Triple Infinity (18 page)

He bent over so he was eye level with her. Concern angled his brows inward. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Skye rubbed her forehead, still shifting her mind back to the past — to the now. She was the one that actually had control over the time shifts, but they were disconcerting to her. So how Triaten and Aiden took time shifts so in stride, she didn’t know.

When the present moment actually manifested in her mind, Skye exhaled in sorrow.
“Oh hell, Shiv.”

“Shiv? She’s fine. I
just left her in the kitchen,” Aiden said.

“No. It’s that I didn’t know where to go back to, and this was the only moment that popped into my mind
— slapping Triaten.”

She looked over her shoulder at him with an apologetic half-smile, then turned back to Aiden. “But I erased
everything with Shiv. All the repair, Aiden. She forgave me, and I threw it away.” Her hand went to her forehead. “I threw it away.”

“So you’ll talk to her again. You’ll get back to where you need to be.
You will find a way.”

Aiden’s eyes shifted to Triaten. Aiden read his look immediately. He looked back down at Skye. “But not now. We need to get back down to Charlotte. We have to be there before they attack again.”

“Shit.” Skye bit her lip in disgruntled acceptance. “I know.”

The phone rang. Triaten answered it before the first ring ended. “Charlotte?”

Relief flashed across Triaten’s face.

“We’re on our way. I’m not letting anyone take you away.”

They wer
e on the plane again within an hour. Triaten and Aiden spent the next three hours juggling a multitude of cell lines, in order to coordinate Panthenites from around the world to converge and protect as many of the attacked camps and villages as they could. Not knowing whether the Malefics would attack again after the time shift was a gamble. But if they could stop the mass murders, they would.

Skye mostly ignored the two of them.
Instead, her mind kept running over how they had left Shiv. The three of them had clipped through the house, going through the kitchen. Shiv still sat at the table, playing absent-mindedly with the beans and almonds on her plate.

Triaten
had stiffly grabbed Shiv’s shoulder and told her they had to leave unexpectedly.

“All of you?” Shiv asked,
confused and looking around at the three of them. Her eyes ended on Skye.

“We’ll be back within a couple days, I promise.” Skye offered.

Triaten squeezed Shiv’s shoulder and then walked across the kitchen, grabbed keys from the wall, and went out the kitchen door. Aiden followed.

Skye was left standing across from Shiv, watching her. Shiv’s eyes were trained on the empty open door. She had looked...abandoned, Skye had to
acknowledge. And it broke Skye’s heart to see the look, for she recognized it as the same from years ago, when the police had taken her away from Shiv.

Shiv shifted her eyes to Skye. “No need to stay on my account,” she said, dismissing her with a
twinge of bitterness.

Saving thousands was more important, Skye told herself, but she couldn’t help the selfish
thought from filling her head — she wished she hadn’t gone back in time. Hadn’t erased all that she had gained back with Shiv.

Her gut like a rock, she gave Shiv a weak smile. “See you in a couple days.”

And she walked out the door.

Shutting off his
last call with his thumb, Aiden walked across the airplane’s cabin and plopped down next to Skye on the couch. His hand went to the back of her neck, thumb and forefinger gently manipulating the tight tendons.

“Y
ou did good, my love.” He bent over and kissed her forehead.

Skye leaned into his chest, pulling her feet off the floor and tucking them in. “Why does it not feel like that?”

“Worried about Shiv?”

Skye nodded, her head rubbing against Aiden’s chest. He played with her
chestnut curls, hanging loose since she had pulled her hair out of the ponytail once they got on the plane.

“And I’m worried about Ch
arlotte,” Aiden said.

“Charlotte? Why?”

“Did you not see what was happening between Charlotte and Triaten? I suppose not. You were working on sending time back.”

“What was going on?”
Skye asked.

“Let’s just say I have some questions for Triaten.”

Convenient for Aiden, at that moment, Triaten finished his last call. Standing, he glanced down at the two on the couch. “I think that’s it. We’ve pulled in as many Panthenites as we have available at the moment, and they’re all en route. I just hope it’ll be enough.”

“
Did the elders learn anything more?” Aiden asked.

