She blinked, unable to process what he was actually saying. She lifted a hand up and poked a finger into her ear, trying to clear it of any blockage she might have had to stop her hearing clearly. "What did you say?"

"You're in another dimension, another world," he repeated. He said it slowly and carefully, making sure to pronounce each word clearly.

Her eyes widened. "Wha...? How is-?"

Jack shrugged nonchalantly. "This is normal for me, so I don't really have an answer for you. The science of it all is a little over my head. Just know it's completely possible and it's done on an often basis." She swallowed, trying to convince herself that what he was saying was just more of his insanity talking. But...

After the crazy things she had seen and was unable to refute, she wasn't so certain.

"Why?" she finally managed to choke out.

He glanced down at her bowel of soup and the bread that was still untouched. "Eat a few more bites and I'll answer. Although technically I already have." He waited until she had done as he said. "The reason is because of our betrothal. As I said, I brought you to my home. This is also your and your grandmother's new home. It is customary that if a human marries into a family like mine they and their immediate family are moved to this world, unless they have families of their own. Since you have no family besides your grandmother, she was brought here. This way we do not have to worry about splitting up close families."

She blinked, sucking in a sharp breath. "O-oh..."

He nodded shortly. "So, your next question...?"

She struggled to think and eat at the same time. After a few more tense minutes, she thought up another question. "Is all of this really real? I'm not imagining any of this?"

He laughed. "It's all one hundred percent real. Not a thing is imaginary, including me. I know I'm very good looking though, so you may have thought a few times now that I could only exist in a fantasy..."

She blushed, refusing to admit that the thought might have or might not have occurred to her. His grin grew at her reaction. "I-I...When can I speak to Nana? I need to talk to her."

He stared at her for a few seconds before rising to his feet. "Keep eating," he ordered before strolling out of the room. He was gone for ten minutes. The door opened and he came back in, as casual as before, her grandmother in front of him. He spread his arms out wide. "Ask and so you shall receive, hjarta mítt," he told her in a grand manner.

Nana was a little shorter than her, with her mid-length, straight, graying blonde hair. Despite being a grandmother, she was only fifty-six, as she had been sixteen when she gave birth to Nisha's dad and he had been twenty-three when Nisha was born. Nisha didn't have a grandfather. He had died before his son was born and Nana had never married. Her grandmother moved as quickly as her aging body would allow to the side of the bed. She was wearing a light pink sweater and black dress pants, but that was all Nisha had time to take in before the old woman's arms came around her neck. "Snowflake," she whispered warmly.

"Nana," Nisha greeted her back just as warmly. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," the woman nodded. "I'm just fine, darling. Now...it sounds like I have a few things that need to be explained to you. First off, I need to apologize."

Nisha frowned. "Why?"

Nana cleared her throat, looking apprehensively embarrassed. "I've known about your...engagement since you were ten."

She pulled back, out of her grandmother's arms. "What?" she whispered softly, feeling hurt and betrayed. "You mean, he's telling the truth?! W-why...why wasn't I ever told?"

Nana shook her head. "I was put under a...oath to never tell you. He...well, J-Jack there wanted you to have the chance to live as normal a life as possible. He's been supporting us from the shadows, so I was never really ever able to say no."

Nisha's eyebrows shot up in alarm. "What are you talking about?"

Her grandmother sighed wearily. "Think about it, Snowflake. Do you really think I would be able to afford not only to send you away to a different city but also to pay for the majority of your living expenses, plus my own, with the job at a grocer that I have...had?" she quickly corrected herself

Nisha blinked, shaking her head slowly. "To be honest...I never really questioned it."

The older woman sighed. "Well, the boy standing awkwardly at the door is the one who's made sure we were able to get by. He's the one who paid for your apartment and all your other expenses, plus all your schooling and dorm fees, before you moved out."

Nisha's eyebrows rose even higher. "Holy hell, how loaded are you, Jack?" she asked in amazement, peering over her grandmother's shoulder to look at him.

He was leaning against the bedroom door which was closed, arms crossed over his chest. At her question, he shrugged. "My family's been around for a very long time, so money isn't any sort of issue for us. In fact, I rarely have to bother with any of it. A simple swipe of a card finishes most things, often enough." A teasing tone fell into his voice. "Are you getting greedy? Do I seem like a more acceptable husband, now that you've discovered I'm stupidly rich?"

She glared across the room at him, shaking her head. "Whether or not you have money isn't an issue. What's an issue is this supposed 'engagement' I have never heard one word of or even a whisper about my entire life. You claim I asked you but I don't even remember you, let alone this apparently life-changing event. Even with Nana saying it's true, I'm still very hesitant to believe a word of what you've said."

