Triple Infinity (33 page)

The wind whipped tiny balls of ice at the windshield in front of Triaten and Charlotte. Drops that were a precursor to what was to be the first real snowfall of the season.

Grey and cold. Storm brewing.

The exact sentiment Triaten and Charlotte could both see in the slump of Skye’s shoulders as she got out of Aiden’s jeep and trudged across the tarmac to the plane.

Skye had decided earlier in the day that Shiv’s body should be buried by their parents in their hometown. Shiv’s body was already on board, just awaiting Skye’s accompaniment.

Charlotte looked over at Triaten. “Are you ready?”

He cut the engine. “No. But this isn’t about me.”

They both got out, stopping to get their duffel bags from the back of the vehicle before they walked over to the plane. Aiden and Skye saw them right away, and they paused at the foot of the plane’s ladder.

Charlotte dropped her bag when they reached the pair, going straight to Skye and embracing her. “I am so sorry, Skye,” she whispered to her friend. “
I tried and tried to save her, but I failed her and you. I am so sorry.”

Skye pulled back so she could look at Charlotte directly. Her face
remained mottled with tear-induced red blotches, and her eyes were bloodshot. “No, I saw — I couldn’t move, but I could see — you did all you could — I couldn’t have asked for more. How you even got to us, I don’t know. And that you would even put yourself in danger like that…” Skye’s hand went to Charlotte’s cheek. “Thank you. It means the world to me, it truly does.”

With an understanding frown, Charlotte nodde
d. “Anything you need, my dear, you let me know. Anything.”

“Thank you. I’m okay right now. I just want to get back to Cloquet.”

With a nod, Charlotte moved to Skye’s side, but kept her arm about her shoulder. They took several steps onto the stairs, while Triaten and Aiden picked up the bags and followed them.

Suddenly
, Skye spun around on the stairs. Shifting out of Charlotte’s arm, she looked down past Aiden, directly at Triaten. Fury in her face. “No. You do not get to mourn her.” She pointed a shaking finger at Triaten.

“Skye, Triaten –” Aiden
’s voice was reasoning. 

Her icy glare shifted to Aiden. “No
— he does not get to mourn her. He is not coming with.”

Aiden looked helplessly over his shoulder at Triaten.

Triaten stared back at the three faces staring down at him. “It’s okay. I’ll stay. Take care, Skye.” He nodded at Aiden and then backed down off the stairs.

Charlotte put her hand on Skye’s shoulders, gently
turning her around and guiding her up the rest of the stairs. They disappeared into the cabin of the plane.

Aiden stepped back down off the stairs to face Triaten. “I can see you don’t want to let this one go, but she’s destroyed right now
, Triaten. I know it’s hard, I know how much Shiv meant to you, but I need you to leave this one alone.”

Triaten rubbed his jaw in annoyance, then relented. “Fine.
”

“Before we leave. Do you have any word on w
here those fireballs came from?”

“No. And
there is one possibility I don’t want to entertain, but anything could be true at the moment.”

“Which is?”

“Edmund. He’s the only one on the mountain that controls fire — no one else that’s currently here has the ability. Unless someone came into town.” Triaten shrugged. “Obviously, it could have been a Malefic from across the valley, but it was so well-placed. Those fireballs were spot on — and then how the fire spread, trapping them. Edmund couldn’t have done that alone. He would have needed wind helping him.”

“
Helen?”

“
Maybe, but she was helping Horace with the rain and getting us through the fire.”

“Playing
both sides?”

“Could be, or it actually could have been Malefic
s. God help us if it was. Hell — god help us if it really was Edmund and Helen.”

Aiden sighed.
“It’s a lot of shit that needs to get figured out.”

Triaten nodded and
tilted his head at the plane’s windows. “Yea, and all I really want to do is get on the plane.”

“It’s better that you stay
anyway. Horace was already demanding your presence at the Hotel. And one of us needs to show after what we promised.”

“Promised?” Charlotte
stood, paused at the aircraft’s entrance. She quickly made her way down the plane’s stairs. She stopped at the bottom step, and confusion was in her voice. “Who promised Horace what?”

Aiden looked over his shoulder at Charlotte, then back to Triaten.
You didn’t tell her?
He mouthed, eyebrows raised.

