Can't Fight Fate

"You're fucking crazy. So... I don't even know what to--why? What the hell did they do to make you kill them? Your own family. Blood," his voice was strained. For the first time in his life he didn't view the Castoffs as his enemy. Only Felicia was his enemy.

Had they even seen it coming? Grim wondered. Had there been signs of her malady? Could everything have been avoided if someone had just seen through the princess, seen her plan, and stopped her?

All along, Grim had thought his enemy was the Castoff King. He had wondered why the man would start killing reapers, his people, so close to a wedding with his daughter. But perhaps the man had never been his enemy, and in truth had wanted a peace.

"My father," Felicia spat the words as she came closer to Grim and paced in front of him, "was weak. Worthless. Paranoid. At the end he desired peace between the kingdoms."

Her childish mask and voice cracked, boomed, and reverberated through the chamber like a thunderstorm. "I will take everything from you. Until you are stripped down. Mine."

She stopped, blinked back as if surprised by herself. A girlish giggle escaped her mouth, and she slipped her childish mask back into place. "How unladylike of me. You weren't supposed to see that. Not yet."

Grim wondered is what he saw was her true face. Twisted in icy fury, dark with flashes of calculated depravity. He shuddered, if he had to choose between seeing the gothic child and the lunatic woman, he'd choose the child. The child, Grim could anticipate would dull of pain, but the woman... she had bigger plans.

"Now." Felicia scratched at her wrist as she snapped her hands. A guard approached her with a large, blue vase and bowed as he handed it to her. She took it, opened it and drew in a deep breath. "Before I left, we were somewhere around you screaming my name and fainting, were we not? I am hoping this part will end soon, Grim. I grow weary."

"Fuck. You."

Acid? Snakes? Kerosene? The ways she would torture him flitted through his mind. The fire had been the worst, Grim was not sure he could take it again. But Felicia had proved to never use the same method twice, choosing to start bad and move forward until it was soul-crushing, heart-wrenching horror.

She moved closer, teetered back on her heels and then tossed the contents of the vase on Grim. He closed his eyes and mouth, and held his breath. Whatever was thrown on him did not slither, it was not wet, and it did not burn. Very slowly he opened his eyes and noticed brownish-black soot all over his body. He looked up at Felicia.

Her voice was precise, like she was telling him a recipe, "That is the maid you spoke to earlier, her father, mother, and two younger brothers."

Grim turned and before he knew it he was vomiting. Off, off! I want it off! His mind screamed in pandemonium and he pictured stripping off his skin.

"Why?" he croaked when he finally finished retching.

The princess came up to him, licked the ash from his cheek, and spit it at his feet. Her smile was cruel and detached, and Grim caught another glimpse of the woman she kept hidden behind frilly lace and candy-sweet words, "Needs must, Grim. The sooner you become what I want, the sooner this ends."

CHAPTER FOUR

Nina woke up the same way she'd fallen asleep, instantly. One minute she was in darkness, a sort of hazy image of a dream world at the edge of her consciousness, and the next she'd been up, eyes wide and body coiled tight in anticipation.

A sardonic smirk flashed across her face. "Who ever said dying was easy was a fucking liar."

Levering herself up into a sitting position, Nina looked around the bedroom she'd been put in. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized that sometime after she'd stopped time and screamed her head off she passed out. The hole shutting down must have triggered some sort of continuance of time.

Swinging her legs over the bed, Nina knew instantly that she was still in Iris's Regency England house. Beneath her feet was a beautifully patterned Persian carpet that looked like it had been made a few centuries ago.

Nina lifted her head and looked at oil paintings of famous English artists and poets, the walls behind the paintings decorated with soft peach wallpaper. The four-poster bed behind her dominated most of the room and was covered by a cream and peach duvet. An oak chest rested at the foot of the bed and two side tables rested on either side of it. A low dresser was positioned against one of the walls with a peach-colored pitcher and basin on top of it.

She spied an outfit on the chest at the end of the bed and slowly made her way there. The clothes were surprisingly modern, which made Nina think that Uri must have gotten them for her. "Oh, yeah. He got them all right."

Fitted black leather pants with a royal blue and black V-neck shirt and a black suede half-jacket over top. It screamed Uri's doing right down to the lace-up ass-kicking boots. At least he'd been considerate and not brought her three-inch fuck-me heels.

