No Limits

Chapter Two

Shania didn't leave the neighboring town as Seraphina took a town car to Woodsford Castle. The drive there was spent in silence. The driver, Seraphina, and the driver's deceased mother-in-law, who occasionally nagged him on his driving choices.

Arriving at their destination in the late morning, the driver helped Seraphina out of the cab. Looking at her with concern in his eyes, he held onto her and asked, "Are you sure about this, lass? This in't the place for a nice woman like yourself."

The mother-in-law let out a dry laugh. "If she wants to entertain the dead, who are you to stop her?"

Seraphina ignored the woman to smile kindly at the driver. "I'll be alright. Thank you, though."

The driver's mouth turned into a grim line as he let go of her arm. Giving her the most grieved nod, he climbed into the cab and drove away.

Finally taking her first good look at Woodsford Castle, she gulped and laid a hand on her baby bump. Tempted to call back to the cab driver, she quelled the fear climbing up her throat.

Darkened stone walls stood strong against the wild winds of the cliffside, whipping her hair around her face. Daunting in every way imaginable was both the building and the task before her. But nothing compared to the look of fiery anger in Henry's eyes as he stood at the bottom of the grand stone stairwell that led to the palace keep.

Heaving a sigh, Seraphina walked over to him. Once she was standing in front of him, he took a fraction of a step closer to her. Standing directly over her by a head in height, his eyes bore down at her laced in fury.

"What, do you think you're doing?" Henry spat out.
Seraphina pulled back her shoulders, steadying herself for a fight. "My job. I am supposed to help people find peace-"

"Yes, and usually I am all for you doing your job," Henry explained. "But this land wasn't made for you or our baby." He wrapped his large hands around her small waist and ducked his head down her ear to softly say, "just come home with me, Darling. I will take good care of you."

Grabbing his hands and shoving them away from her obliging body, she glared up at him. "No. You don't get to win this. I swore I would do my best with the occupants here, and nothing will stop me from fulfilling my promise."

Henry growled lowly in his throat. "Normally, I would let you go inside and go into insanity as the others have done. But you happen to be carrying my child with you." He gently grabbed her by the back of the head, knotting his long pale fingers in her curly dark hair, and pulled her down the stairs.

Stomping down hard on his loafer, Seraphina spun out of his reach and bolted up the stairs. She paused once she had gotten to the top step. "I'm sorry. But I have to do this."

"Sera," Henry warned with anger in his eyes, a snarl on his lips, and a beg his words. "Don't do this. No one who has gone in there has come out the same again."

Taking a moment of pause, she glanced over her shoulder at the castle with trepidation. Seraphina felt a large whoosh of air slam into her. Spinning around too quickly, she lost her balance. Henry reached for her, to be held back as she hit the cobblestone keep.

They froze. Henry tried to reach for her, to hit an invisible wall. Seeing her calves outside the barrier, he frantically grabbed at her ankles. Seraphina pulled her legs through the barrier and took her time to stand up. When she looked back to face Henry, she saw a great sadness in him.

They didn't say anything, just stood there in the quiet mourning. She tried to reach through the barrier for her fingers to bounce off of it as well. Seraphina took in a small gasp. Her eyes widened at Henry as heartbreak rested its heavy hand in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Seraphina whispered. "I-I didn't know."

Henry clenched his jaw and took in a deep breath. He ran his fingers through his pale hair. "I'll find you a way out. I swear, I will find you a way out even if it kills me."

Seraphina let out an amused breath of air. No one could kill Death but another Reaper. She looked up at his distraught form, "I know you will." He watched her as she pulled two fingers to her lips and softly kiss them, to gently put them against the barrier. "We love you."

His eyes were growing more red by the second. He put two fingers to his lips and kissed them, putting his hand against where hers was. "I love you, too."

There was warmth between them, but she could only feel the breeze between her palm and his. That miniscule warmth was what she needed to go on. Seraphina gave him a small smile. "You have to go."

Henry shook his head. "I can't just leave you here-"

She softly shushed him. "I will be fine. Go. You can't save me if you're trapped here as well."

After a moment of consideration, he nodded and stepped away. He scanned her face, her body, everything about her. As though trying to remember her the way she was then, to compare her to the woman she would become.

Though there was no sniffle, no runny nose, and no sobs, tears were flowing down his face from red eyes. "I love you both, no matter what happens. I want you to know that."

She could feel her heartbreaking as she watched his shatter into millions of pieces. "We love you too. More than you could ever know."

With one last look of remorse, he was gone with a sweep of the wind.