"Y-you...you mean you don't remember, uh, J-Jack, Nisha?" her grandmother pulled back. Her grey eyes seemed slightly surprised. "You use to play together all the time, before the death of you father, God rest his soul. Even I knew who J-Jack was, though it has been a very long time since I've seen him." She turned her head, looking at him over her shoulder. "You've certainly grown up, child. I almost didn't recognize you at first." She turned her attention back to her granddaughter. "I always wondered why you never brought up his name, once you came to live with me. I never thought you wouldn't remember him, though."

Jack's voice rang out with wounded righteousness. "You see, Nisha?!" he moved away from the wall, walking over to the bed, pointing at her grandmother. "Even Nana remembers me! But you, the one person who should have never forgotten, do not. How is this fair? You're so cruel, hjarta mítt." He stopped at the foot of the bed, his blue eyes shining with a strange mixture of tears and laughter.

She swallowed, leaning back against the pillows of the bed. "So...what else did you need to tell me, Nana?" she finally asked softly.

Her grandmother shifted to sit down on the edge of her bed, glancing between Jack and Nisha. "W-well," she began, her voice awkward and slightly unsure. "First off, I want you to know that this engagement has my blessing. Second, we will both have to be strong and learn to make some...adjustments. Third, this is going to be our new home now, evidently. But you won't be alone, I'll be here with you."

Nisha turned a tired gaze to her grandmother. "You're just going to accept all of this? You're just going to accept that we've been kidnapped and you've been brainwashed?"

Jack growled quietly, his eyes sparking blue fire. "Now, now, Nisha. No need to be that way. No one has been brainwashed in the slightest. And the correct term you are looking for is 'spirited-away', instead of kidnapped."

She glared at him. "You aren't currently part of the conversation, Jack-ass," she told him in dismissal.

He let out a low laugh. "Oh...Oh, you," he chortled, a dark edge to his voice. The fire in his eyes exploded and in an instant he had transformed once more into that cold version of his self. The temperature in the room dropped by fifty degrees in an instant. Shivering, she wrapped her arms around herself, staring down at his feet which were once again bare.

The frost was rushing out from his feet, much faster than when this had happened in her bedroom. The entire room was swiftly encased in ice. The cracking and hissing of the extreme cold, ice, and frost filled her ears. His longer hair whipped about him in a cold breeze, his pale blue-white eyes beginning to glow. She felt a deep cold on her chest. Glancing down, a tiny gasp slipped past her lips.

The aquamarine droplet was glowing as well, a pale blue. She reached up to touch it in a daze of shock. Her breath came out in a painful hiss. It was so cold that her fingers felt frozen to the stone, unable to move. She felt the cold begin seeping into her body again. Her teeth chattered, her breath coming out in large white clouds of cold. On the bed next to her, her grandmother did the same, her expression fearful.

His voice made Nisha's gaze shoot back up to his face, which was surprisingly calm. His eyes burned in a pale, cold fury. But his voice and expression were completely calm, if not just as cold as the room was. "Nisha, my name is not 'Jack-ass'," he bit out. "My name is Jack Frost and you will do well to remember that. I may seem happy-go-lucky and cheerful most of the time, but that is not all I am, love. I am the winter itself. My moods, emotions, and temperament reflect this. I can be playful and fun, just like winter can make children feel. I can be mysterious and beautiful, just as nature is. But I can just as quickly grow deadly, wrathful, beyond the control of any man."

Slowly, the cold began to retract. He inhaled deeply, his eyes closing, giving her a short respite from their cold depths. When he inhaled, more of the ice seemed to disappear, like it was being sucked back into his lungs. The frost ran backwards, rushing back to the soles of his feet. She shivered harder, her body still reacting to the deep cold. On her chest, the gem was beginning to warm back up.

The color returned to his body. When he opened his eyes, they were their normal bright blue. His lips lifted into a sardonic smile. "I apologize. That wasn't the smartest move, on my part. You are still recovering from the cold and I've just exposed you to an extreme amount of it once again. Nana," he shifted his gaze to the older woman. "I am sorry to you as well. It is not good, to expose you to my powers like that. It can have so many potential negative effects to you. I will remove my presence, for now, which should allow more warmth into the room."

He looked back at Nisha, his expression unreadable. "I'm sure you have more questions, but for now, please sit tight. I have several things I need to see to. Finish your food, hjarta mítt, and get some more rest. It grows late. I will return in the morning." Slowly, he bowed, before turning on his heel and walking out of the room.

Once he was gone, Nisha turned wide eyes to her grandmother. "Nana...what are we going to do?" she asked.

