Chapter 2 CFF (Nina's Part)

I decided to break up Nina and Grim's part because otherwise it's too long. So, here's Nina's part. Hope you like!

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Nina woke up the same way she’d fell 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, 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 or something.
Swinging her legs over the bed, Nina knew instantly that she was still in Iris’ 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 the 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.”
Tight fitted black leather pants with a royal blue and black v-neck shirt with 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 in 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.
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.
“Correct your tone, Uri. Don’t think I don’t hear everything else you’re trying not to say.”
Uri blinked back at her in surprise, but Nina just smiled grimly and pulled the laced tight. She knew he was mad at her, knew he thought she was an impulsive idiot. His tone said it all, said everything he was either to scared or too smart to say.
What did he think I would do? Nina wondered peevishly. Sit here and wait for Grim to get himself? Screw that!
She stood up and turned to face Uri. 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. unforchantly for him, she could care two shits less. 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 bit better than before, but only a tad. “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’s 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 in some dungeon, probably being tortured, and you want me to wait and see what happens?” her voice was so low, Nina wasn’t sure if they’d heard the last part.
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!” Nina roared at them, feeling fire burn in 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 had put the question in the back of her mind. Even now she knew it wouldn’t get answered, 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’ 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.
“You’re 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, anger, fear, and worry churning in her stomach. “How do you find a reaper in the Underworld? If this was a movie, it would be so freaking easy…”
Nina trailed off as her eyes went wide and a thought stuck in her mind. 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 conscious 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,” Nina cooed, as she gazed at the fields of grass.
When nothing happened, and Nina felt like a frustrated idiot with hot tears burning just being 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, and my power is real. Nina 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 and 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 grey towers and roads as the wind propelled her faster and faster until she say what looked like huge oak doors loaming 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, surreptitiously around the hall. 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 size 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, but 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 looked terrible, bloodied, bruised, with pieces 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. Grim had nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to hide from 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!” he yelled at them, raising his arm. It was only then that Nina realized he held a bloody knife 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 it out, shut 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; 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. Nina felt the pain, but it didn’t register. 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 stop, bring herself back from the edge. In the next instant, Nina shattered.