I bit my lip nervously. “Possibly,” I admitted. “But if you guys are dealing with the same one I’m running from, then you might need to sit down for this.”
Sebastian’s smile waned, and Payne’s hardened. “This demon can’t be too bad. Believe me, we deal with the ugly side of the Underworld all the time,” Payne told me.
I took a deep breath and met their hard stares. “That’s the thing. He’s not a demon, and he’s been planning something for a very long time.” I looked at Sebastian. “He’s dangerous, I mean, you don’t even know… and he’s immortal, and… He’s an entity just like you.”
Seven
Sebastian
Making light of what could possibly be a very big problem, I looked to Payne and taunted him. “Is your dad trying to gain more power again?”
Payne swore. “Could you not? This isn’t a joke.” He ran his hand through his hair and glared at me. Ah, I somehow felt better now. He had to go and bring up the whole falling asleep during sex…if only it weren’t true. It’d happened before one time, and I had made it up to her once I woke…two weeks later. “Besides, that wasn’t him. He wasn’t Fear yet.”
“Wait, your dad’s an entity too?” Izzie gasped. “So you’re one too?”
Payne shook his head. “I’m not.” His parents found him when he was a newborn, and it was because of that he had the pleasure of growing up with us. “The only two entities that it can be are either Harvest or Jackal, which one?” he asked her.
Unlike my parents, entities created by God, Payne’s dad was one of the Devil’s creation. Fear along with Harvest and Jackal belonged to him. Me and my siblings were the only ones inheriting the designation by it being passed down. All of us were immortal, never aging or dying. Each one of us had our own capabilities too. Unfortunately, none of us knew anything aboutJackal or Harvest—not what they looked like, their gender, or were they simply monsters. Our parents told us stories about the trouble Fear caused before he merged with Ryan, Mom’s best friend. The entity unleashed demons on the town and was obsessed with wanting more power—including gaining my mom’s power. But he failed and found redemption when he merged. Yep. The Underworld was a fun place.
If we were dealing with an entity, it could be a problem. Dad spoke of the body counts he’d find killed by Jackal long before he even met Mom, and Harvest was no different. He’d yet to see either of them, but he’d spent many moons cleaning up after them.
“He always wanted me to call him Julius,” she whispered. “Only demons call him Harvest.” She exuded fear as she spoke of him. “… It seems he’s finally making his move,” she whispered.
“Move?” I asked. “Do you know what he’s planning?”
She nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. Her spitfire personality was dimmed now, replaced with a haunted grimace. “He’s obsessed with being a king.” She shook her head. “No, he believes he is one.”
Payne snorted. “Well, he fits right in down in the Underworld. Most demons believe themselves to be lords or kings—some are, by species if you wanna be precise.”
She sighed. “You don’t understand. He doesn’t imagine small. He doesn’t want to be terrifying the way Fear is, or known like the Grim Reaper, or the alpha of a pack, or a leader of a cult—he wants to rule.” She never took her eyes from Payne’s as she spoke to him. “He wants the Underworld, thenmore.”
We were both quiet as we processed her words before we burst out into laughter. “He wants to rule?” I said in a childish voice.
“Wants to take his creator’s world and make it his own?” Payne piped in still laughing.
Izzie face turned apple red as she huffed and puffed. “Don’t take him lightly. He’s so much worse than you could possibly imagine! He’d make even the Devil look nice in comparison.”
I stopped laughing and straightened up. “You’re afraid of him.”
She scowled. “I’ve been running for a reason…” She dropped her arms and gripped her hands, flexing them in and out, before opening her palms and studying them. “You wouldn’t understand.” I didn’t, but I wanted to.
“Let him try to do whatever he wants with the Devil,” Payne interrupted. “I’m sure he won’t get far. Even for an entity, the Devil is still the Devil and his very creator. He reigns over the dark. He ain’t about to let it be stolen.”
“But… If he’s the one killing the children,” I muttered darkly.
Payne cracked his knuckles. “He’s gonna wish he could die.”
“Children?” Izzie’s face slipped into a horrific shock.
The alarms went off on both Payne and mine phones. We glanced at each other. It was Grim. “Think he’s got something already?” Payne asked.
I sighed. “He is the Grim Reaper after all.”
Payne looked down at his phone oddly. “You go see him. I’ll check the places we’ve found.” And then he smacked his hand over his pants pocket where he kept the portal chip and ported from the kitchen.
I slipped my phone in my back pocket and looked up. “So, Izzie,” I tilted my head at her. “You never told me how you know Harvest…I mean Julius.”
“You act like we haven’t just met.” She rolled her eyes. “You want me to go into detail about my past after a couple hours of knowing you?”
