Can't Fight Fate

Getting stabbed in the heart, finding out she was pregnant, leaving Grim--those were all worse situations. But she survived it. She'd survive whatever this was, too.

Picking her way through the rubble, Nina tried to remember which part of the castle she was in. Usually Grim and Uri ferried her around with their super-speed. Taking note of the individual tapestries and twisted hallways hadn't been foremost in her mind.

Now it was imperative.

West wing or east? First floor or second? Closer to the back of the castle or the front? The need to discover where she was and what had happened made her legs move faster, hands pushing off from the wall and propelling her down the hallway.

There was an open door to her left and she stopped to poke her head in. Tapestries were shredded, hanging off the walls and windows like ghosts. Once brightly burning lamp sconces were now jagged pieces of glass drenched in oil and scattered on the stone. Everything screamed danger, forcing Nina to accept that whatever had happened, the castle was no longer under Bloodspurn rule.

Shaking her head, Nina turned to the one thing that always guided her through difficult situations: cool and calm logic. It was her best--and probably only--resource.

Think, she counseled herself. Tears formed in her eyes as her emotions leaked, but Nina brushed them aside. She couldn't afford distractions, even ones from herself.

Grim's not here. He would have come already if he was. The man could hear a freaking pin drop on the other side of his kingdom. Nina nodded slowly and moved out of the room, keeping close to the walls and their shadowed darkness. She winced as her shoulder brushed a piece of glass embedded in the wall. She eased up.

No guards or maids either. No one.

It was apparent that whoever stormed this place hadn't stayed to claim it. The destruction seemed like a demonstration of power and force.

Nina felt her insecurity and fear creeping back in. She turned toward the hallway she'd come from and thought about the broken portal. She'd come through it. Maybe she could figure out how to get back. Piece together as much of the mirror as possible.

"No." She shook her head and forced her feet to continue. Someone had to be here, someone who could help. She wouldn't go back to the gods, not after what they'd done. Diving into a tank filled with starved sharks sounded better.

Nina wondered how long she'd been with Yin and Yang and what the time conversion was. It had felt like hours in their world, but it took more than a few hours to commit this much destruction, and it looked old. Dust collected on the broken glass and the air was cold and stale.

Nina continued to walk, nearing a corner. Before she could reach that turning point, however, power rushed over her. A reaper's power. It curved around her, feeling like hands gripping her body, and panic set in. Nina had seen Grim's power choke Uri once before and she didn't want that to happen to her.

"Oh no, you don't!" she gasped as she fought to get away from the electric tendrils.

When she'd been human, Grim's power had locked around her like invisible manacles, able to control her like a rag doll if he wanted. It was different now. She could see the power. It manifested in blue-gray tendrils of electricity that didn't sting as much as they absorbed. They gripped her body, and Nina felt her strength waning, muscles fatigue and eyelids begin to lower. Its purpose wasn't to physically hurt its intended victim, but to drain them of the same power that had made them tangible.

What the hell did they do to me? Nina thought about Yin and Yang's experiments again as she fought through the power's hold and dragged her body down the hall to the room she'd come from. God, I don't even want to know.

She couldn't have taken more than a few steps when she finally recognized something: Uri's voice. "Nina!"

Whipping her head around, Nina grimaced at the crick. The ache was gone, replaced by a face-splitting grin. Uri stood in front of her, a few feet away. The prince looked haggard, his finger-tousled red locks matted and dirty. He was pale, the brushed diamond quality of his skin--the kind that all reapers had--looked pale and white, stretched taut over stringy muscle and bone. Stained black-blue jeans and a wide-collared, coffee-colored sweater hung off his body, seeming to absorb him and his dark brown leather boots. Honestly, if Nina hadn't lived with him for three months and become friends with the reaper, she would have thought he was a homeless college freshman.

"Uri," she cried and felt the power around her slide away. It was only then that she realized it had been Uri's power around her. Strange, but now that she wasn't freaking out, Nina could feel traces of the prince in his power, like she had a sensitivity to it.

Power had always been there, flowing like air through the Underworld, but Nina recognized the different threads, each individual's unique power. Uri had been right, Nina acknowledged as she carefully picked through the rubbish and approached him. It's like signatures in the air.

