Can't Fight Time

“I think we have been more than reasonable, Your Highness, but their latest debacle?” The council member scoffed. “We will not stand for it!”

A murmur of agreement went through the room, and several heads nodded. “Six more are dead. Three found in Elysium. And yet you sit there and ask for our blessing on your marriage to a human?”

The word was whispered with such contempt it seemed to join the ranks of rapist, murderer, and pedophile. It amused Grim to some degree, the blatant hatred for creatures that they all needed to exist. He’d never held the same emotions many reapers did for humans, that wasn’t to say Grim loved the creatures he needed to survive, but neither did he reviled them as so many other did.

Was it because they were wild and reckless? Barely contained by their own world’s dictates. Or was it that reapers lived so long, progressed so much, and yet could not see the same in humans? Grim didn’t know either way, but the discussions of Nina and the Castoff Princess and his duties had grown tedious.

It had been two months of mindless conversation. Two months of trying to convince Grim to crawl back to the Castoffs and beg for their mercy. He would never crawl to anyone, never debase himself as a reaper or a king. Prideful though it may be, it went deeper than that still. He was his people, just as his people were him, and though there was not a rousing cheer coming from each city in his kingdom, neither was there seething hatred. Over three thousand reapers under him had accepted his pronouncement, had even been glad to hear that he would not be marrying a girl many of them considered the enemy. Why couldn’t fifteen of his closest people do the same?

Grim uncurled his body much like a lion waking up from a nap. “I don’t seek your blessing, Leof.” His smile was cold and precise. “Need I remind you that I am king?”

The council member stood up and slapped his palms flat on the table, brazenly continuing on. “Then you are making a poor choice as king.”

As soon as the words escaped the man’s mouth, a look of utter regret and fear crossed his face. The apology couldn’t tumble fast enough from Leof’s lips: “I apologize, Highness, it was—”

“How many of you agree with him?” Grim interrupted, glancing around the room.

No one spoke.

Grim sighed and put his power into the words, making them a command. “How many of you agree with what Leof has said?”

Every hand except one went up. Grim did not allow any of the council members present to see how much of a blow that was. He was far more active than his father, far more involved in the running of his kingdom. Since Nina had arrived he’d stepped up as king, went to see his people and the plights they suffered. He lent his shoulder to a grieving widow whose husband had been one of the people murdered. For weeks he had tried to be the king, not only in name, but in action. Yet, with all of that, they still judged him by the sins of past kings.

Grim placed his elbows on the smooth, oval table and linked his fingers beneath his chin. “I am not a king of the past, council members. I am the future.”

“Then why are you repeating their mistakes?” Krithi’s soft voice asked, always one to play Devil’s advocate.

“What are my mistakes?” Grim returned. “Have I murderer for power like my forefathers? Suceded control like my own father? Have I left my people to their own devices while I sat on a throne? Tell me, how have I repeated their mistakes.”

Leof spoke again, anger flashing in his eyes. “You will repeat their mistakes with the human by your side.”

Grim sighed loudly. “Did you ever think that Nina might be the inspiration for this change? That she might be what all of us need?”

Again, the council members remained quiet.

“I can’t say anymore. Therefore I will let my previous actions speak for me.” Grim bit back a sigh and rose. “I have a wedding to prepare for.”

With those final words, Grim exited the council room with Tylend at his side. He did not turn to the guard when he addressed him. “I consider you a friend, Tylend. Tell me what I am doing wrong.”

The guard snorted. “You are changing rules that have existed since the creation of the Council of Guardians and giving them no way to manipulate you into the king they want.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No.”

The men walked in silence before a slight breeze and a lithe form stopped in front of them. Tylend nodded his head to the council member, while Grim waited for her to speak. “You could have come to my sitting rooms, Krithi. What is it?”

The woman looked around, peering into the shadows and than spoke in the first language, one Grim had had to learn as a prince, but not one commonly spoken. “They are planning a coup.”

A deadly smile curved Grim’s mouth as he quickly translated her words. “They will not succeed.”

The council member looked unsure. “It seems they have a benefactor.”

They were speaking quickly, in hushed tones, so even if someone heard the words, the words would still be hard to decipher and even harder to translate. “What would you have me do?”