Her grandmother reached out and patted her right hand, the one closest to her, with her own. "Well, child. First off, you are going to have to both realize and accept that we are now involved with beings more powerful than us. I know you're in shock, as am I. But we have to keep going. There isn't anything we can do to fight this, truly."

Nisha's brows furrowed into a deep frown. "Nana, what are you talking about? He can't really do this, can he?"

"We have been brought here to this other...world, which is actually seen as a great honor. Apparently it isn't very often that...these sorts of beings marry regular humans anymore. As such, it's been a long time since any humans have been in this world. The two of us are definitely the odd ones' out."

Nisha pulled her hand out from under her grandmother's, brushing the hair from her face in a nervous gesture. "N-Nana, how are you talking so...calmly about this? How can you just accept that there are people with...abilities, like we've seen Jack pull off?"

Her grandmother frowned, her expression growing sad. She shook her head. "I just do, alright, Snowflake? For now, that seems to be both the best and safest answer. I don't know what this Jack knows and I see no reason to alert him to information he has no business knowing if I can help it."

Nisha's eyebrows rose up at her grandmother's muttered words, but she chose to leave it alone for now. She let out a long breath. "So I'm just suppose to accept that I'm stuck here? That I'm engaged to a stranger, who evidently isn't a stranger, and we'll be married at some unknown point in time?" she demanded shortly.

Her grandmother flashed a weary, apologetic smile. "Exactly. That's the whole situation, as far as I'm aware at least. If he has any other information he would like to enlighten us with, it will have to wait until morning. Now, Snowflake, finish your food before it gets any colder than it already is."

Nisha sighed heavily before doing as she was told. The cold Jack had summoned earlier had sucked out all the heat from the soup. It was as cold as ice. She had to let each spoonful rest inside her mouth, warming up and melting, before she could swallow. She was simply thankful that there wasn't a lot left. The bread was beyond hope though. It was literally as hard as steel and nothing she could do would break it up.

Once she was finished, Nana moved the tray onto the bedside table. Then she smiled at her. "Jack is right. It's gotten late. We should head to bed."

Nisha stared at her. "I don't even know what time or day it is, so how you know amazes me. Also," she said quickly, reaching out her hand as her grandmother began to rise to her feet. "I...Will you please sleep here with me? I'm scared to be alone right now," she confessed softly.

Her grandmother's grey eyes warmed. "I was planning to, Snowflake. I don't really want to be alone right now either. This place is so big and I've barely scratched the surface of it. It's almost like we're on a completely different planet, a parallel world which is very similar but very different as well from our original world. Nicholas was right..." the last was said in a whisper so soft that Nisha wasn't sure she had heard her right.

Nana moved to the other side of the bed and slide in under the covers. Nisha moved closer to her, turning on her side and staring at her grandmother, head cradled on one of the very soft pillows. Her grandmother shifted to do the same. Their twin grey gazes were a mirror of worry and confusion about their current situation. But there was relief that they were together as well. Mostly though, the two of them were incredibly weary. Their eyes closed and they fell asleep in very nearly the same instant.

* * *

Jack leaned against the bedroom door he had just exited, closing his eyes in pain.

How could she have forgotten? he asked himself achingly. Could she honestly have no memory of everything that had happened? Could she really have cared so little for him? Had the words that she had spoken to him, twelve years ago, all been a lie?

His mind pulled up the memory of her young, smiling face that looked at him in embarrassed determination. He opened his eyes, gazing down at his left hand, still able to feel the weight of her small hand she had placed in his. His hand closed, fingers curling around his palm, as a rush of heartache filled him.

He pressed his right hand to his chest, sucking in a sharp breath at the pain in his heart. No, he wouldn't let that excuse fly. One way or another he was going to be with the one who had stolen his heart and brought about everything that had happened to him since.

Nodding his head in a determined way, he pushed off from the door. He headed down the hall, the light grey familiar walls helping him feel a little better. This was where he had lived all his life. The WinterPalace, as it was formally called, though he just knew it as home, was huge. It was connected with the rest of the Other realm, the world all supernatural beings lived in.

He turned down a corridor, to the left, whistling softly under his breath. He closed his eyes, feeling a thread of apprehension for what was sure to come ahead. His father wasn't pleased, not in the slightest. But what did it matter? He was going to be the one to inherit it all, so it wasn't like his father could do much about it.

But it was his mother he was truly worried about. Once she found out that Nisha had no memory of all that had happened...

He grimaced in annoyance. Fuck, his life was going to get hard soon. He sighed, scratching at his head. He paused, glancing out a window along the halls, next to one of the many hallway closet doors the servants used. He was in the west wing of the palace and the moon couldn't be seen in the sky yet. Outside a blizzard was raging, in response to his use of powers earlier.

