Triple Infinity (28 page)

Charlotte’s jaw dropped slowly, horrific understanding permeating her brain.

“I am just relieved you’ve gotten there on your own.
We had given up on Aiden mating with you
—
the male has to be willing, of course, and since Skye came to be, that’s not going to happen.
” Horace continued with a dismissive wave. “I wasn’t looking forward to explaining the situation to Triaten or Aiden. So Triaten is a fine choice for your first offspring.”

“What do you
mean, my first? Triaten is my only choice.”

Horace only offered a shrug.
“Regardless, the match will be most acceptable to the elders.”

Charlotte’s
jaw finally managed to snap back into place. “You do not get to discuss us, Horace. We are not your concern.”

“Everything you do, my dear, is of my concern. After Skye shifted time back, your refugee camp was on slate for sacrifice. I stopped that because of your presence.”

Charlotte’s eyes were like ice, her voice, cool detachment. “Don’t even try that, Horace. I know very well that if you did manage to stop anything, it was because Triaten was at the camp. We both know you would not sacrifice him.”

Horace shrugged his shoulders. “Be that as it may, you are alive because of me.”

Charlotte took a deep breath, grasping for control of her anger. “Horace, you have been the closest thing to a father for me. But the respect you’ve earned throughout the years is quickly waning. It is, in fact, in shreds. Do not burn those last shreds. I am leaving right now, because, quite frankly you disgust me.”

She turned and walked toward the door,
then paused. She spun back to him.

“Whatever game you’re playing with the Malefics, it needs to stop. There are too many innocent lives at stake. And Triaten will kill himself trying to save them. You’re jeopardizing everything you’ve built with the Panthenites over the last one hundred years.”

“Did it ever occur to you, that is precisely what I am trying to protect?” Horace reached to the back of the chair to pick up his sleeveless coat. “You worry too much about the human lives, Charlotte.”

“Do I?” She
winced at sharp pain as she crossed her arms. Her eyes flew to the ceiling, looking for patience. “You know I live by the starfish parable.”

“To make a difference to
one?” He scoffed. “It’s a nice notion, Charlotte, but it was made up by someone who never had to be accountable to the grand scheme of things. We cannot afford to take the minute point-of-view, especially during this flame moon. We need to concentrate on the big picture, and what is right for all, instead of what is right for some.”

Charlotte shook her head sadly. “So why does the big picture always seem to involve death?”

She didn’t wait for a response. Instead she turned and walked out the door, stepping high above the shredded wood.

Outside, Charlotte followed the voices of Aiden and Skye to the back of the
pink hut.

She stopped when they were in view, arguing, and then interrupted them. “We need to get out of here. Before I kill him. Which I wouldn’t like to do, as he’d probably kill me first.”

Skye turned to Charlotte. Her eyes were red-rimmed, but dry — the tears had already dried along her cheeks. “All those babies. All those mothers,” she whispered, shaking, at Charlotte.

Aiden’s hand went to upper arm, but she shrugged it off, taking a step back. She wasn’t letting him touch her.

“I thought I saved them. I thought I made a difference. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do enough.”

Charlotte went over to her quickly, throwing her
good arm across Skye’s shoulder and not letting her escape. “But you did, Skye. You saved tens of thousands. You saved me.”

Charlotte started walking, guiding Skye along with her. Aiden trailed behind.

“Why didn’t you tell me right away?”

Charlotte conjured up calm reason, even though her own gut was shredded.
“Almost all of the camps were defended. You made that happen. You just need to concentrate on that. It was just a few that fell. And between coming after Horace and those reports of the fallen camps being verified, there hasn’t been time to process any of it. Much less tell you about it.”

“But th
ose ‘few’ means thousands died.” Skye’s voice was small.

“Yes, and thousands more lived.”

Skye just shook her head. “I should have done more. Given us more time.”

Charlotte pulled to a stop
and turned to Skye, grabbing her shoulders. The movement tore the wound on her chest, but she ignored it. “You need to stop. Without you, all of us would have died under these attacks. And then we really would have had several hundred thousand innocents dead, and mayhem in the world. Hundreds of thousands, Skye.” She couldn’t hold back the slight shake she gave Skye’s shoulders. “This isn’t a game. And your power isn’t something to trifle with. You are that important because you can save so many.”

