Page 25 of Villainous Greed

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 thethingsslipped 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 hadreceived 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 methat 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…

Part Two:

The Present

Chapter Eleven

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