Triaten looked at the clock in the jeep, 2:37 a.m. The jet had made good time, and after stopping by Hotel Auric to report to the elders on the Genevieve mission, he parked at the ranch, only to see light emanating from the front window of the library.
He already knew that about Shiv. She was most alive at night. Triaten just wondered what kind of state she was in. Before he had left with Aiden and Skye, he had looked for her at the ranch, since that’s where his jeep ended up after Shiv took it. But he couldn’t find her, and best he could tell, she was out on a trail, as she and Rafe were nowhere. So he had resorted to leaving her a note. Triaten hadn’t been sure about the wisdom of it, but time had left him little choice.
He walked in the front door. The library door was closed, but light spilled into the hall under the bottom crack. All he heard was silence.
Triaten slid open the library door. Rafe was sleeping in the corner on a sweatshirt that looked like Shiv’s, shirking his guard dog duties. He didn’t even twitch an ear when Triaten stepped into the room.
Shiv stood high, back to Triaten, balanced on the arms of the chair he had meant to remove from the room. She stared at the floor, tilting her head back and forth in rhythm, probably to whatever tune was piping through the ear buds from the music strapped to her arm.
Triaten looked at the floor. She had gone all-out on the mosaic during the day he was gone. The two main figures were mostly complete, only feet missing on both. The color of the tiles littering the area meant she was working on how the feet would meet the ground. He wondered if she had slept at all. Probably not.
Admiring the scene on the floor, he stepped up next to Shiv on the chair, only to scare the bejeezus out of her. She jumped away from him, and both of her bare feet slipped out from under her.
Falling away from him, Triaten’s hand shot out and grabbed her flailing wrist, yanking her toward him. He caught her easily, but wasn’t ready for the whack on his chest Shiv delivered, once her mind caught up with instinct, and she realized who had her.
She thrashed until Triaten set her feet on the ground.
“Holy shit, Triaten.” She yelled at him and gave him another thwack as she pulled the ear buds out of her ears. “What the hell are you trying to do to me? Break my neck?”
Triaten could only smile at her disgust. He pointed at the ladder, still leaning on the wall in the same spot he had left it.
She followed his finger, and then rolled her eyes at him, the adrenalized anger not yet subsided. “That still doesn’t give you the right to creep me out like that.” She hit his chest one last time, shaking her head.
“It’s looking beautiful.” Triaten said, head nodding at the floor as he turned from her to look at it.
Shiv crossed her arms, eyeing her creation. “You like it?” Her voice begged for approval.
“I honestly do. I had no idea the sketch would turn out like this.”
“I know. It was a bit of a leap of faith, wasn’t it?”
He looked back at her. Her finger tips were grey with dried cement. Smudges of the mortar dotted her bare arms and the front of her crimson tank. Black yoga pants covered her legs, rolled up at the bottom away from her bare toes. Her dark hair was in a high ponytail, and her eyes, though tired, twinkled at him. And then there it was. The drug smile. Aimed right at him.
Triaten looked away from her. Promises to Skye, he muttered to himself. Shiv was off-limits.
He eyed the mosaic. “It was. I’m glad I took it.”
Shiv moved forward and stood next Triaten, her eyes echoing his at the floor. “I have to ask, what was with the note? That’s how you leave?”
So the note not the best choice, Triaten surmised. He looked down at the top of her head. “We had to leave right away. I looked for you and couldn’t find you. It was the best I could do.”
“I see.” Her big toe played with an errant brown tile on the floor. “Triaten, you need to start being honest with me. What you do here. Where you go. I don’t need to know a lot.” Her gaze made it to him. “But I do need to know something.”
“Like what?”
“Like, who do you work for? The government?”
“No. ”
“Then what was with the Secretary of State being here?”
Triaten crossed his arms across his chest. “Just because I don’t work for them, doesn’t mean they don’t take great interest in what happens here. We use them. They use us. It’s a balance.”
“So who is the ‘we,’ if not the government?”
“I pick and choose what I get involved in. Where I would be useful. Who I can help.” He paused. That was the end of that answer. “What else?”
Shiv begrudgingly moved on from the last question. “Okay, fine, is Skye back?”
“No. She and Aiden will be another day. They have to work some stuff out.”