Charlotte looked at the ground and sighed. With a deep breath
to steady herself, she looked back up to Skye. “But we all have our limits of what we can do. And this may sound harsh, but the limits are reality, and it sucks — but you have to get used to the fact that some will always die, Skye. We can’t save them all.”

Charlotte dropped her hands from Skye’s stunned shoulders, and turned, beginning the trudge back to the vehicles.

The long walk back was bitter, both in the biting wind, and in the shoulders of all three. Charlotte, Skye, and Aiden moved along the cold ground in single file. Over the last hill, Charlotte sped up as she went down.

Fear settled onto Charlotte’s brow as she stepped over the deep tracks on the ground next to Aiden’s jeep, and looked across the empty expanse of land. Triaten was long gone.

Skye was the first to notice Charlotte had passed out in the back of the jeep. They hadn’t be
en ten minutes away from Horace’s shack. Skye scrambled over the front seat to get to the back as Aiden screeched to a halt.

Gently s
lapping her face, Skye quickly got Charlotte to open her eyes.

“W
hat the hell happened in there, Charlotte?” Aiden demanded, from the front, once Charlotte’s eyes came into focus.

Skye quickly held her
red-tinged hand up to Aiden. Blood had seeped through Charlotte’s jacket onto her fingers. Skye pulled Charlotte’s jacket back, only to see the blood-soaked, bunched-up sleeve tumble out.

Charlotte grabbed Skye’s wrist. “Stop. It doesn’t matter. It was an accident. Let’s just get back to the mountain.”

“Hell, no. We’re going back to the hotel so we can look at this.”

Skye stayed in the back seat, propping Charlotte up after she passed out again. At the hotel, there was no sign of Triaten. After getting Charlotte inside to her room, Aiden insisted they stay there the night, to let Charlotte’s wound properly heal.
A long, jarring trip home would do her no good.

It was deep in
to the night when Triaten snuck into the room. He had called Aiden, just to make sure Charlotte was okay. He had no intention of coming to the hotel. But Aiden’s assurances hadn’t been enough. He had to see her.

Triaten let the door rest against the
frame, not letting it close completely. He wasn’t staying long. The light in the bathroom was on, the door cracked, and the rays of light lit Charlotte’s face as she slept. He walked silently across the floor.

He stopped at the bed, looking down at her face.
Her brow was furrowed, even in a deep sleep. Leaning over her, his eyes travelled down her body. She was naked, but a sheet, pulled up just above her breasts, covered her.

Hi
s eyes rested on her left chest. The wound was hidden under a thick bandage, wrapped tight to her body, and it went up and over her shoulder. Dots of red soaked into the white of the bandage. Triaten couldn’t stop his arm from reaching out, and his hand slid gently onto her.

He touched her chest
lightly, tender in the slight movement it made over the wound. Triaten’s stomach churned. He did this to her. He almost killed her. He drew his hand back.

She rustled at the touch, groaning, but she didn’t wake.

Damn her, he thought, she was never going to change. She was always going to act without thinking. Act without the slightest regard to her own safety. He didn’t know if he could do this. Have her and lose her. He wasn’t ready to be forced to face such a possibility.

“God, Char. You bring me to my knees again and again,” he whispered at her. His throat collapsed on him as his brain flashed to Africa
, when he held her, dying, and then to that split second in the hut where he thought he had killed her.

Her head shifted. “
Don’t...Don’t leave, Tri.” She mumbled into the pillow.

He knew she was talking in her sleep
and wouldn’t wake — she slept hard while healing. And he couldn’t stop himself from softly answering her. “What I did to you…I almost killed you Char — it’s unforgivable. It’s killing me and I can’t be around you. Not now.” His fingers brushed hair off her forehead. “Just go back to sleep.”

She gave the softest moan, but her eyes remained shut.