Triaten’s head tilted downward,
but he kept his eyes up, his jaw smoldering as he looked from Aiden to Charlotte. He gave Aiden a barely perceptible shake of his head.

Aiden winced. “I imagine we’ll be back within a few days. We have to take care of Shiv’s affairs as well, aside from the burial.” He turned and walked past Charlotte, still stuck on the bottom step. He paused to kiss her cheek, and then disappeared up into the plane.

Charlotte’s eyes lasered on Triaten while she waited until Aiden was gone. The cold wind was whipping blond strands of hair from her low ponytail. Once they were alone, the accusation was quick to manifest. “Tell me, Tri, am I staying or going? Because you have a lot of explaining to do if I’m staying.”

Triaten’s eyes shift
ed to the body of the plane, and then back to Charlotte. His voice was low, hesitant, when he finally answered her. “Stay. Please.”

With a deep breath, Charl
otte stepped down and walked past him over to the jeep. She stopped at the front bumper. Triaten followed her. They both turned, and in silence, watched the plane take off. 

As the plane disappeared out of sight around the mountaintop, Triaten whispered.
“I loved her, Charlotte.”

Putting aside her swelling anger,
Charlotte put her hand between Triaten’s shoulder blades. Through the soft-shell jacket he wore, it was obvious how tense he was. “I know, Tri. You loved her. Skye loved her. That’s enough for me to know how special she was.”

They stared at the tree
tops of the pines where they plane had cleared land. The sleet was slowly turning into snowflakes, and the wind was picking up, blowing the white flecks near horizontal.

Charlotte’s hand dropped from Triaten’s back, and she crossed her a
rms across her chest. She looked up at Triaten. “What did you promise Horace, Tri?”

“Nothing…
” The pause was dooming. “Everything.”

Charlotte’s mou
th fell open as her eyes widened at Triaten. He avoided her look. “God, no, Tri. Tell me you didn’t.”

“He wants us on his side, now and when
ever he deems it, we’re his force, no matter what.”

“Why would you do it? Why would you promise him anything?”

Triaten’s eyes swung down to Charlotte. “I had too.”

Charlotte’s eyes closed in a wince.
She leaned back against the front of the jeep. Her eyes implored when she opened them again. “Why?”

“He was the only one that could get us through the fire. He was the one that created the downpour of rain, and Helen used her wind power
to narrow it above us. It was the only way.”

Her eyes to the heavens, Charlotte swallowed hard and shook her head in denial. “What’s the one rule that we’ve always lived by, Tri? Owe the elders nothing
— we’ve seen them destroy too many Panthenites — and we always vowed, you, Aiden, me — to never, ever let them have control over us. How could you do this?”

“Char, you have to understand –”

“Yes, please, make me understand.”

“
There was Africa, and I almost lost you there, but it was nothing compared to watching you disappear from that helicopter. You were finally, actually, mine. I love you on such a different level — and I was sure I was about to lose you — I almost jumped out after you right then. If the pilot hadn’t pulled up when he did, I would have been down there, burning up with you.”

“
You would have figured out a way to get to us without Horace’s help. You lost faith, Tri. You lost faith in yourself.”

Triaten moved in front of Charlotte, positioning himself between her outstretched legs.
“Char, are you not listening? I was desperate. Desperate to get to you as fast as possible, and he presented himself. I wasn’t — couldn’t — take the chance and come up with another solution. I didn’t care how I did it, just that I got to you.”

She watched him, silent for a moment. A tear of fr
ustration welled in her eye. “You still shouldn’t have done it, Tri.”

Triaten’s hands w
ent to either side of her face, and his eyes were more serious than she’d ever seen them. “It was you, Char.”

She bit her lip as she uncrossed her arms and her
hands slid along his hips. “But it’s your future you promised away, Tri. For me. I can’t accept that. You have to go. You need to get in a plane — in your jeep — right now, and go. Disappear. If this is the result of us being together, than you have to be free of me. You can't let Horace and the elders use me against you — that’s what he's doing, and it’s not going to stop here. You thought about it once, disappearing, and now you need to do it.”

She
wiped away a tear. “I refuse to be the reason you are stuck in a life you don’t want. I love you too much for that, and I need you to be living life on your terms. Not the elders’. Not Horace’s.”

