Free A Grim Love: Can't Fight Time by Rosi S. Phillips

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 all your fault, Samuel! Going to the human world to play and relax--you are inciting a rebellion of my sons!” his mother said dramatically.
     
    Grim rolled his eyes and bit back a sardonic smile. Apparently I’m not her son anymore.
     
    “Mother, stop being so dramatic!” Grim said irritably, 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!” Grim heard 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 really 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!”
     
    “Samuel, 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. 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, Uri. By bring a human here you have broken one of our most sacred laws. You know what the punishment must be,” Grim said ominously, his voice sounding cold, harsh, and forbidding even to his own ears.
     
    Beside him his mother moved to speak but he raised a hand to silence her. He would be the king in only 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.
     
    I’m scaring her again, Grim thought fleetingly, his emotions seeping out even as he tried to think objectively.
     
    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.
     
    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 ok. To assure her that she was safe. But he couldn’t, he wouldn’t.
     
    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. Yes, they