A Grim Love: Can't Fight Time (21 page)

That was the only way any of it made sense. Maybe Uri hadn’t really been just taking off Grim’s mark but had also been putting some kind of weird reaper power into her that was activated when she died. Way too many science fiction shows and books were clouding her mind, making Nina connect dots that were squares. She was reaching far and wide for an explanation and still coming up short. Turning into a Grim Reaper was the only thing that made sense, and even that conclusion left more questions than answers.

“No, you’re not a reaper,”  Yang said around a yawn, sliding down further in his rocking chair.

In that instant, Nina wanted to reach up and yank out her hair. They’d been talking for almost five minutes, and not only had they gotten nowhere fast but she was back to square one. They were confusing,  jumped topics, and made no sense. It was all so aggravatingly frustrating!

Leaping up from her rocking chair, Nina began to pace in front of them. “You’re gonna have to break it down for me, because I have no clue how I’m not dead, not a reaper, and still pregnant! They all should all kind of cancel each other out.”

Yin just continued to sip her tea, and Yang continued to rock back and forth with his eyes closed and a relaxed expression on his face. They didn’t seem fazed in the least. In fact, they didn’t even seem to care that she’d gotten up and started pacing. Both of them just regarded her with the same calm and patience with which a parent regarded their unruly child.

“Sit down, Nina,” Yang said with a sigh. “You’re blocking the sun.”

Nina’s patience snapped. “Tell me what’s going on now! Or I swear to God I’ll--”

“We are God,” Yin said carefully, setting her glass down with a click. “And what will you do, Nina, hmm?”

Nina looked at Yin’s face, but the glare of the sun blocked bounced off Yin’s eyes so she couldn’t get a clear view of them. The only thing that she could see with perfect clarity was disappointment on Yin’s face. “I had wanted to have a nice chat with you. Perhaps talk about what you’ve been doing as a human, make the transition you are about to go through a bit smoother.” Yin’s voice hardened and the light from the sun began to fade, the heat dissipating. “But you have been nothing but rude to the both of us.”

Yin slowly stood up, and for the first time Nina felt her power. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. If there was any way to describe it, the closest thing would be the power from a star going supernova, that single moment forever captured and encapsulated into one being.

But instead of feeling fear or even anger, she felt… chastised. It was the strangest feeling, but Nina felt like she was the bad guy in the situation, that she’d been wrong. Yin had been nothing but kind and Nina had--

She stopped berating herself and mentally took a step back. This wasn’t her fault by any stretch of the imagination. They’d made her wake up in a creepy laboratory, avoided her questions, and reprimanded her at every turn.

“Are you messing with my emotions?” Nina asked stunned.

Yin rolled her eyes and sat back down. “Of course you would say that. You just can’t take responsibility for your actions. You are--”

“Yin,” Yang spoke, the word layered with warning. “Try to remember why we’re here.”

Nina looked between the two, trying to figure out what had just happened. One minute Yin had looked like she might just wipe Nina out of existence and the next, she looked almost… sad.

Rubbing her head, Nina wondered if she still got headaches even though she was dead. She didn’t want to get into a fight with a pair of self-proclaimed gods. She just wanted to figure out what was going on. That was all she wanted.

It was a few more tense moments before Yin finally spoke. “You are not a reaper because you were not born that way. There are only two ways to become a reaper: be born or be created by us.”

Yang paused in his rocking and cocked a brow at her. “Please believe that if we’d created you, we would have made you much more amiable.”

Nina felt her lips twitch, and casting Yin a quick glance she finally went and sat back down. She still didn’t trust them, but for the time being she needed them. Wisely, she remained silent; waiting for them to tell her what was going on.

“What you are is still to be determined, but what you have is a child. You are carrying the first reaper-human child in a very long time. And that makes you very, very special and very, very dangerous,” Yin said calmly, picking her iced tea back up.

Unable to help herself, Nina asked the questions burning her tongue. “Why does it make me dangerous? Why am I still alive? Why am I here? What does any of this have to--?”

“Shh, shh, shh. Listen. Just… listen,” Yin whispered, putting her index finger to her lips.

Corralling her curiosity, Nina closed her eyes and did as Yin asked. It was so soft at first; she thought she might have imagined it. But there it was again, so soft.
Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Ba-bump.
It was her heartbeat coupled with another. It was the heartbeat of her child. Nina hadn’t even given the thing much thought. Yes, they’d said she was pregnant, but what did that really mean? It was so different being able to hear the heart, to feel the tiny flicker of life that made it so real.

“How are you doing this?” Nina asked softly, her voice just barely reaching them.

“We aren’t,” Yang answered.

“What do you feel, Nina?” Yin asked, and Nina felt a warm weight on her hand.

“Happiness,” was her immediate answer.

“What else?” Yang asked, and she felt another weight, another comforting hand.

Nina focused on the life inside of her. It was so weird to accept that she was having a child, that she was pregnant. Maybe the reality of the situation hadn’t set in yet. Hell, Nina was still trying to deal with the fact that she wasn’t dead.

Overwhelmed, confused, and just plain tired were her best friends at the moment. But still, she couldn’t help the response that she felt to the child inside of her. Maybe it was instinct, or some deep yearning she’d never known she had, but for the first time in a while she felt something that wasn’t fear or resignation.