"Where are you going?" Uri asked as he entered her room, his smooth tones unable to hide the irritancy in his voice.

She ignored his question. "How long have I been out?"

"A day."

There was a long silence. Nina looked over her shoulder at the doorway where he stood, casually resting his arm against the wall as she laced up a pair of boots Iris had given her, and raised an eyebrow at Uri's tone.

He left out a low whistle, and she forgot what she was going to say for a moment. "Nina, if you weren't my brother's wife, I'd do things to you...."

She finished with the laces, put her foot down and sashayed over to him. "Oh yeah. What things?"

He suppressed a groan as she came closer to him. "I don't think you want to hear them."

Nina batted her eyes. "Do they involve coming up with a contingency plan if we can't get Grim out? Maybe solidifying my place in reaper society so we can rebuild the kingdom?"

It took Uri a second to realize what she said, and then a scowl replaced his sexy, sleepy-eyed look. "That was a dirty trick."

Nina flipped her hair. "Choose clothes that won't make you think with your dick next time."

She stood in front of Uri and eyed him critically. The prince was looking better, but the dark circles under his eyes and white lines around his mouth still made Nina think he was drained. Sadly for him, she couldn't give two shits. Uri would be fine. He had Iris and a vast field of nothing to hide in. Grim was being kept in some dungeon by a psychotic princess who had destroyed their home!

Sometime between arriving at the cold and foreign castle and marrying Grim in a weird reaper ceremony, the castle had become warm, a place she could call hers. It wasn't like she had another choice either way. The only other place Nina had ever called home housed a serial killer father who thought it was alright to put his bloody murder clothes in the hamper.

What murderer did that? She shook her head at her own random thoughts and turned towards the door, away from Uri.

"Nina," his voice was just a tad better than before, "you need to stay here. It's the safest place for you."

"Prince Uriel is right, m-my queen," Iris stammered out softly as she went to stand by Uri. "We need to wait and see what happens. We can't just--"

"He. Is. My. Husband." Her voice held a hint of authority that Nina didn't even realize she possessed. Maybe it was because she now had power and wasn't as weak as everyone saw her; or maybe it was that, with everything she'd been through, she now had the right to cut off two supernatural beings.

Looking both Iris and Uri in their eyes, Nina balled her fist and tried to keep her emotions in check. "My husband is being kept by Felicia--the Castoffs. Our enemies. Do you want me to just wait and see what happens? My imagination can paint you one hell of a picture."

There was a long pause, before Uri took a step towards her and placed a gentle hand on her arm. "Nina, please--"

"You are out of your fucking mind if you think for a second that I will wait for Grim to die!" she roared at them, feeling fire burn her gut.

The hand Uri had placed on her arm began to tingle and burn, but Nina didn't pay it any mind as she concentrated on stopping time. She'd done it before, so she was pretty sure she could do it now. Actually, her entire plan hinged on that mysterious power Yin and Yang had gifted her.

The burning on her arm got hotter, but Nina ignored it and focused. "Wai--"

The room went eerily quiet.

Looking up, Nina pried Uri's arm away from her and stared down at her skin. There wasn't a burn, but she'd definitely felt something. Frowning, she wondered what Yin and Yang had done to her. The question had been racing around her mind ever since she'd crossed through the portal, but things had come up that put the question in the back of her mind. Even now she knew it wouldn't get answered and knew she wouldn't dwell on it.

No, the question would go into the box with all the other questions that she couldn't deal with at the moment.

Waving a hand in front of Iris, and then Uri's face, Nina smiled when neither reaper so much as twitched a muscle. Grabbing a random book from Iris's cottage, Nina raised it in the air and dropped it. Except the thing didn't drop; no, it just sat in the air, suspended on nothing, waiting for time and gravity to pull it down.

"Out of your mind," Nina mumbled as she tugged on the jacket securely around her.

Exiting the cottage, Nina waited for any sign that Iris and Uri were going to follow her, but when nothing happened, she breathed out a sigh of relief, "Okay."

Moving away from the door, she searched for any sign of life, but couldn't find a direction. A blank expanse of green was all she saw. Biting her lip, she rubbed her temples and thought. How do I find Grim?

