Triple Infinity (21 page)

“Oh.
” It was all she managed to muster when she realized he was right. She looked at the room full of dead bodies. “Have we taken care of all of them?”

“I think. Triaten and Charlotte are checking the perimeter.
Your ear piece?” Aiden asked.

Skye shrugged with a point to
the countless bodies littering the entryway. “Came out somewhere in there, I guess.”

Aiden led her over to the stairs, stepping over limbs and torsos. “You need to sit. I frankly don’t know how you’re still standing with all that blood draining out of you.”

Skye sat down on a step and pulled her knees up, resting on them. She looked out across the bodies. “I don’t remember half of that.”

“I don’t imagine you would. You were on another level.”

“I was?”

Aiden nodded. “You were.” He bent down in front of her, eyes level with hers,
and his hand behind her neck. “You did really good, Skye.”

She nodded numbly. Aiden’s compliments were rare,
so when they did come, they meant something. She just wished she wasn’t seconds away from passing out so she could revel in it.

“When Charlotte gets back in, we’ll have her heal you.”

Aiden started to drag Malefic bodies, four at a time, out of the entryway, lining them up in rows outside the building. One, too make sure they were out of sight from the children, and two, to make sure all of them were really dead. The bodies would be covered with sheets, and Doc Saima would have them taken care of.

Flying back to the mountain, Skye was sleeping on the couch in the plane, head in Aiden’s lap. Charlotte was sleeping on the bed behind the back wall of the main cabin. Both were exhausted after the battle — Skye, from her numerous wounds, and Charlotte, from healing all of those wounds.

Triate
n walked through the main cabin after grabbing a bottle of water. He hadn’t left Charlotte’s side on the plane, save for two brief conversations early on in the flight that he had with Horace.

He paused in front of Aiden and pointed at Skye with his water. “Have you told her that several of the sites still had massacres?”

Aiden shook his head. “She hasn’t woken up yet.” His voice was soft. “I’m not sure what to tell her. Great job on saving hundreds of thousands, but we still lost a good thousand? How can I expect her to come to terms with that?”

“We know losses like that are unavoidable. We got used to it.”

Aiden just shrugged his shoulders.

Triaten’s face took on a look of pride. “She was a firestorm in that battle, wasn’t she?”

“You saw?”

“Yes
. I watched her for a few moments after I chased a Malefic down the hallway toward you. A hellcat.” He leaned against the table opposite the couch. “She’s going to be the most lethal of all of us, isn’t she?”

Aiden
’s eyes went down to his wife, peaceful with deep, even breathing. Sadness touched his eyes. “I hope not.”

“Why on earth not?”

Aiden’s fingers played with her hair, the auburn waves falling from the ponytail onto his thigh. The battle blood had been washed off her body the best she could in the bathroom on the plane, but there were still remnant red streaks lining her neck. “She deserves so much more than that. More than the death she can unleash. More than the burden death gives.”

“She’s strong. She can handle it, Aiden.”

He shook his head. “I just don’t want that for her.”

“You’re forgetting that she can save so many. She can do things we never dreamed possible. Think of the lives she just saved. Think of the lives she will save. It’s bigger than any of us could ever do.”

Aiden was silent. Triaten waited him out.

Staring down at her, Aiden eventually broke. “I just want her safe. In body
. And in mind. That’s all.”

“You’re worried about her mind?”

“Sometimes yes, sometimes no.” Aiden shrugged. “She doesn’t remember half of what she did today.”

Triaten had no reasonable response to the concern.

Hours later, Triaten leaned back from the forward position he had been in for the last hour, sitting with his arms resting on his knees as he hovered over Charlotte’s sleeping form.

He missed the smell of her, he realized, now that they were inches away from each other. His eyes ran along her body, stopping to rest on her face. Long lashes were closed, accentuating the deep purple circles under her eyes. Her high cheekbones were more pronounced than usual, but he had expected that. The drive in her meant she rarely broke for eating when working at something. She was easily consumed, and there was nothing as consuming as caring for the thousands of refugees at Doc Saima’s camp. So he knew she hadn’t been eating well, or enough.