Triaten fought himself, but he eventually pulled his hand from Charlotte’s face. He stepped away from her, and went back to the door.

Her cracked mumble
stopped him. Even asleep, the angst in her words was palpable. “You know my heart, Tri. I would never choose Horace over you. Never.”

Her body curled up in a shudder.
“Don’t leave me, Tri.”

Hand on the door
, Triaten could not tear his eyes from her. Her cheek nestled into her blond hair, spread on the pillow, and she gave the slightest quiver as she inhaled.

He would not
let death be her reward for loving him. And that’s exactly where he feared they were headed.

Triaten walked out the door.

~~~

It was days. Five days passed after the scene with Horace in the Badlands, and neither Triaten nor Horace had shown
back up on the mountain.

Skye had finally made some inroads with Shiv. Every day, she and Aiden would head up to the ranch. And no matter how much pain Shiv would try to inflict on Skye, Skye held her ground, not leaving, no matter how harsh or cold it was being in a room with Shiv. Hour after hour, day after day, Skye eventually just wore Shiv down, the both of them discovering that there actually was a bottom to the bottomless pit of anger Shiv felt toward Skye.

Charlotte, on the other hand, bordered close to insanity. She would have gone after Triaten immediately, but had no idea where he disappeared to. There wasn’t the slightest trace of him.

So she was stuck going back to the mountain. Going back to worry and wonder about when she would
need to start searching for him, even though she didn’t have a clue where to start. Worry and wonder if he could really believe she would ever choose Horace over him.

Hotel Auric was constantly buzzing, as the elders were pulling in forces from all parts of the world. While they didn’t know what the next move of the Malefics would be, they were readying forces. Without an appearance by Triaten or Horace, and no one to rebuke to DeLisio’s allegations, Edmund chose to vilify Horace’s actions and the subsequent deaths in the refugee camps.

So when Triaten was finally spotted going through town, word quickly got to Charlotte at her clinic. She took off in search right away.

Up the mountain and back down, and no Triaten. Outside of Joe’s, she stood in the chill that was not cut at all by the morning sun. She half-leaned against her suv, pulling her coat up around her neck
, while staring at the pine trees swaying in the nipping wind. Where could he be? She’d been to his house, to the ranch, to Aiden’s adventure shop, to Hotel Auric, to Joe’s, and no Triaten. Had he skipped back out of town while she was searching?

She tapped her car key on her teeth, scanning her mind.

Then it hit her. One place on the mountain she didn’t check.

When she pulled up to the time-beaten house, with grey clapboards falling in, she heaved a sigh of relief. Triaten’s jeep was parked alongside the decrepit two-story building.

She spotted him instantly, or at least the back of his head. He sat atop the roof of a first story wing that jutted off from the main structure. He was facing the backyard. Charlotte parked, and tightened her wool coat around her as she got out. She plucked her way into the house, side-stepping fallen lumber, rotted remnants of what was once a magnificent home. A magnificent home that now housed birds and critters, and looked it. She kept to the inner wall as she went up the staircase, hoping that the few steps she found that could hold her weight wouldn’t just snap under her feet.

She stepped into the room to the left at the top of the stairs, and closed her eyes as memory after memory washed over her. It had been at least eighty years since she’d been in the house, in that room.
Triaten’s room.

She opened her eyes and the ajar
window opposite her, top pane long broken, beckoned her over.

He
sat, footing tapping, on the low slant of the rooftop, arms resting casually on his knees. She wasn’t going to give him a chance to request to remain solitary, so she quickly went through the window, stepping lightly so as to not dislodge any of the old roof shakes. Triaten glanced up at her, but didn’t say anything.

She sat down next to him with a sigh, and even though she rubbed her hands together to force some heat into them, she was
already warmer just being next to him. She pulled her legs up, wrapping her arms around her shins.

Triaten looked over at her. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she replied softly, and took in her surroundings. The house may have crumbled, but the towering pines were the same, only bigger. Her nose wrinkled at the thick smell of decaying wood. She wondered if they would fall through what little was left of the roof.