Mulling the thought over in her head, Nina didn't come up with a single answer. "Argh!" She clenched and unclenched her fingers as anger, fear, and worry churned in her stomach. Reaper powers flowed through the air, but there were too many to distinguish, to pinpoint. It wasn't like Nina had even taken stock of Grim's unique power. If it brushed up against her, she'd know it, commit it to memory, but not now.

"How do you find a reaper in the Underworld? If this was a movie, it would be so friggin' easy..." she trailed off as her eyes widened and a thought struck her. What if this was a movie? It was a crazy thought, but she didn't have anything better.

Sci-fi flicks ran across her mind, followed by every paranormal novel she'd ever read. It seemed like a crazy idea, but Nina decided to give it a shot. If she could freeze time, why couldn't she try a movie trick?

Feel out his power, her conscience said with a mental nudge. It was the same concept of a vampire being able to track a human on just a drop of their blood alone, and it was also the best one she had.

Reaching her hands out in front of her, Nina wiggled her fingers and began to move in a circle. She wasn't exactly sure what the hell she was doing, but for some reason she thought having her arms out would help her sense the power.

"Here, power, power, power," she cooed, as she gazed at the fields of grass.

When nothing happened and Nina felt like a frustrated idiot with hot tears burning just behind her cheeks, she quit. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it couldn't have been more than ten minutes.

Wrapping her arms around herself, Nina closed her eyes and tried not to break down. Grim had been so close, so close that she knew it hadn't been a dream. Even now, she could taste him, feel him.

Grim had been with her. He had. Somehow they'd gone to another place, a wonderful place. Nina wasn't sure how it had happened, but she knew it had. Cracking a watery smile, Nina remembered the first time she'd met and really talked with Grim.

He'd been so surprised by her calmness. Grim had expected her to freak out, say he was lying, refuse to believe that he, a twenty-something, olive-toned guy was Death. But then she'd touched him, and piercing cold had stabbed at her hand like a million little knives, and she'd known. It was as simple as that.

"Grim is real," Nina muttered out loud, remembering when she'd told Grim that she believed him.

"Grim is real. Our child is real. My power is real." She just had to have faith in herself, have faith in the fact that everything she'd thought was impossible was now possible. Screw physics, screw science and math. Real or imaginary, everything existed now.

"I want to go to Grim." Nina lifted her head and blinked back her tears. Firm resolve tightened her muscles and locked her jaw. "I want to go to Grim now!" she screamed, freeing her voice, her power.

A gust of wind hit her in the small of her back and propelled her across the fields so quickly that all she could see was splotches of green and brown. It was strange that wind was propelling her. When Uri had flown them with his super speed, or whatever reapers had, it had felt a lot more like running without wind, like they'd tumbled from one point to the other. No wind had been involved.

Green and brown melted into gray towers and roads as the wind propelled her faster and faster until she saw what looked like huge oak doors looming in front of her, coming at her fast.

"No, no, no!" Nina yelled, pushing her arms out as the wind changed course and shot out from her hands to send the doors flying open.

The wind cut off as Nina cried out "Stop!" in panic. Falling over and tumbling through a hallway, Nina careened into a wall and rolled onto her side to protect her stomach. But she never hit the wall, stopping a few feet away before any damage could be done.

Holding still for a few more seconds, Nina lifted her head and blinked to bring the hall into view. She couldn't see any guards, but that didn't mean there weren't any. Wait! Nina paused and slowly got up. I froze time!

Keeping close to the wall she'd almost crashed into, Nina listened for any sounds. There was nothing but silence.

Slowly getting up from the floor, Nina moved back and hugged the wall. The front doors were spread wide and hanging off the hinges. Her fault. Looking down at the floor, it took Nina a second to figure out what she was seeing. Gold. The floor was made of gold.

Grim's words came back to her as she looked around the hall and felt her jaw drop to the metaphorical floor. The Castoff Kingdom is the wealthiest kingdom. He hadn't been kidding either! Everything was gold with hints of black onyx. A picture was painted into the ceiling and looked like it was made from melted silver and diamonds. Sixteen daggers of varying sizes pointed out in a circle with a small space in the middle.

Realization dawned on Nina that the symbol was the crest of the Castoff Kingdom. It has to be, Nina thought as she pried her eyes away from the opulence around her and refocused on her goal.