Triaten
looked around, buying time as he scanned the hangars, and forest, and tarmac. Streaks of snow swirled on the pavement. He was calm, undaunted clarity when his eyes settled on Charlotte once more. “You realize this is the same spot you left me. And now you’re asking me to leave you?”

Charlotte looked around, startled.

“I’m not going to let you do it, Char. Or let me do it.”

“Do what?”
She wrinkled her nose, trying to shake a large snowflake off it.

“I’m not going to let us make this complicated.
” He wiped the white fleck off with his thumb. “We always do this. You do it, I do it. The only damn thing that’s ever stopped us from being together is us. Our crazy-ass over-thinking minds. But it’s simple. Do we want to be together?”

Charlotte blink
ed, taken aback. Her head was nodding before she choked out a whole-hearted, “Yes.”

Triaten heaved a sigh of relief. His hands
tightened behind her neck. “Then let’s be together. Let’s make it simple.”

“Just because it’s simple, doesn’t mean it’s easy, Tri.”

“When have our lives ever been easy? What’s one more complication?”

“But Horace –”

“No. The choice I made with Horace was mine. The fate of that choice is also mine. You don’t want me to lose faith in myself, but Char, I need you to not lose faith in me as well. No matter the promises made, Horace will not rule my — our lives. I will honor the promise with my own integrity. I won’t run from it. But I’m most definitely, not going to leave you.”

Her hands re-tightened on his hips and she
pulled herself upright, shuffling her feet closer to him.

“Char, i
t has become shamefully obvious that my life was a pittance of an existence before we were together. And I don’t plan on ever going back to that pittance again.”

His knuckles
brushed her cheek. “Nothing is going to take me away from you. You’ve always been my home, Char, now I need to be yours.” His fingers slipped along the back of her neck, tracing her scar. “Let me be your home. Let me give you children. Let me give you a life worth waking up for.”

The smile she unleashed at Triaten
was breathtaking. Blue eyes shining, the light in them burning brighter than ever, she slid her hands up his back, pulling his body into hers. “You’re right, Tri. This is the simple part. And my faith in you, I haven’t lost it, nor will I. The same is true for my love.” Unwavering certainty was in voice. “I choose you. Always. We are best like this.”

He bent down, lips brushing hers.
“Together?”

“Together. Come what may.
”

Through the crust on her lashes, her eyes pulled, wedging themselves open. In the miniscule light, she could see a dingy white plaster
ceiling and a large metal fixture with a broken light bulb hanging above her.

A face leaned over into her eyesight. Wrinkled skin. Grey hair.

“Do you remember what happened to you?”

She had no answer. She couldn’t move a muscle.

“Doesn’t matter.” He continued. “What matters is the choice you have to make in the next thirty seconds.”

She blinked, still trying to comprehend.

“Your life…Abandoned by everyone you ever loved. Used. Beaten. Disregarded time and again. A life of apologies. A life that you never really owned. A life spent hoping others would love you. But that love never came. And then you were given a death sentence.”

His eyes bore into her from above. “But now you are being granted another choice. So here is the question. Are you ready to live life without apologizing for yourself? Ready to live a life where you are in contr
ol and have the power?”

He paused.
“Choice one: to live that life. Or choice two: you can close your eyes, and return to the darkness you were just in. Which will it be?”

Dead silence followed his question.

Dead silence until her mouth cracked open. Decrepit air hissed from her lungs. “Live.”

~~~

“What do you mean you lost her body?”

Skye l
ooked over at Aiden, angry disbelief riveting her face. She leaned across the table and ripped the phone from his hand.

“This is her sister
. What the hell did I just hear?”

The voice on the other end of the line
stuttered. “I am so sorry for your loss ma’am. I know this is a shock, but your sister’s body. We checked it in last night, and when we came down this morning, her body was gone.”

“Gone? How could that be? Where would it go?”

“That’s just it, ma’am. We have the place secured at night. There is no way in. The police are here, and we’re checking with all of our workers and associates just in case.”

“Just in case of what?
”

He fell silent.

“Just in case of what?” Skye demanded.

“It’s never happened to us, but sometimes, whe
n there is a young female body…they are valuable to some people.”

Skye swallowed back the breakfast that had just travelled upward from her stomach. “You get my sister back.”
She hissed.

She handed the phone back to Aiden.

“This is her husband again.”

He was silent for a few moments. “I repeat what Skye said. You get her back. I will expect updates hourly.”

He tapped the phone off.

