Hey Everyone!
So, if you haven't guessed already, I'm kind of just posting these as fast as I can in preparation for the next book! I'm really excited about it! If you have feedback for me, please comment of message me! It'll definitely help me as I write Can't Fight Fate! Hope you enjoy!
-Rosi
***
Grim pressed his seal into the last envelope and leaned back in his chair, stretching his body in an entirely too human gesture.
Guess I was there too long,
Grim thought as he smiled and flexed his hands, watching the skin draw back against the bone and blood rush through the veins in a parody of a human body.
"Mictlantecuhtli!" Grim heard his mother screech, rattling as she entered his study with a flurry of black cloth and ivory bones. "I don't know why you insist on wearing that form when you have already shed. It disgraces your lineage to wear the guise of a human," she said with a scathing, haughty air, scythe trailing after her form as she rounded on him.
Fog enfolded Grim once again as he resumed his skull-and-bones look, the epitome of a Grim Reaper. "And that fog! It's so annoying. I wish you would stop using it. It's not as if we all haven't seen you transform," she snapped loudly, shaking her head as she gathered up the cards in front of him.
Just because you're used to it doesn't mean that I am!
Grim wanted to snap back at his mother, but wisely kept his bones quiet and his power firmly in check. Fighting with his harridan mother had never helped either of them. The only thing that helped was his extended absence from her presence.
Despite the fact that he took control of the council, Grim knew it was easier just to give his mother what she wanted. Besides, using his power to silence her would only result in pain for him afterwards. Grim was many things, but a fool was not one of them.
Even now, the council was putting his plan into action, utilizing the resources he had given them, and working for the good of the people and not just themselves. Weeks had passed easily, the council more responsive to his concerns. Even the PeaceKeepers and Watchers were starting to follow suit and report directly to him with any queries or concerns they had. Everything was falling into place, and there was no better example of that than in his own home.
Even now, talk of the coming succession and marriage were abuzz in the castle walls. The words still taunted him with a life he did not want, but it did not grate as severely as it had in the past. Grim understood that all kings were forced to endure things that they did not want, forced to live by the people's will alone.
But a part of Grim, the childish part he couldn't quite contain, wanted to scream and rant and beg for a different outcome. He would have to live for centuries with a woman he did not want, one he did not love, and whose kingdom he even suspected or murder. But he knew he would not find compassion in his home, not is the words that had been said to him for the last few hundred years still reigned true.
It's a political alliance, a truce of mutually assured destruction to both the Castoffs and the Bloodspurns. It is a necessary evil.
"Stop looking so grim, Mictlantecuhtli," his mother hissed at him, shuffling through the envelopes to make sure he had sealed each one.
Of course, the irony of her statement wasn't lost on him.
Grim Reapers being grim; there's a pun in there somewhere,
he thought, pushing back from his desk and rising. "I apologize, Mother, if I am not ecstatic about signing over my future happiness to a child I've never even met."
There was a harsh pause in the room, a length of time when both mother and son wondered who would break the tension, and whether by doing so they might do more harm than good. A sudden whistle of air in the castle's portal room alerted them to an arrival. The power that followed it let them know who it was.
"Damn that child! This is entirely your fault, Mictlantecuhtli! Going to the human world to play and relax—you are inciting a rebellion of my sons!"
Grim rolled his eyes and suppressed his obnoxious sigh.
Apparently I'm not her son anymore.
"Mother, stop being so dramatic," Grim nearly growled, the sound of his birth name starting to grate at his nerves. Only she ever called him that, and it was only because she'd raised him.
"What Uri does on his own is his business. I have no control over his choices."
The sound of a heartbeat forestalled the other unkind things he was about to say. No one in their kingdom had a heartbeat; the last human-reaper child had died and begun shedding centuries ago. The only possible explanation was—
"Human!" his mother scream as she streaked out of his study, a cloud of black and gray.
Grim was right behind her, praying he was wrong, hoping that Uri hadn't done what he thought he'd done and signed a temporary contract with a human. But then, what did he expect? Uri did whatever he wanted and damned the consequences, because many times there were none!
"Uriel," Grim whispered harshly, speeding down the corridor to the portal Uri had just come out of.
"Come on, guys. You can't do anything; it's already been—Oh! Hey, Mom. And hello—" Grim heard Uri begin casually, a laughing note in his tone that made Grim lash out with his power and start to choke Uri.
"Uri!" The husky voice he had been craving for a chance to hear once more screamed, dropping to her knees beside his brother as Grim continued to choke the life out of him. "Stop it!"
"Mictlantecuhtli, don't be childish," his mother chastised, her bones rattling with indignation.
A dozen guards surrounded Uri and Nina, forming a semicircle around the—if Grim had currently had a tongue he would have bitten it off with the next word—couple. Anger, betrayal, and fear clawed through the remnants of his body, whipping his power into a frenzy he could barely control.
Uri had taken Nina from him, signed a temporary contract with her, and for what? For the glory of rubbing it in his face? Another pawn in the game of 'who wants to be the next Bloodspurn king'?
"You have committed a grave offense, Uriel. By bring a human here you have broken one of our most sacred laws." Grim's voice sounded cold, harsh, and forbidding even to his own ears. "You know what the punishment must be."
Beside him, Grim's mother moved to speak but he raised a hand to silence her. He would be the king in a matter of weeks; in this arena she had no power, and it was best she learn that quickly. "Step aside," Grim commanded, watching his guards lower their eyes and bow their heads as they moved away.
Seeing Nina, arms wrapped around Uri as he slowly began to breathe again, made Grim want to stop what he was doing. To stop everything, wrap her in his arms, and tell her everything was going to be okay. To assure her that she was safe. But he couldn't, he wouldn't.
As if he was unclenching his fingers, Grim pulled back his power, allowing Uri to breathe freely. He drew back his hurt and his rage, until the power was once again curved around him, coiled tight.
Grim measured his steps carefully until he was only a few paces away from Nina and Uri, his scythe a deadly promise at his side. Looking down at them, he listened for the slow beat of Nina's heart, barely there.
"Uriel of the Bloodspurn line," Grim began formally, making sure everyone in the room could feel his power stroking over them like a harsh caress. He leaned over them until neither of them could see past him. "
Together with the human, nullify your contract and accept your punishment.
"
Uri was scared, obviously not expecting this kind of reception, even if he had broken the law. What puzzled Grim the most, was that Nina didn't seem frightened or scared; in fact, her heartbeat hadn't sped up once.
"Human," Grim addressed Nina, trying to scare her into submission.
