Page 5 of Villainous Greed

My heart ached as if encased in ice.Dread.He terrified me. I feared he planned something huge. Seeing the laughing kids, I knew I had to get them away before that happened.

I was thirteen. Surely, he wouldn’t keep me much longer. I’d learned explosion magic years ago. I could walk right into his enemy’s home and detonate myself if it meant stopping him from taking more children.

But would the Underworld ever be safe for our kind? Proxies were dangerous, but so was living as one—the newest hunter proved that. Like Derrick, other thieves used kids to do their dirty work. The hunter wasn’t yet a man. His face was youthful despite his malicious, soulless eyes. Those kinds of boys were dangerous and better ended before manhood. I’d never encountered someone so persuasive yet sinister, matching Derrick’s cruelty, thinking the world was theirs.

“Burst?” The hunter chuckled deeply. “It’s been pounding since I saw you.”

I palmed my chest as an odd throb knocked against my ribcage. What had he meant? I supposed I’d never know.

Sofia screamed as the door flew open. We rushed to our feet as Derrick’s menacing stance filled the entrance. He glared at me.I braced myself as he stalked forward.

“What is it?” I blurted out.

“Don’t pretend when you already know,” he muttered.

My nose wrinkled. “What’s wrong?”

“There was no hunter,” he spoke calmly, and when he talked so softly, I learned danger lurked the most.

Bile rose — I knew what was coming.

Derrick said, “You lied.”

“I swear—”

My cheek stung as his palm connected. A metallic taste filled my mouth. My heartbeat roared in my ear as he gripped my dress and pulled me inches from him. “I’ve been good to you. I let you roam with your brats. Yet you don’t train them and now you lie for food.”

“There was one!” Odin yelled.

“Quiet!” Derrick shouted, eyeing me strangely, making my skin crawl. “You’re not a child anymore. I’ve been patient. Don’t you see everything I do is foryou?”

What?

He bunched my dress, fisting it at my chest. True terror clung to my bones. I didn’t want to be there at that moment. I wished to shrink and shrink until I was nothing. But I couldn’t be nothing when I had children to protect. So, my body trembled, and my heart felt like it wept when Derrick loosened his fist, then dragged fingers over my breasts.

No… Hades.I’d seen what his men did.

I stepped back, but he kept me from going too far. “I’m not at war anymore. I killed that proxy years ago. Our problem is bigger now.”

What were we preparing for?

“You’re confusing me,” I whispered, still trying to pull away.

“An entity knows you exist. He’ll try to come for you.” He gripped my chin painfully, forcing me to meet his stare. Therewas something wicked in the depths of his pupils. The same wrongness that lurked in those men’s gaze when they ripped the dresses off those unwilling demons. “You’re mine. I won’t let anyone have you. Not even Harvest.”

He shoved me away and strode out.

“Nova!” Sofia lunged.

My arms shook as I hugged her. Derrick had never looked at me like I was a woman before. I didn’t like how it made my skin crawl. I tried hard not to think about what it meant.

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.

---