~~~

The hotel phone by the side of the bed bleeped a caustic tone that ripped Skye from the troubled sleep she was lost in. The day had gone by with no trace of Shiv’s body, and Aiden had finally forced her into bed to sleep. It had taken an hour, but exhaustion had finally won out over her mind.

So she was instantly bitt
er at the intrusion into the blackness that sleep afforded her. And when she realized Aiden was in the shower, and the phone was just going to continue to ring, she rolled across the big bed, and annoyed, picked it up.

“Yes?”

A voice she didn’t recognize was on the other end. “You want your sister’s body back, you come to 3892 West Hartford Road. Alone. 3892 West Hartford Road. Alone, or she is gone for good.”

Click.

“Hello?” Skye said into the receiver.

No answer.

Skye stared at the bathroom door, partially ajar. She didn’t know how long Aiden had been in the shower. And he was usually quite quick. She scrambled off the bed, pulling on clothes as she grabbed her shoes, a long knife, and the rental car keys. She was out the door in twenty seconds, bare feet running down the hall, leaving the sounds of the shower behind her.

~~~

There was no moon on this black night, and Skye squinted at the number just below the red neon bar sign. 3892. And this was West Hartford Road, unless the GPS glowing on the dashboard was wrong.

Skye took in the sc
ummy bar as she quickly whipped her hair into a braid that came down over her right shoulder. It was a small bar, with no windows, save for a small horizontal slit high on the door, so she had no idea what she would be walking into. She wondered how much time she had before Aiden would find her. She guessed that the rental car company could track the vehicle fairly quickly, and that Aiden probably had already woken up half the company in order to find her.

Best to take care of this quickly, whatever this
, was.

She
took a deep breath and checked the knife tucked into the back of her jeans. She pulled her shirt over the hilt of the blade, berating herself that she hadn’t grabbed a sheath for it.

The cold hit her hard when she got out of the car. She hadn’t grabbed a jacket, either. She walked quickly across the pot-holed street, and pushed in the
cheap, hollow door.

There were very few people inside, seven, at most, and not one looked up when she entered. Skye looked around the dinge. And then she spotted exactly why she
was there.

She walked over to the bar and remained on her feet.

“Evan. I should have guessed.”

Evan turned on his barstool and looked past her toward the front door. “I applaud you for following directions so true, my daughter. Where is your watchdog?”

“Not here. Now where is my sister’s body?”

Evan looked her up and down. “Your watchdog trains you well, doesn’t he?”

Skye rolled her eyes. “My sister?”

His hand went to his chin,
stroking it as he contemplated her. “Tell me. Why didn’t you save her? You have the power.”

Skye’s face went
crimson in immediate rage. “I would have died for her.”

“So why didn’t you save her?
”

Skye gritted her teeth.

Understanding crossed Evan’s face, and his top lip curled in smirk. “You tried, didn’t you? You tried and you failed.”

He stroked his chin some more while Skye resisted pulling her blade and stabbing him. She still didn’t have her sister back.

“Hmmm. We all knew time moved back once that night, but that didn’t save her, did it? Do you know why it didn’t work?”

His musings were only met with silence.

“May as well answer, daughter. We’re not moving past this point until you tell me.”

Skye crossed her arms across her chest. “No. I have no idea why it didn’t work. The first time I moved back time saved her from crashing her car. The second time in the fire didn’t work.”

Evan nodded slowly. “I have a theory, if you’re willing to learn something about your power. Turn it back, right now. Go back to when you walked in the door.”

She glared at him.

“It’s not a trick. It’s an experiment.”

“I
will perform nothing for you.”

“Fine. Then y
ou are choosing not to get Shiv’s body back?”

Skye’s lips tightened as her glare deepened. She had been searching for answers as to why
she couldn’t save Shiv. But she despised being forced into anything by Evan.

She was stuck, and knew it. So without a word, s
he closed her eyes and concentrated on the moment she stepped into the bar.

She ope
ned her eyes, and she was instantly at the door again. She scanned the room as she walked back over to Evan, hand under the back of her shirt on her blade, just in case.