“Hope.” Nina opened her eyes to look at Yin and Yang. “I feel hope.”

Yin patted Nina’s hand lightly and smiled down at her. “And that is the answer to all your questions.” She drew back from Nina and stood up, looking out into the open field of flowers.

“Both of you are here because you inspire hope for the future. You wouldn’t be able to do any of this is you were dead, Nina,” Yin said as she turned back to Nina, determination etched into the few lines on her face. “We will try our best to guide you, because you are our future, our hope.”

Just lay on that pressure, why don’t you!
Nina thought hotly. Looking down at her body, she sucked in her stomach and watched the muscles draw in. Nina didn’t feel pregnant, she didn’t even look pregnant! Yet, she was... and, by some weird twist of fate, her body carried all the hopes and dreams of two mad scientist gods and probably most humans and reapers.

Nina was spiraling, suffocating, and falling into darkness. She needed an anchor, but no matter how much she searched she couldn’t find one.
I need Grim.
Right at that moment, she needed her husband, the reaper she loved. She needed him, and he was nowhere.

The ring,
her consciousness said evenly, reminding her of the blue diamond on her finger. Immediately, Nina ran her fingers over it, feeling the cool stone. It was a small connection, but it helped her focus, helped her think rationally.

“How?” she asked looking up at Yin and Yang, and tried to focus. Nina needed to understand why she alone was so important, because it was just too unbelievable that the gods who created humanity and reaper-kind needed her help in any shape or form. It just didn’t add up.

Yang spoke as he offered her a hand and helped her get up. “You are one of a kind, and what you possess is something no other has had before you.”

Nina looked up at Yin and Yang, still missing some crucial pieces to the puzzle. It was as if they explained one thing, but it was in such a way that it left a dozen new questions open.

“I’m not the first.” It was a statement.

“You are neither the first, nor the last. There has never been, and will never be someone like you, Nina. That is why we have to do this,” Yin filled in as she took Nina’s other hand and very gently led her away from the porch and back to the door.

Nina felt the shift in the mood, understood that something major was about to happen. Of course, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what that was. For once, Nina was mentally gone; too many surprises, too many unanswered questions, and too much anger had left her drained. If she’d had the choice she would have just curled up in one of the rocking chairs and slept all day in the sun.

But, as Nina had learned from the beginning, rarely was her life fair and almost never was her life normal. Though ‘normal’ was relative to place and time, but she lacked even those things. Where was she? Nina had no clue. What time was it?

Everything was just too much, and for once she didn’t want to think. For once Nina didn’t want to even ask a question. If Grim had seen her he would have said that she was sick and needed to lay in bed all day with him... though Nina highly doubted she’d be resting during that time.

“Can you please stop answering my questions with non-answers that just bring up more questions? It’s exhausting, and considering that I’ve already died today, I could use a break.” Nina sighed tiredly as Yin opened the door and began leading them back down the hallway Nina had come in through.

“We aren’t trying to confuse you, Nina. We just see things differently, and that doesn’t always translate into our speech.”

Nina chose to remain silent knowing that if she asked the million questions buzzing in her head, they would just lead to more answer-questions. It was giving her a headache. They knew what she wanted to know; all she had to do was wait.

Yin was in front of her as they walked down the hallway and towards the creepy Frankenstein lab. Nina didn’t ask why they were walking to the lab. She didn’t ask how they planned to keep their promises. And she didn’t ask the billion other questions that she knew she wouldn't get real answers to.

“We need to unlock your powers,” Yang said, surprising Nina into breaking her no questions vow.

“I have powers?” she blurted out, twisting her neck to see him as they continued the trek down the hallway; this time, it felt like the time it took them was correct for the distance they traveled. Where at first Nina had felt like she’d taken one step and moved a mile, a step here was just that, a step.

Yin answered with another infuriating non-answer. “We all have power, just in different forms.”

I walked into that one,
Nina thought with a roll of her eyes. Maybe in another life the couple had been members of Congress. They were able to easily avoid a question while making it seem like they’d answered it. If Nina had been less observant she wouldn’t have caught on to what they were doing.

“Why does it matter that I have powers?” Nina asked suspiciously.

Yin looked over her shoulder at Nina and smiled. “You are married to a reaper king, going to have his child. Need I say more?”

Biting her lip, Nina had to agree with Yin even though it pained her to do so. She couldn’t always relay on Grim to protect her or help her. When she returned to the Underworld—well, if she returned—she would be a queen. The guards already hated her, and not many people liked her. Perhaps having power would help her cause. Power wasn’t bad, it only became bad in the wrong hands, but maybe she could use do some good.

Mentally sighing, Nina forced herself to ask the only truly important question. She only hoped that they would give her a straight answer. “Will it hurt my baby?”

Yang spoke first. “No, but it will hurt you.”

“I can take pain.” Nina smirked as she thought of the knife she’d had through her heart just hours before. Then she thought of the pain from having Uri remove Grim’s mark, and the pain her father had caused her when she’d found out he was a murderer. Pain was her companion, remaining with her even in death.