She groaned in her sleep and shifted on the bed. “No, not the babies. Not the babies,” came out softly from her mouth.
“Tri will come. I swear it. He will.” Her head turned on the pillow, and she was silent again.

N
ow that the immediate threat had passed, and he had her safely within arm’s reach, Triaten’s anger at her elevated, minute after minute. Unfair, he knew, since she was asleep and couldn’t defend herself. But he was reaching furious, nonetheless. All the anger that he had shoved from his mind the past few months ballooned, and it threatened to pop. He was mad at her for using him. Mad at her for leaving. But mostly mad at her for almost dying.

But the anger had
to live with the impulse Triaten was having, to just crawl into the bed with Charlotte and hold her, capture her body, and make sure nothing like this ever happened again.

He could never have her that close to death again.

With a jerk, Charlotte woke up with a start, gasping as she shot up in bed, hand subconsciously reaching for a dagger she always kept by her head. It wasn’t there and momentary panic flashed on her face. Strange bed. Strange place. It wasn’t until her eyes focused on Triaten that she exhaled in relief.

Her first wave
of discombobulation passed, and then she did a double-take at his face. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” He straightened his face.

“Like you want to murder me. Don’t try to hide it now.”

Triaten attempted
to hold in a sigh, but couldn’t stop it from eking out.

She pushed the blanket off her lap and swung her legs off the side of the bed, facing Triaten fully. “Can I have some water?”

He handed her the half-full bottle. She guzzled it, draining every drop. Warily, she looked at him
.
“Months ago. I’m sorry I left like that.” The words blurted out.

He looked at her sharply.
“Are you?”

“I had to leave Tri, you have to understand that. I was doing it for both of us.”

Triaten rubbed his temples. Apparently, they were going to get into it right away. “Were you doing it for us, or for you, Charlotte?” He stood up, pacing in the small walkway next to the bed. “Man, I was an idiot. The first time I let it happen — in some weird part of my brain I believed that you actually wanted me. But I was wrong — I knew it the night of the flame moon — it wasn’t real — you were using me and I couldn’t let it happen again.”

He
stopped pacing, and arms across his chest, he looked at the wall above Charlotte’s head. “I never should have let that first time happen. That was my mistake. But you didn’t need to leave, Charlotte. You left us — the possibility of us — without a thought.”

“Triaten, you humiliated me.” A flush rose in Charlotte’s cheeks. “What was I suppose
d to do? I didn’t know what else to do. Where to go. I just couldn’t be around you. Couldn’t be humiliated every time I saw you.”

“You want to talk humiliation,
Char? How about at the airfield? I was stupid enough to think that after Mary confessed to killing Thomas, you were finally ready. Ready to put that chapter of your life to rest. Ready to move on. And I figured, why the hell not? Why not offer you up everything. All of me. All I wanted was you to stay.”

He turned
from her. “And you crushed the thought without even considering it.”

Charlotte stood up and grabbed Triaten’s arm.
“Consider it? Of course I considered it. I sat in that jeep, trying to convince myself of the possibility of us. But I couldn’t, because all of you, Triaten? You’ve never been ready for love — real love. You’ve spent your whole life avoiding it, ever since Horace sent your mom away. And since then you’ve treated every female you’ve ever come across with the same detached distance. How was I supposed to believe I was any different?”

Triaten pulled his arm away from her grasp. “Don’t blame Susan and my father
for your choice of leaving.”

Charlotte stopped and
took a deep breath. She sat back down on the bed, and then laid flat on her back, hands over her eyes, legs still hanging off the side. Silence surrounded them. The hum of the engines filled the small area.

Her voice came out
small when she spoke again. “Fine. I was stupid to leave. I should have stayed and figured out whatever was going on with us.” Her hands came away from her eyes and she looked at Triaten. “But leaving was the best thing that could have happened for me. I still needed to let go. Let go of Thomas. And being at Saima’s camp — it was the best thing. I could remember all our time there. Where we fell in love. And then accept it as being gone. I couldn’t have done that on the mountain, Tri. And not with you.”

With a sigh,
Triaten sat back down on the chair in front of her, his hands gently on her knees. Charlotte pulled herself upright, and looked him in the eye. “And when it came down to it, Tri, I chose you.”