“Nothing.” It was Tylend who spoke, surprising both Grim and Krithi. The man gave the briefest of smiles. “My father is one of the oldest Watchers. He taught me the old language.”

“He can’t do nothing,” Krithi hissed, turning back to Grim. “You must put an end to it.”

“And how do you suppose he do that?” Tylend rejoined. “By sending them away like he did Raeborn? You need to let it play out, learn who your enemies are. If you strike now it will only cause more strife between the council members, and—if it hasn’t already—cause contention with the rest of the factions. Doing nothing is in your best interest.”

Grim listened to both sides. Attacking the council outright would be a risk to everyone and even Krithi herself, but doing nothing had risks of their own. He needed another player in the game, one who had remained on the side lines up to this point.

“Tylend, Krithi,” he addressed them both, setting his voice even lower. “I want you to go to the Darklore Queen. It is time she becomes included.”

“Why?” Tylend asked at the same moment Krithi did.

“Because I want to know if she is my enemy or my friend, and I want to know where she stands with the Castoffs in her own words.”

Krithi frowned. “Then send an envoy.”

Grim shook his head and looked them both in the eyes. “I am finding it hard to trust my people. This is important, so it has to be you two.”

The words were hard to say, if only for the weight Grim lent to them. He was asking for help, relying on other. He’d never done that before, never done that with anyone but Nina. At times, he didn’t even trust his own brother, and yet he was trusting what could be the deciding factor in the continuation of his kingdom to a Royal Guard and a Council of Guardians’ member. He just hoped his trust wasn’t misplaced.

But another thought occurred to Grim, one that had been roaming the recesses of his minds, but one he feared to ask because it left him vulnerable. Still, he could not fight without allies, and could not lead without advisors.

“Do you two agree with what I’ve said? What I’ve done?”

It was Krithi who spoke, dark brown eyes gauging Grim’s reactions: “Do you agree with yourself, Highness? Do you think what you did today was for the good of your people, and will ultimately have a positive effect?”

The good of the people. Grim had heard the line almost as long as he’d heard he was going to be king. The two went hand in hand. But he could not answer the question because he did not know himself. He cracked a smile and looked regarded Krithi. “What is the line from that human book? Ah, yes. ‘The best laid plans of mice and men go awry.’”

Grim turned back around and let out a short, hollow laugh. “I can’t say I agree with myself because I have no precedent. I am not a murderer like my forefathers, and neither am I insane like my own father. I can’t say if what I’m doing is for the good of the people or my own selfish reasons. I can only hope that in one way or another it will all work itself out, and by the end, I will still be on my feet.”

“Than I will be beside you, King Mictlantecuhtli Jallgrímur Bloodspurn,” Tylend intoned solemnly as he formally bowed once again.

Krithi dipped into a deep courtesy her hands held up in front of her in supplication: “As will I, Your Highness.”

Grim’s words were soft, too soft for human ears but still heard by the other reaper. “Thank you, Tylend, Krithi. I shall try to be a king worth standing by.”

***

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the wedding?” Uri asked as he casually strolled into the library.

Nina looked up from her book and slowly closed the tome. There was no useful information in it anyway.

Rearranging the patterned throw around her hips, and curling her feet under her, Nina leaned over and patted the seat next to her. “Come sit by me.”

Uri smiled wickedly before coming over and pouring himself in the chaise, arms draped over the back. He always looked good in that effortless sort of just-got-out-of-bed way. In another life Nina would have probably dated him, maybe even married him and had cute little biracial children with red hair and chocolate brown eyes.

That wasn’t her life.

Her life consisted of a serial killer father, a fiancée who was heir apparent to a reaper throne, and a very brutal death looming on her horizon. That was her life, and she accepted it.

Nina turned and set the book of reaper history down on a small side table, running her fingers over the gold and red veined marble. She’d noticed the colors before, dots and flashes in the art work around the castle, embedded in the stone, displayed on the uniform bands of guards and maids.

They were the Bloodspurn Kingdom's colors, carefully woven into the castle, into the people, into Grim.

Nina nudged Uri playfully. “It’s more like Grim’s wedding, and you know it.”

Uri smile’s was mischievous with a hint of devilishness. “Love makes you do crazy things.”