She stopped in front of him.
“And what?”

“And try again. Go back to that same moment in time, or one right before it.”

Understanding dawned on Skye. Her gut heavy, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the same moment in time she had just gone back to.

She opened her eyes. No time shift.

Evan watched her. “Was that the same instant in time, or before?”

“Same.”

“Try before.”

Skye closed her eyes and concentrated on
the moment she looked at the bar from the car. She opened her eyes. No time shift.

“So interesting.
” He tapped a folded forefinger on his chin. “It seems you can only re-arrange a time thread once. Interesting limitation. That must have been terribly frustrating, watching her die.”

Skye winced, and
rage shot her hand back to her blade.

“You don’t want to do that. You won’t win.”

Skye’s hand slipped to her side.

“I only mention it because had you known, you could have saved her. The people around you Skye, they aren’t interested in exploring your power. Knowing exactly what you can and cannot do
with it.”

“Stop. I leave the next time you talk derogatory about Aiden or my friends.”

“They are who they are. I am very different. I am interested in what you can actually do. Just remember that.”

Skye was at her breaking point. “Evan. You got me here by promising Shiv. Produce her.”

His folded finger tapped his chin again. “Before I do. I warn you against the shock.”

“What shock? What did you do to her body?”

“What if it was a mistake? What if she’s alive?”

Skye’s heart
beat flew out of control. Her voice was dangerous. “Don’t, Evan. Don’t. She’s dead. I saw her body.”

Silently, he pointed to the worn
, black door at the back of the bar.

Skye squinted through the haze of the dark
bar.

“That is where you need to go
, child.”

With a look to burn his flesh, Skye moved past Evan and crept to the back of the bar, her body tense and ready for anything. No one attacked, no one jumped out at her.

She grabbed the wobbly silver knob and turned the handle. Door cracked, she peeked out, and seeing nothing, she stepped through the threshold.

Blackness, save for one weak overhead light, surrounded her in the bar’s parking lot. It was silent, and the cold immediately encased her bare arms.

And then she heard it. It was a muffled scream. A scream begging for someone to stop. Skye flew past the line of cars closest to her, eyes searching in the dim light. Within seconds, she found the source of the screams.

Held down on the trunk of an old sedan, a girl thrashed under a pony-tailed dirtbag. His hand clamped down over her mouth, while his elbow dug into her chest, pinning her to the car. He was freeing his pants with his other hand as the girl kicked wildly.

And then Skye caught sight of the girl’s eyes.

The girl was Shiv.

Skye’s blade was high, attacking in a blur. The dirtbag looked over his shoulder just in time to see the blade come down on his body.

The knife went into his neck, and he slowly fell back
ward off of Shiv, and slid to the ground, landing on his knees. He was a man, not a Malefic, as the blade easily stopped him.

His hand went up to knife, trying to free it. It didn’t take Shiv a second to slide off the car. She went to the dir
tbag and knelt in front of him. Casually, she swatted his fingers away and wrapped her hand around the hilt.

She yanked it from his neck.

And then she sunk it into his heart.

He slumped forward, hitting the ground hard and rolling to
a crooked stop on his side.

Shiv
followed the lifeless body, and then leaned over him, ripping Skye’s knife from his chest.

“Wow.  You feel it too, don’t you?” Shiv asked as she
stood and wiped the blood of the blade off on her jeans. She held the knife out to Skye. “He told me, but I didn’t know. I didn’t know it would feel like this.”

Skye took the knife
silently, her hand shaking.

Shiv’s head fell back and
she breathed deeply, licking her lips. “God, this is insane. Insane. Doesn’t it feel fantastic?”

Repulsed
at the warm euphoria flowing under her skin, Skye trembled. “What the hell is this?” she asked, horrified at the blood burning, pleasuring every pore in her body.

Shiv’s eyes came down to Skye’s. “We’re sisters
, Skye. Turns out we always have been. Evan’s my father too.”

The s
hock of seeing of Shiv alive, of killing, of the appalling joy flowing through her body, combined and sent Skye’s feet staggering backward. “No, Shiv. No.”

The knife clattered on
to the pavement.