Page 103 of Payne's Envy

He was the one I liked to be around most when in the City of the Dead.

“Yeah,” I agreed while placing my hands in my pocket and stopped. Sebastian ran his fingers through his blond hair before throwing his hands out in front of him. “You okay, brother?”

“Get us back to the—”

Sebastian didn’t get to finish his sentence before he nosedived into the ground. Reaper down. Exactly why I should’ve been made one before him. Several demons stopped to check on him while I scratched my chin.

Should I leave him?

Mom wouldn’t let me out of the castle for a year if I did that. Exhaling, I bent down and placed him over my shoulder. At fifteen, I was already taller than Sebastian. In a few more years, I’d make sure that my body surpassed those around me in mass as well.

I took him to a dark alley and propped his back against a building. Grabbing his phone, I sent an alert out for someone to come get him. No one but Grim knew I had come with Sebastian to the City of the Dead. That meant I had several hours to waste before Mom realized I was gone.

That left me one question. What should I do?

_____

Even a demon city was no different than a bustling human one. A mile out from the city, I sat on a branch several feet in the air. Leaning against the tree, I observed the chatter from a distance. Everything was so dreary and colorless. Even the shop signs had little to no color on them. No streetlights. Only a fake moon to live under.

How unwelcoming.

Even so, my mind painted ideas. Boxing my fingers in front of my face, I moved it over the city and wondered what would become of that place once I got a hold of it.

It wasn’t an ‘if’ but a ‘when’. I would run those streets one day. The real question was what become of it once it belonged to me. So many things I wanted to do.

Become a Reaper.

Control the city.

Maybe it would be the human world after.

My heart pounded and tingles spread up my spine. Planning was just as consuming as getting what I desired. The idea of what I could take next drove me day to day.

Nothing was great about that city. Did I care? No. I saw it and decided that the boring streets would be filled with whatever I wanted it to be.

Materializing an apple, I took a bite and hummed to myself.

“I’m hungry,” a child whispered in the distance.

Someone was out in those dead woods with me. Strange. Leaning off the tree, I glanced down and saw no one.

“Derrick will only give us food when you master the explosion spell,” another child said sadly. That one was a little girl.

“I’m hungry, Nova,” the boy whined again.

I placed my finger in my ear and sighed. Kids were annoying. I rubbed my chest at the sting that suddenly appeared there. I never got to be a child.

“I know, Odin. I am, too.” I froze at the girl’s voice.

Angelic. And so soft. I’d never heard a voice so melodic. The rain pattering down on the leaves in Grim’s woods had been my favorite thing to hear. Weather didn’t exist there so I had to materialize a storm from the human world when I wanted to hear it. It was always worth the trouble. Greed wanted everything I could take, but a sound couldn’t be stolen. For me, a storm could. I stole one every time I wanted to listen to its music.

It seemed I had a new favorite sound because my heart stopped. The organ missed several beats before pounding heavily against my ribcage. I never thought I’d find something better than the sound of rain. The wheels of greed turned. Round and round they went, giving me a new want. Greed had never happened so instantly. I never desired a person before, and it was only her voice I heard. I hadn’t seen the creature who stirred greed yet, but I was already thinking of what I’d say to Mom when I locked my newest belonging away.

The tree I was in may be barren, but the trunk was massive. Since the kids weren’t below or in front of me, I knew they were behind me.

“This isn’t the way to the river,” another boy piped in. It didn’t sound as loud as Odin’s whiny voice, but the meek, flat sound definitely belonged to another child. How many were there?

“No, it’s not,” the soft-spoken female said. Nova. That was what she had answered to. A star that burned bright before returning to its original state. Fitting for a sound so unique. Did she always speak so lightly? “But when Derrick asks, we will say that’s where we went.”

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