“No.
” Triaten shook his head, perplexed. “They didn’t see this coming the first time around, and all they have to go on are the reports from the sites that were attacked.”

Aiden watched his friend closel
y as he sat down across the cabin. Triaten picked up a pen, tapping it on the arm of the seat as he studied the map of Africa spread out on the table next to him. A computer and tablet were half on the map, pushed to the wall of the plane. Both had a variety of satellite imagery pulled up.

“Triaten, about
Charlotte.” Aiden started, and waited for Triaten to look over at him. He continued once he had Triaten’s attention. “What’s going on with you two?”

Triaten looked back down at the map. The pen tapping got faster. “Nothing. What do you mean?”

“I mean — Charlotte leaves the mountain unexpectedly and without a word. She’s gone for months without contact. We find her, and then you, well, you were holding onto her like you were losing your soul.”

Triaten glanced up
sharply at Aiden. At the same moment, Skye pulled away from his chest, sitting up straight next to him. She looked back and forth from Aiden to Triaten, as the understanding of the insinuation Aiden made dawned across her face.

Aiden continued. “So
, do you need to tell us something?”

Triaten didn’t break Aiden’s gaze. “It’s private.”

“It’s not private if it puts Charlotte in danger,” Aiden countered. “Do you have something to tell us?”

The tapping of the pen froze, and Triaten’s jaw flexed. “Do you remember the night before the
flame moon? It was before Skye sent time back, and you were on your rampage, and Charlotte and I were just trying to keep you alive?”

Aiden nodded.

“At that motel. Charlotte was in a bad way. And things...things just went too far.”

Aiden’s lips tightened. “You slept with her?”

“Yes, I did. But she wasn’t with me.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Aiden’s voice was hard.

Triaten suddenly resigned himself to tell them the full story. “In her mind she was with Thomas.”

“Ouch.”
Aiden cringed.

“And then the night of the
flame moon. The moon threw her. I brought her home and it was almost a repeat of the night at the motel, but I stopped it. I thought maybe the first time I was misreading it. Misreading who she was imagining I was. But I wasn’t. So I stopped it. The next morning she left. Right before your wedding.”

“She was in that bad
of a state-of-mind and you just let her leave?” Aiden asked accusingly.

“No
— hell no. Why do you think I let it go as far as I did? I wanted her to stay. I tried to stop her. Get her to stay. I offered up everything. Everything.” Triaten’s hand tightened into a fist before he forcefully relaxed it. “She didn’t want it. Didn’t want me. And she left.”

The buzz of the plane’s air system was the only sound in the silence t
hat followed Triaten’s words.

Skye’s face had slowly contorted into anger. “You’re in love with Charlotte, aren’t you?”

Triaten looked at her, but didn’t answer.

Full realization sunk in and Skye stood up, her height allowing her to only slightly tower above him. “Holy shit, Triaten. You’re in love with Charlotte and you’re banging my sister. What the hell are you thinking?”

“Your sister is her own person, Skye, in case you hadn’t noticed. A grown woman. And it was her idea. And her idea to keep it casual.”

Skye didn’t let him continue. “Casual? Don’t even start on that. It is not casual, and you know it.
And now you’re fucking going to break Shiv’s heart –”

“Charlotte doesn’t want me, Skye. She made that clear.”

Aiden stood up next to his wife. “Did she, Triaten? Because when she was half-dead and mumbling, it was pretty clear she was choosing you over Thomas.”

Triaten glared up at the two of them. “And that is why this is none of your business.”

“Don’t tell me this is none of my business.” Skye spat out. “This is my sister.”

“And this is Charlotte.” Aiden echoed.

Triaten didn’t answer, just scowled up at the two of them. A scowl that reflected two-fold back down at him.

Triaten broke.
“Before you two stick me on a spit, can we please just concentrate on getting Charlotte back to the mountain — alive?”

Skye crossed her arms across her ch
est, a deep glower making her cheek twitch. But she chose not to say anything. Instead, she turned and walked toward the back of the plane, disappearing behind the half wall that separated the bed from the main cabin.