"What are you doing here?" they both asked at the same time as Uri gathered her in a bear hug, nose buried in her curls

Nina clutched onto him fiercely, blinking back the tears in her eyes. Still not the time, her internal voice reminded as she gave him one last squeeze and pulled back.

"You first," Uri said, his myrtle eyes looking tired, haunted.

"Yin and Yang sent me through the portal," Nina answered with a shake of her head. "Assholes didn't tell me anything."

Pursing her lips, Nina squeezed her eyes tightly and put her demons aside. There was so much she didn't know, so many questions that needed answers; complicated, three-dimensional answers. Not. The. Time.

"We need to get out of here before they come back," Uri whispered, his eyes darting down either side of the hallway.

Following Uri's gaze, Nina looked down the corridor, wondering if the bad guys were going to just magically appear from her own twisted fear. The thought wasn't so farfetched considering everything.

"Who's they?"

"Anybody. Dog-eat-dog world now."

She gave him a Grim smirk. "Wasn't before?"

He returned the look. "Worse now."

"Okay." Nina stepped into his arms and took a deep breath. She was ready for him to whisk them out, but a thought got stuck in her mind. She blew out the breath and looked up at him.

"Where's--"

"Not now," Uri snapped.

Nina jerked out of his arms and forgot the immediate danger for a second. "Check yourself, Uri. I can kick your ass."

Chestnut brown eyes clashed with myrtle green before he forced a smile and ran a hand through his hair. The look was meant to be causal, calming. It had the opposite effect. "Careful there, ninja Nina. I'd hate to make you regret those words."

Nina forced a smile and stepped back into his arms, but didn't meet his gaze. Something was wrong. Uri had never been rude to her, raised his voice, or snapped at her. The change worried her.

A thought ran across Nina's mind and left her cold. What if she hadn't left their lab? Yin and Yang could still be experimenting on her, but in a different way. The gods gave off the impression that they'd love to screw with someone's mind until it became silly putty.

Nina reached up and pinched herself. It hurt. But then again, so had the glass against her shoulder. People could still feel pain in dreams, right?

"Tell me what happened, Uri," she demanded. Maybe his answer would be the key to telling if this was reality or not. But... it felt like reality.

Running a frustrated hand through his hair, Uri opened his arms again and waved them impatiently. "Not now. I'll tell you when we get there. It's--been a hard couple of weeks. Now come on, we really need to go."

"Weeks?" she exploded before covering up the sound with her hand. Shit.

Uri's eyes hardened and his jaw clenched. "Nine weeks ago, Felicia attacked the castle. It was just a few hours after I left you."

Nina's eyes bugged out. Nine weeks? She tried to wrap her head around the number. And

then another thought occurred to her: hours in the reaper world translated to minutes, maybe even seconds in the human world.

While she'd been waiting for her father to kill her, the Bloodspurn kingdom had been under attack. The thought was doubly painful. When I was losing my life, Grim was losing his kingdom.

Her mind was still reeling, so Nina didn't hear whatever Uri heard. His ears turned up, white lines forming around his mouth. " We have to go. Now."

Uri didn't give her another second. He grabbed Nina and tucked her into his body. They were off in a flash.

They flew down the halls of the castle, past rubble that tore at her already ruined sweater and slacks. Damn! Nina thought as they whizzed by something, and she heard a loud rip. I liked these clothes.

It was a good ten minutes before they finally stopped flying and Nina could breathe normally. Funny, but the usual sickness she felt when they flew wasn't there. In fact, she felt fine. Maybe a little windblown, but that was it.

Pulling away from Uri, Nina noticed that he looked better, too. There was some color in his face, and his eyes didn't look as sunken as before. Not only that, but she could feel his power radiating from him.

Nina smiled as she reached up and touched his face. "You look better." But nothing like Grim, her conscience reminded her.

Uri didn't have the olive hue that Grim had, or the black wavy hair, blue-diamond eyes, or soft accent she'd grown accustomed to hearing. No, he was nothing like Grim, but it was still comforting to have him with her. He was her family after all.

"It's all thanks to you, Nina," Uri said with a slow smile, his easy cockiness coming back.

Rolling her eyes, Nina bit her lip to keep from smiling. He would say that, she thought with a mental chuckle. Uri was a flirt through and through.

