down to clean off. The thin wrapping around my breasts was so filthy, but I didn’t have the courage to take it off with August roaming those woods. The uncomfortable way it tightened around me proved my body had grown more since last month. I didn’t want it to, but in every way, my body was no longer a child. Despite being starved, my body still wanted to thrive. I tried my best to clean the cloth without taking it off. Sofia was completely naked, though. Her skin was shiny and red. More than my own changes, I feared the day her body matured.

There were so many things I was powerless against.

Dunking her head, Sofia disappeared several seconds before popping out of the water, giggling. “I love washing off, but I miss soap, my tub, and my—” Her voice cut off, and I watched the tremble in her lips before she shrugged. I knew she wanted to say she missed her parents. Derrick killed them when he brought her to camp. I wondered what was worse. Knowing nothing but that world, or being free and happy before being kidnapped. I had nothing to compare life with beyond being shackled. The closest I’d been to a bar of ‘soap’ was when I cleaned Derrick’s place. I’d never willingly use his scent on my skin, regardless.

“Do you think August will come today?” Sofia whispered as we spent several minutes wringing out our damp clothes. The filth never seemed to leave our dresses. I suppose it was because we needed soap.

“Probably,” I muttered. “August seems stubborn.”

“Why don’t you let him free you?” she asked after a pause.

I had to face her for that question. Placing my hands on her shoulders, I squeezed. “He wants to free me to put me in another guided cage.”

She frowned. “Why are you so sure of this?”

“Because of the darkness in his eyes. I recognized that stare. I’ve seen it for as long as I can remember, but on another person. It’s the look of someone that thinks anything in both worlds is his for the taking.”

“I don’t get scared when I see August like I do with Derrick. I don’t know, Nova, but I think you’re wrong.”

I didn’t want to argue or correct her, so I worked on slipping my dress on. Sofia gasped and grabbed my hip. I jerked around when she lowered herself to my butt.

“Hades’ sakes! What are you doing?” I asked her.

“Nova… there’s something yellow…” I smacked her hand away when she tried to lift my panties. With a scoff, I twisted around as best I could to inspect myself. I saw something yellow peeking out from the bottom of my panties. Slowly, I lowered my undergarments until it came into view. My mouth parted.

Sofia snickered and said, “It’s a yellow toad.”

“Where’s a yellow toad?” Odin yelled.

I glared up the hill. “Don’t you dare come down here.”

“Okay,” he murmured.

When Sofia saw my face, her smile faded. “Was it Derrick?”

“No,” I assured her. “I don’t know what it—”

“August is here!” Finn shouted.

Panic knotted my stomach as I shoved the dress over my body.

“Any food today?” Cloud must be asking August that.

“Don’t even think about going down there,” Odin said through a hiss. I hoped he spoke to August.

“What is all the commotion about?” A weird tingle formed in my gut at August’s voice. I shook the absurd feeling away and rushed up the hill. “Is Nova down there bathing? Maybe I should peek—” August cut off and his entire stature froze as he saw me coming. His tall frame reared back, and he raised his hands in the air as if he were preparing for my attack. Smart, ridiculous immortal. “I was joking,” he informed me quickly.

I scowled. “I said don’t follow us to the river.”

“To be fair, that was a different day,” he countered. “But I didn’t follow. I just got here and faded around until I found you guys.”

“Faded?” Cloud’s nose crinkled.

He had mentioned that the day before as well.

“Fading is what I do when I do this,” August said, right before he disappeared in front of us. When he reappeared, he tapped Cloud’s shoulder behind him. They twirled around. “It’s something my family can do,” he boasted, and I rolled my eyes.

“That’s no different from a portal chip,” Odin said, unimpressed.

“I don’t require a portal chip,” August explained, his mouth flattening in slight annoyance at Odin’s dismissiveness. “I can teleport to anywhere in the human or Underworld within a blink.”.

“Eh.” Odin shrugged and August glared, standing straighter.

When I felt my mouth curving upward, I lowered my head and rubbed my mouth. Was I amused by August’s behavior? How uncomfortable. Well, it hadn’t been at all until I noticed it.

“Nova…?” August called out, and I lifted my head. There was an odd frown on his face.

“Yeah?” I tilted my head.

“Are you unwell?” he asked.

“No, why?”

“The way you had your head lowered had me…” August rubbed the back of his neck and turned away. “It’s nothing. As long as you’re fine.” He didn’t glance my way once while speaking, but when he did, his cheeks reddened, and he scratched his chin. What was that about? I watched for longer than I wanted to admit before I wondered…

Had he been worried? Was that what kept bringing him there? His concern? If that was the case, then I gripped my chest as the weird, warming sensation trickled in.

“Food?” Sofia tugged at August’s shirt.

“Sure.” August ruffled her hair, and my jaw dropped. I did that to them. They didn’t know it, but I sent my love in those little pats. So why was August smiling at them with an expression they’d never received from anyone at the camp? He couldn’t possibly be fond of them so soon. Was Sofia right? Did I think too much when it came to August?

August turned his attention to me. “What would my—” August’s eyes bulged as he stopped mid-sentence. He averted his gaze, running his finger through his hair.

I stiffened, crossing my arms. “What were you about to say?”

His cheeks and ears turned red before he shrugged and pinned me with an impeccable grin. “My little star, of course.”

“What’s that?” I arched one brow.

He looked more his age when he laughed. “A star that burns bright. I’m referring to you. You’re my—”

August didn’t get to finish his sentence before I killed him. I would ponder Sofia’s words, but I would also correct August every time he said words I didn’t like. I wasn’t his.

“You could have waited for him to materialize the food before you killed him!” Odin screeched.

With the fluttering of my heart, I smiled and told him. “August will come again tomorrow.”