Aiden didn’t move from his spot. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“There wasn’t anything to tell, Aiden.” He sighed and leaned back in the chair. “It was over before it began. There was no need.”

~~~

The helicopter landed in late evening, just outside the main entrance to the camp. The need for covertness was gone, as it was still twelve hours before the attacks began the first time. There was no telling if the attacks would happen at the same time, as the Malefics would have been well-aware of the time shift as well. The best they could do was to be ready for anything.

Charlotte was wa
iting for them at the main gate. Upon sight of them exiting the helicopter, she unlocked the chains that secured the opening in the fence, which had curled barbed wire lining both the top and bottom.

Her blond hair
was pulled back in a smooth ponytail, and she had already armored up, daggers and guns strapped to every moving part of her body. She spoke over a walkie-talkie as Aiden, Skye, and Triaten approached.

She clipped the walkie
to her belt, and aside from ushering them in through the fencing, she didn’t acknowledge them until she re-secured the gate and told them to follow her deeper into the camp. It was easy to see why. For miles out, the gate was the only thing vertical on this flat piece of land. It was necessity. Any refugee staggering in could easily find the entrance to the camp, but in this situation, it also made for easy pickings for anyone standing at or near the gate.

It wasn’t until they were past the first row of make-shift housing, and out of immediate sight of the gate, that Charlotte turned back to the three.

Without a word, her arms flew around Triaten. The bag he carried slid from his shoulder as Charlotte buried her face into his neck. The shake in her shoulders was evident. His arms clamped around her, and his hand gripped the back of her head, holding her tight into his body.

Even though Triaten
knew she was fine, he hadn’t fully believed she was physically unharmed until that moment. His hand ran up and down her back, verifying that she really was alive and healthy in his arms.

Aiden and Skye scanned their surroundings, averting their eyes from this obvious
ly intimate moment between Triaten and Charlotte. The camp was empty as far as they could see. Quiet, just as it had been before, except this time without the thousands of bodies strewn in the dirt.

Aiden let moments
tick by, and then finally broke the embrace with a question. “Where is everyone?”

It took a second, and Charlotte didn’t look like she was going to pull away from Triaten, but finally, she took a step away and turned to Aiden and Skye.

She leaned over and grabbed both Aiden and Skye in a dual quick hug. “I’m so sorry I didn’t come to your wedding.”

She stepped
back, but Skye wasn’t letting her go so quickly, and yanked her into another hug. “You were missed, my friend. And you scared the crap out of us. I’m just happy you’re okay.”

Over their heads
, Aiden gave Triaten a pointed look that said things were obviously far from over between him and Charlotte. Triaten ignored the look and picked up the bag he had dropped.

“Thank god you went back to when you did, Skye,” Charlotte said. “We’ve had plenty of time to move everyone to the east wing of the camp.” She pointed past the two-story hospital they had found her alm
ost dead in.

Charlotte
started walking at a crisp,no-nonsense pace as she continued
.
“As the camp grew, it v-ed and widened from the hospital on this side, spreading out. But behind the hospital there is a large swath of land that we used when we started the camp. It has concrete wall surrounding it on three sides, and the jungle has grown so thick behind those walls, that a monkey would have a hard time travelling through.”

They arrived at the front of the hospital and Charlotte stopped, scanning the not-too-wide lanes
running along either side of the hospital. It was at this point the chain-link fencing turned into the cement walls Charlotte had explained. There were only six feet on both sides, from the hospital corners to the wall.

“And the hospital is the natural barrier from this side. So we act
ually have a well-suited bottleneck here that they’ll have to go through to get to the women and children.”

“How much space is
back there? How long can they hole-up?” Aiden asked.

“The lot of them should be fine for a few days. But they could spend weeks back there if needed.
We have enough supplies. I’m more worried about the critical ones. The ones who just came in and need the most care. We have them as close as possible to the hospital, without being inside. But there are a couple of kids that we may need to operate on sooner rather than later. Doc Saima is overseeing them behind the building, with the rest of the staff.”

Triaten looked over at Charlotte’s profile. This was the Charlotte he was used to. The one who had clear purpose
, and could easily take charge of an operation as large as moving ten-thousand people within hours. And in an orderly fashion. He smiled.