"Where are we?" she asked as she turned in a slow circle and looked out into the expanse of wide fields and gnarly trees. It was weird to think that there was "life" in the Underworld such as grass and animals. Though Uri had assured her it was only the souls of plants. So many dead souls that instead of recycling them, they used the souls to decorate their world. Humanize it.

"Remember Iris?" Uri asked.

Nina spied a cottage that looked like it was a little hill. She'd seen something similar in magazines. Nina wracked her brain as she looked at the cottage with grass as the roof, seeming to blend in completely with its surroundings.

"Yin and Yang's Messenger? Yeah, I remember her. Is that a Hobbit House?" she asked, the term coming to her as she looked at the small round windows and arched doorway.

Uri cast her a sidelong glance. "That," he said as he took Nina's hand and walked over to the cottage, "is Iris's home."

Nina lagged behind as Uri dragged her, eyes looking out to the nothingness. As far as she could see, Iris's house was deserted, miles away from anything resembling civilization.

"What are we doing here?" Nina asked as Uri tugged her toward the front door and gave two quick raps on the wood. "Is Grim inside?"

She couldn't quite keep the hope out of her voice. If Grim was inside waiting for her, then everything would be fine. She'd console him over his kingdom and he'd console her over her life. Despite the fear that had come when Uri said she lost nine weeks, Nina had calmed and accepted it. Time wasn't the carefully written numbers she was familiar with anymore. It was simply a jumble of events that happened before, after, or were happening now. As long as she saw Grim, the nine weeks in the Underworld that had translated to hours or days held as Yin and Yang's lab rat would be nothing but a memory. The past.

Uri didn't speak as he pushed open the front door and hustled her inside. Nina gasped as she entered the cottage and seemed to step back in time. Oil paintings of different English countrysides hung from the walls, along with portraits of different English royalty. Heavy blue velvet drapes graced different doorways, separating the rooms. A piano was tucked into one corner of the living room that looked as if it served as the dining room, too. The wall to Nina's left was completely lined with books from floor to ceiling, spines pointed out and frayed from use.

The room was furnished with two mahogany side tables beside two velvet blue armchairs. A soft-looking, black-patterned Persian rug covered most of the dark wood floor, and a powder blue tapestry settee lounged in front of an inactive fireplace that paralleled a mahogany desk and chair set. Candles glowed softly from every flat surface, casting shadows against the paintings and scenting the room in vanilla, chamomile, and mint.

Iris sat in one of the wingback velvet blue armchairs with a book in her lap and a pair of reading glasses perched on the bridge of her nose.

She really does look like a governess straight out of Regency England, Nina thought as Iris looked up and dove-gray eyes met hers.

"My queen," the greeting was less than enthusiastic.

Nina cringed a little as Iris got up and hugged her. It wasn't that the hug was uncomfortable; it was the pity she felt in the caress.

Suddenly, Iris's house wasn't distraction enough for the conversation Nina knew she was about to have. Mentally, she knew Grim wasn't there. She knew there was no way he could keep hidden in the small cottage, his power firmly in check. Even before she'd become Yin and Yang's experiment, Nina had felt Grim's power keenly. It rubbed against her skin like a thousand tongues or a million hands stroking her. She would never forget Grim's power, and he would never be able to completely control it if he was here. They would reach out to each other.

"Where is Grim?" Nina asked, trying to keeping the fear and worry out of her voice. Calm, she needed to remain calm and logical.

Nina didn't know when she'd have a chance to deal with all the shit life had recently thrown at her, but she knew that when she finally broke, she'd shatter. There was no way she wouldn't.

Uri stuffed his hands in his pockets, the move defensive. "When Felicia attacked the kingdom, she killed our parents and took Grim. Some reapers say that he's being tortured, others say he's doing the torturing. There seems to be some confusion amongst the people as to who attacked the Bloodspurns--Felicia by herself or with her family, and the role Grim plays in the whole affair. What's for certain is that Felicia was with him last anyone knew."

Iris looked at her sadly, and Uri tried not to meet Nina's gaze. It irritated her, infuriated her. They were lying; Grim was too powerful to let some child get hold of him and too noble to have worked with her in his own family's death. Nina's heart went out to Tuoni and Morrigan, who, despite never liking Nina, had never been outright cruel or malicious. Even the maids and guards in the castle hadn't deserved what the ruins echoed was their fate.