Sighing even more, he continued on to his destination. "Well, shit," he muttered. "No way I can hide it now..."

It took him only another five minutes to reach the Lord of Winter's study. Opening the door without knocking, he strolled in causally, like it was any other day. He placed a confident smile on his lips, straightening his shoulders, preparing for what he knew was going to come.

His father was standing next to one of the wide bay windows, to the left of the large room. The room itself looked like any classic, well-used and stocked European-styled study. There were three bookcases, bigger than the one in Nisha's new bedroom, filled to the brim with all kinds of thick tomes. There was a small fireplace, ten feet from where his father was standing. His mother was standing in front of it, gazing into the fire's depths. A large mahogany wood desk rest on the right side of the room, with one of the newest computer models available sitting on it. Three chairs sat in front of the desk and he glared at them, remembering all the times he had been forced to sit in one and listen to a long-ass lecture from his father.

An annoyed growl from his father returned his attention to the man.

Quentin Frost was a large man, a few inches taller than even Jack's six' one". Like his son, he was designed in the same way as a Frost should be. Tall, lean body build, pale-blonde hair, bright blue eyes, handsome face, and charming smile, when he chose to flash it. He was enchanting and seemed to be filled with an ethereal grace and fluidity that his abilities granted him. Currently he was in a bright green dress shirt and black dress pants without any shoes, looking casual, in a rich way. His blue eyes sparked with fury as he glared across the room at his youngest son.

"Jack," he started, his deep voice completely different from his appearance. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

Jack shrugged, grinning widely. "Getting my way," he said in an intentionally bratty manner.

Eyes flashing, Quentin took four quick steps toward him. "You little bastard," he muttered darkly. "Son of mine or not, you have inherited too much of the Frost legacy."

Grinning, Jack took two steps closer, winking at his father. "Well, I have you to blame for that, don't I?"

His father growled again, but a soft, clear voice made the two men pause. "Jack, you know what you have done is..." Glacia Frost's voice trailed off.

She was a beautiful woman, one of the Japanese yuki-onna, or snow woman. As was most common, her kind usually ended up being the wives of the et hiemis, men of winter. Despite her long-ago Japanese descent, her hair was a very dark auburn red, nearly brown, cut close to her head. Her eyes were a dark brown, her lips and skin tone slightly paler than was normal for a human. She wore a short-sleeved black sweater-vest shirt with white-colored jeans and black loafers. Her expression as she looked at Jack was torn between weary long-suffering and disbelief. "Jack...you do realize how long it's been since one of us has done something like this, correct?"

Jack nodded stiffly, all playfulness gone from his manner. "Yes, Mother, I do."

Her head tilted to the side slightly. "You do realize how difficult it will be...how much of an uproar this will cause in the entire Other realm?"

He nodded again. "Yes," he sighed. "But I won't let you stop this. If you try to, I will step down. Then what will you all do?"

His father frowned fiercely, taking a step forward. His wife floated toward him, moving along on a light, graceful and cold breeze. "Dear, please control yourself. You two are just the same. Stubborn to no end when you want something." Glacia returned her attention to her errant son. "You are serious, Jack? You would really leave it all behind and desert us?"

He straightened, staring directly into his parents' eyes. "Yes. Human she may be, but Nisha is my whole world. She's the one who brought about everything."

His mother's dark eyes widened in shock. "You mean-?"

His father took a rearing step back. "No...no, you never told us that. You never said anything about that, Jack!"

He shook his head. "I knew, even then, how you would react. How ashamed you would be of me. But it doesn't matter now. I've got her here, in the Other realm. Now you have no choice. I have forced your hand. Bringing her here is the same as announcing to the entire realm my plans for the future."

Glacia glared at him. "And you very nearly killed her doing so. Now I see why our kind, most especially, have not taken a human as a spouse in so long. She was so close to death..."

He stiffened, not wanting to be reminded about that part. "Well, she was strong enough to make it, as was her elderly grandmother. That should prove that she is made of great stock, for you at least."

"But still, a human! Think of all the impurity you will be adding to the regal Frost line!" Quentin shouted angrily.

His wife pressed a light kiss to his cheek. "Calm yourself, before you bring another blizzard through. Jack is right. We can do nothing for it now. If we try to send her back, she may not survive." Her gaze returned to her son, filled with equal parts determination and resignation. "We will do as you want. But, I have several conditions that must be followed, no arguing and no questions asked. If she is to live here, she must learn."

Jack sighed heavily, some of the tension running out of his body. "Fine. I agree. As long as I get Nisha in the end, I can handle anything."

-