Triaten’s eyebrow
rose. “Chose me when?”

“The first time the Malefics attacked. When they almost killed me. You maybe don’t think I remember
it, but I do. It was before you and Aiden and Skye showed up. I was almost dead and Thomas was there. He was so happy to see me. And I was so happy to see him.” Tears started to brim on her lower lashes. “And he was ecstatic — ecstatic that we could finally be together again. He told me just to let it all go, and we would be together. And I was so close to doing it — so close to letting go — and then your face popped into my mind. And I couldn’t let go.”

She wiped an eye. “So I dragged my hand onto my heart, and healed it just enough, made it pump for hours. I stayed alive. Death would have been so easy, and it was so painful, but I did it. I stayed alive for you. For you
, Tri. Even though Thomas kept begging me to come with him.” She grabbed Triaten’s arms, fingers burying into his forearm muscles. “But I wouldn’t do it, Triaten. I chose you. I couldn’t leave you. When it mattered most, it was you.” She heaved a steading breath as her grip on him tightened. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else you want from me.”

Triaten’s head hung, his eyes avoiding hers. “Hell, Charlotte. Not now.” He shook his head. “You were always the one. Truth told, I waited for ages, and I never admitted it. But I thought we were ruined.”

She scooted closer to him, both of her hands going alongside his neck. “Tri, we’ve lived long enough to know there’s very little that can’t come back from ruin.”

Her touch sent a shiver down Triaten’s
back, but he steeled himself. His eyes flickered to hers. “Charlotte, I met someone.”

Stunned, Charlotte stared at him, frozen. Then her hand
s jerked away from his neck.

“You met someone?” Her voice was flat, disbelieving.

“Yes. Char, I thought we were done. Done for good, all chances ruined. It’s the last thing I wanted. It just happened.” His hands tightened on her knees. “I still love you.”

“And her?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“It was only four months, Triaten. Four.” An accusing tone reverberated through her words.

Triaten stood again, and re-started his pace. “And it took me three of those months to manage to eke out the tiniest sliver of a life without you. And you’re faulting me for that?  It took me that long just to get enough of a routine so I wasn’t flogging myself for every moment you were gone. And for what I did to make you go. It took forever just to figure out what to do with myself at dinner. What to fill my days with. Who to talk to.”

Charlotte’s hands were wrapped into tight fists that rested on her thighs. “Who is she?”

“She’s human.”

“God, Triaten
— human?” Her eyes went to the heavens as she shook her head.

Triaten forced himself to hide the preemptive cringe. “And she’s Skye’s sister.”

Charlotte stared at the ceiling of the plane, face resigned to wry disbelief as tears gathered. Her voice softly cracked. “A hundred years, and you haven’t loved anyone, and now this. Two.”

“I never said I loved her.”

“You told me about her. That means you love her, whether you want to admit it or not.”

“I didn’t plan it, Char.”

“Why her?” Charlotte looked at him, eyes narrowed. “Out of anyone, why her?”

“Char…” His voice tapered.

“Why her?”

“Char…
you feel things — so deeply.”

“What is that suppose
d to mean?”

Triaten hesitated, even though the answer came immediately to mind. He considered not telling her, but at this point, truth was what
they both deserved.

He looked down at her. “She’s not you. That’s why.”

He sighed as he sat heavily down on the bed next to her.

Charlotte took a steadying breath
and wiped the tears that threatened to fall. “So I feel things too deeply, and she’s not me.”

Her head bowed as s
he rubbed her temples in silence. When she finally looked back up at him, aching hurt etched her face. “So what now?”

“I don’t know.”

Silence followed them the rest of the flight, continuing on as Triaten drove Charlotte home after landing. He pulled his jeep up to the front of her house. Lights were on inside
, even though it was mid-morning. Triaten had called Horace to arrange for her house to be readied after her long absence. They must have been here when it was dark.

Triaten put the jeep
in park, but let the engine run. A clear sign.

“I
had Horace order an avocado panini from Joe’s for you. It should be here by now. And the refrigerator is stocked.”