That it does, Nina thought as she felt a grim smile twist her lips. Love made the best people stupid. She was stupid, and Grim was stupid; the entire reason for their wedding was stupid. She hated saying it, would’ve loved to sugar-coat it, but ignoring the truth helped no one and hurt everyone.

“What happens when my time is up?” Nina asked suddenly, her fingers running over the mark still imprinted on her hand, Grim’s mark.

Slowly Uri leaned over and tugged her feet out from underneath her, propped them on his lap and quietly began massaging them. Heat slid into the soles of her feet, relaxing Nina. She was struck by the intimacy of the act, but not completely put off by it. It was comforting.

“Your time will never be up if you stay here. The balance will simply shift.” Uri replied, his thumb rubbing circles into her ankle.

“What do you mean?”

Uri had always been straight with her, and Nina respected that, though she wasn’t fool enough to think he didn’t keep things from her. Grim and the others might see him as a spoiled prince who did whatever he wanted and had a who-cares attitude, but Nina knew better. The old adage 'never judge a book by its cover' rang like warning bells in her ears.

Uri’s voice was soft, almost like a whisper, “The truth?”

A lump lodged in Nina’s throat. The moment was weighed, and Nina felt yet another turning point in her life. It was like she’d walked a mile only to come to another fork in the road. She only wondered if these forks truly took her to another place, or simply created a complex labyrinth that ended exactly where she’d started.

Steeling herself, she nodded.

“No one can outsmart Death, not even Death himself.” Uri’s fingertips flirted with the pulsing veins on her feet. “Even if my brother keeps you here, marries you, and all-that-jazz, you’re still human. The need to be able to die is still ingrained within you.”

He paused and smiled sadly at Nina. “Humans might fear their deaths, but they also accept them as inevitabilities. They simply curse them when they feel they have not lived long enough. But every single one of them knows that Death will claim them.”

A sudden déjà vu struck Nina as she remembered a book of famous quotes. In particular she thought about the Mark Twain quotes she’d read, those being her favorites. Nina had no clue why that quote stuck with her. She didn’t doubt that there were hundreds like it, but there was something about that one in particular, something in the words that resonated with her.

All she’d wanted when she’d come down to the Underworld was just a little more time and a chance to live before she accepted her death. But never had she contemplated the concept of never dying.

Death was an inevitability for her, just not for Grim.

“I will never die here, but I will die in another sense.” Nina lowered her lashes to hide her eyes. “ That’s what you’re saying, Uri?”

“What I’m saying is if you chose to stay here, you will not live—not like before. And if you chose to leave, you will die like you are supposed to.”

Turning away from him, Nina looked into the fireplace watching the flames leap and dance. Any room she went into now had a roaring fire in it, a testament to Grim always being with her.

It had taken her a while, but Nina finally understood why Grim would have let her die. It had been a bitter pill to swallow, but like most truths, it was necessary.

Even now, looking at Uri, watching him rub her feet and sit with her, Nina didn’t doubt for a split second that he’d take her soul. She had no doubt that he’d deliver her to the human world and let her father kill her. Not because he was cruel, but because it was what had to happen. Death was a part of life, and life a part of death.

Swiping at the moisture in the corner of her eyes, Nina turned back to Uri and slowly moved her feet out of his grasp. “Will you do me a favor?”

“Anything.”

Nina knew he didn’t mean it, knew there was more hidden behind that one word than in the whole castle. “When the time comes, will you take me back to my world?”

The look Uri cast her was one she couldn’t decipher, but Nina was pretty sure she saw pride in his eyes. Closing her eyes, Nina bit her lip but still forced a watery smile. “‘The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.’” She recited the words like a prayer.

Nina kept her eyes closed, too afraid she might break again if she saw his gaze. And she’d broken enough times in her life—she refused to do it now. A strong hand closed over her tightly fisted ones, giving her strength that she didn't need.

Power curled around her like a comforting hug as they sat in complete silence for a few moments, the only sounds from her every-so-often heartbeat and the roar of the fire.

“You are strong, smart, and beautiful, Nina. I’m glad that I was able to meet you.” Past tense.

The words hurt more than they helped, but Nina nodded, knowing it was the right thing to do. But that didn’t it made it any easier.