“You found me.”

“Took some searching. But you knew your coming through town wouldn’t go unnoticed.” She looked over at him, contemplating. “Did you want to get found?”

Triaten’s gaze moved to
the needles of the trees. He shrugged. “Not sure.”

Charlotte nodded with resigned understanding. She picked at the fold on the front of her crisp black
jeans. Her eyes went to the right, taking in the crumbling house. “How long has it been since you were last here?”

Triaten followed Charlotte’s gaze. “I don’t even remember.”

Charlotte looked at Triaten, then back out to the woods. Silence sat upon them.

“I stabbed you, Char. I almost killed you.
” His words were flat, but Charlotte could feel him shudder as he stared at the green pine needles.

“
Tri — no — it was my fault. It’s okay.”

He looked down at her. “
What I did to you. It’s not okay. It’s unforgivable. I’ve been so worried about others harming you, I didn’t see that the true threat was me.”

“Ridiculous,
Triaten. I stepped in front of it — I wasn’t thinking — it was stupid, but I’m fine.”

Triaten’s eyes narrowed at her. “
It’s not fine, Char. Two inches lower, and I would have killed you. Killed you. That is not okay, and it’s not something I can live with.”

Charlotte was momentarily stunned at the ferocity in his words. And she had no idea what they meant.
Fear invaded her chest. She looked away from him, her eyes settling on a squirrel, busy scampering about the overgrown clearing, nuts in cheek. 

He added nothing on to his last comment.

Minutes passed, and Charlotte grew antsy. What had she done? In trying to save everything, had she ruined everything? She glanced at him, noting that his jaw was set rigid. “Where have you been?”

“Out. N
owhere. Nowhere that mattered.”

“I was worried.
And mad. You left me, Tri. I wasn’t sure how long I could wait until I came searching for you. Especially after...” Her voice trailed as her heart flew high in her chest. With a cough, she cleared her throat and continued. “Where was your mind?”

Triaten didn’t answer her right away, and the occasional bird caw crept through the air, exasperating the silence. The faraway look in his eyes told volumes. He sighed with a slow shake of his head. “I thought about disappearing, Char. Disappearing out in the field. Leaving the elders. Leaving the mountain. Leaving you.”

Charlotte straightened even as her gut dropped. She forced her voice steady. “Hmmm. That’s a little too honest.”

“Is there such a thing with you?”

“No, I guess not.” She paused to study his profile as she forced the next words to leave her mouth. “So why didn’t you leave?”

Moments ticked by, and heart in her throat, Charlotte watched Triaten’s jaw flex and
unflex. Then he looked down at her.

“You’re home.”

The words flooded into her body, heating her blood. Words that meant the world. She smiled in relief as she leaned into him. “I think you also know I wouldn't have let you disappear. Space, yes. Disappear, no. I would have found you, no matter what.”

Her words coaxed a small smile from
him. He looked down at her. “Yes, I kind of knew that. And I would be lying if I didn’t admit I considered it as a course of action. Letting you come to me.”

She grinned. “Then you could have left me a better trail.” Her smile faded.
“So what were you considering while you were gone?”

“I was questioning
us — aside from the stabbing. Char, you know I have always loved you. But I didn’t know, didn’t anticipate this would be so different. After we were together...I just didn’t expect the depth of what happened to me after you were truly, wholly, mine. Body and soul.”

“Why would that make you question
us?”

“You need to feel this.” He grabbed her hand and positioned it over his heart. Even through his jacket, she could feel the out-of-control heartbeat.
His voice was rough when he looked down at her and slid a hand along her jaw line. “Char, you wreck me.”

Charlotte’s eyebrows
angled in question.

“All my control. All my logic.
You wreck it. This is too raw. I didn’t anticipate the worry, the endless possibilities of what would happen to me if you were ever taken away from me. And then I stabbed you.”

He closed his eyes, drawing a steadying breath.
“You know my mind works at a thousand-miles-an-hour. You. Horace. It made a storm. And then he threatened you — introducing you to Evan — he wasn’t at all subtle. And suddenly, I wasn’t sure I could take the fear that I would have to own. The fear that comes along with us being together.”