Deciding that using her feet would be safer, Nina began to move through the castle. A sudden shift in the air stopped her dead. She was at a four-way intersection, about to turn down the right hallway in search of Grim, when she felt it. It felt like a ripple, like she'd been in a still lake and someone had stuck their fingers in the water.

And then, everything happened in a blur. An alarm went off, sounding like a high-pitched whistle and Nina felt a dozen different power signatures rush over her. A chill passed over her skin, and she knew that reaper guards were coming.

Whipping her head to the left, Nina gasped as Grim came into view. He was wearing a uniform, but the material did nothing to hide his scars. Bloodied and bruised, he had chunks of his body missing. A strangled whimper escaped her throat, as Nina gazed at her husband.

"Grim," her voice was soft as tears rushed down her face.

Grim's blue-diamond eyes locked on her face and shame, sadness, and pain twisted his features. Nina shook her head softly as she tried to take a shaky step towards the man she loved. Her hand went to the child growing inside of her, their child. Grim's eyes darted to her stomach and widened. His face paled even more, and Nina could see the thoughts rolling through his mind. Grim thought he'd killed her.

Nina shook her head, desperate to say more. To let him know she already died, and that everything was going to be okay. He didn't need to worry about her.

I love you, Nina thought as her foot hit the gold floor and another power rushed over her; this one she recognized too well.

Strong arms enclosed around her and stilled. Uri was behind her, arms locked like steel bands around her waist, probably looking at Grim the same way Nina was.

Grim's eyes darkened as his gaze darted left. "Get her out of here, Uriel!" he yelled at them, raising his arm. It was only then that Nina realized he held a long sword in his hand, and it was also when she realized she couldn't really feel Grim's power.

Trying to slip away from Uri and go to Grim, Nina screamed as she saw Castoff guards suddenly appear in front of them, a dozen feet away. "Let me go, Uri! Let me go!" Nina screamed like a banshee, kicking with all her might.

Grim moved with that reaper super speed and was suddenly in front of them. Nina took a deep breath in and smelled blood, but under that she smelled Grim. It was his unique scent, something like fresh, rich soil and piercing winter cold.

"Now, Uriel!" Grim commanded as the guards shifted and charged them.

The ground fell away as Uri hoisted her up and over his shoulder, moving with his reaper speed out of the castle and away from Grim. Nina clawed at his back, kicked at his stomach, and tried to freeze time again as the world blurred into gray, green, and brown around her.

Freeze! Freeze! Nina mentally commanded as she screamed out, "No! Grim!"

A door burst open, and the floor was suddenly rushing up to meet her, Persian carpets absorbing her fall. Nina didn't even feel the impact; she just fell, spread out, eyes open and unseeing. Uri was standing above her cursing, raging at her, calling her an idiot and worse. But Nina tuned out everything but her own pain and grief.

I've lost Grim. He was right there, right in front of me, and I lost him. Loathing, contempt and hate settled in her bones, directed straight at Uri. Nina wanted so bad to blame him--kill him if she was being honest. She had never understood how people could kill each other, what factors drove them to it, but at that moment Nina felt it. It felt better than anger, more powerful than rage and hate.

She'd been so close to saving Grim. So close that she could smell him, feel him, and Uri had taken her away. Nina was sure she could have taken them, and sure she could have saved Grim. It was all Uri's fault.

Nina bit her lip until she tasted blood, felt pain. Usually the pain helped, made her realize who she was, what she was. But it didn't help. The pain didn't register, and her anger and pain began to slip away, fading into nothing.

Uri was still screaming, maybe he was shaking her. Nina didn't know, didn't care.

It was worse than when she'd discovered her father was a serial killer, worse than when she'd found out he was going to kill her and there was nothing she could do about it. She had broken down, lost her marbles, but now?

Nina felt it a moment before it happened, a split second before she could bring herself back from the edge. In the next instant, she shattered.

CHAPTER FIVE

The darkness wasn't so bad anymore, and the pain was rather soothing. That was what Grim told himself, at least. The two thousand, nine hundred, and fifty-three stones of varying sizes that made up his hell were starting to look comforting. The forty-seven weapons hanging across from him didn't look so monstrous. The three lamp sconces spread out in the cell looked brighter than the sun. Even the chains that bound him weren't so cold any more, the dirty ground not so abhorrent.