"No," Nina bit off, needing to be contrite, her lips pulling back from her teeth in a snarl. There was no way that Grim was being kept in some dungeon by that bitch! Nina refused to believe it or even consider it.

Death. She'd looked in the eyes of Death and fallen in love, given up everything, overcome her greatest fears, and miraculously survived it all. There was just no way that now, after everything they'd been through, he'd be gone.

She spoke through clenched teeth and hot tears, "Get. Grim. Now."

Uri's look was sympathetic at best, but beneath that emotion was anger and impatience. Nina could see it, and she couldn't remember a single time in all the months she'd known Uri that she had seen those emotions. Suspicion came back and scraped her skull.

Uri blew out a frustrated sigh and reached for her. "I know it's a lot to take in, Nina. But as of right now, you are the Bloodspurn--"

Heat crawled up her arm suddenly, like flames forcing their way under her skin. It didn't exactly hurt, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling either.

Nina pulled her arm away from Uri, curious as to why--after months of being surrounded by cold with goosebumps running like ants over her skin--she would feel hot when Uri touched her. It was strange, but the heat felt... familiar in a way.

"Uri, what the hell was--" Nina's eyes went round as she stared at him, arm stretched out, mouth half open, eyes focused on her face but frozen in place. Uri looked like a statue, perfect and completely immovable.

Nina paused and looked at Uri, waiting for him to move. When he remained still, she turned to Iris, finding her the exact same way.

Slowly, Nina moved away from them and then jumped. "Boo!"

Nothing.

Scrubbing a hand over her face, she barely stopped herself from pulling out her hair. She had no clue what the hell was going on!

"They're frozen. I froze them. I can freeze people." She threw up her hands. "Great! Fucking fantastic!"

Nina turned sharply, and her ankle caught a stack of books next to her. Trying to grab the pile before it fell, she was taken aback when the pile moved with her ankle and then stopped. It looked like it was on the verge of tipping over, but it wasn't there.

"And things," Nina muttered. "I can freeze people and things."

Chancing a glance up at Uri and Iris, she looked at them and realization dawned on her. If she had really frozen everything then the books should have shattered, or at the very least remained in the same place and not moved an inch, but they'd moved with her.

Nina picked up one of the books by her foot and held it high above her head. She let it go. It didn't move an inch. She reached up and pushed the book down. It moved.

"Holy flying spaghetti monster on crack," Nina said for lack of anything better.

The shit wasn't hitting the fan. No, it was in another universe, floating around just waiting for a victim. No doubt Nina would be the victim when it decided to land. Or maybe she'd just stop time and let it float there.

On a hysterical laugh, she let some of the crazy she'd been holding at bay seep out. I

died! Then I was reborn as some weird Frankenstein rip off! Had two crazy self-proclaimed gods tell me I'm pregnant, and found out that the father of my child--my husband--is probably being kept in some sort of reaper prison. And to top it all off, I'm now.... The words got trapped in her mind as Nina tried to bring herself to think them, let alone say them.

Queen of the Bloodspurn Kingdom, she finished.

Time stopped. Nina was pretty sure she had caused it. Of course she had no clue how she'd done it, but that didn't matter. Time was no longer an obstacle; it was no longer something to be admired or feared. Nina was beyond time, beyond its restraints and limitations.

She tilted her head back, tilted her body back, and opened her mouth. She let out all her frustrations and all the emotions that she had no clue how to deal with in a scream. Nina screamed like demons were clawing at her throat, the way she'd wanted to do when that knife had pierced her heart.

Nina bellowed like the world had just ended.

Maybe it had. Time was an illusion now; maybe the world was too.

CHAPTER THREE

"I have been thinking about what else I can do to you, Grim," Felicia began softly, her voice serene as she twirled a serrated blade in her dainty, gloved hands and eyed the weapons laid out before her. "You're not reacting the way I hoped."

"And you know I live to please you," Grim laughed. The sound ended on a harsh cough as blood spurted from his mouth and his ribs started to heal once again. He did not know how else to react when she burned him, flayed him, cut him. Did she hope he would beg, plead? He'd tried on several occasions, but the words had been lost in his cries of agony.