That caught Shiv’s interest. Her brow furrowed. “Work stuff out? Hmmm, I have to ask. Is she happy with Aiden?”
This one had an easy answer. Triaten relaxed. “The one thing I do know for certain about Skye, is that she is deeply in love with Aiden. And he is with her. The rest of it...they’ll work out the rest of it.”
“What do you mean, ‘the rest of it’?”
“The rest is between Skye and Aiden. You’ll have to ask her.”
Shiv’s eyes narrowed, suspicious. “That she left with you, Triaten...if she went somewhere with you — is Skye in danger?”
“No.”
Her hand went to her hip as she barraged him. “No is not good enough. You need to give me more than that.”
“She will be fine as long as Aiden is by her side.”
“Well, that seems pretty stupid. Does he follow her everywhere she goes?”
“I’ve seen her go to the bathroom alone.”
Shiv rolled her eyes at him.
“Okay, for now, yes he pretty much goes everywhere she does.”
Shiv sighed as she used the clean spots on the back of her wrists to rub the bleariness from her eyes. “Well, as long as she’s safe, I guess. To each their own.”
“You should head up to bed.” Triaten pointed to the stairs. “The tile isn’t going anywhere.”
She stepped in front of him, cement-speckled hand on his chest. Her green eyes had flipped from bleary to alive with hunger. “Care to join me?”
Triaten took a step back. Then another. He had to space himself from her warm body. “Shiv...it’s late. You’re tired. I’m tired.”
“Tired?” Her head cocked in attempt to figure him out. She took a step toward him. “I’ve not known you to ever be tired.”
Triaten took another step back. “It’s just been an exhausting day.”
Shiv shook her head as she took another step toward him, hands now on her hips. “No, you need to tell me why you’re stepping away from me. Because tired is not an excuse I’ll believe from you. What’s going on?”
Triaten rubbed his jawline, stalling. He hadn’t been ready with any excuses, and now he was paying for it. He looked at Shiv. She wasn’t even impatient. Just calmly staring at him. Calmly waiting for the shoe to drop. She had said she had gotten used to dropping shoes as a child, with all the moves from foster home to foster home. This must be how she took it. Calm to hide hope. How to make this easy for her?
“It’s not about you, Shiv. With your sister back...it gets complicated.” He shrugged. “Honestly, I promised her I would leave you alone.”
“Leave me alone? Skye doesn’t get to make that decision, Triaten.”
“No, but she asked, and I made that decision to keep her happy. She is a dear friend, and I intend to keep it that way.”
Shiv reached down to her waist and proceeded to pull her red tank up and over her head. Her breasts were pushed high by a black lace bra. She strode forward, closing the gap between them. Shiv grabbed Triaten’s hand and put it on her chest, holding it to her smooth skin. “If she’s a dear friend, than what am I?”
Both of her hands were over his, and she moved his hand around to cup her left breast. Her eyes flickered up at him with the intensity of the offering.
Triaten cringed with what he was about to say. “Shiv. I can’t. I made a promise.”
It stopped her, and she blinked, humiliating reality sinking in. “And you’ve promised me nothing.” She backed up a step, dropping his hand. “I get it. I’m sorry.”
She turned her back to him and went back over to the mosaic, staring at the floor.
Triaten started to say something, anything to make it easier for Shiv. But then he closed his mouth. He doubted he could say anything to make it right with her. Leaving would be the best thing. So he walked out of the room.
Just outside the library door, Triaten couldn’t help but stop and look back at Shiv, half naked. She shuffled over from the mosaic to Rafe in the corner. She bent down to scratch his head behind his ears. Soaking in the sudden attention, he rolled onto his back, his thick body thumping on the floor, and his big eyes stared at her, insinuating a belly rub would be nice.
The smile she gave Rafe was sad. “Why is it that you seem to be the only one that can stand to be around me for any length of time, Rafe? Is it the belly rubs?”
There was no self-pity in her voice, only an ache. An ache that wrapped itself around Triaten’s chest and slowed his heart. Feet moving on their own, Triaten strode across the library floor instantly, pulling Shiv up from her crouch in front of Rafe.
He pulled her into a kiss, his hand on her back, pressing her into him, demanding her body meet the wall of his chest. When he leaned back, his voice was a growl. “Make no mistake, Shiv. I can stand it. And I was stupid to think I could avoid it.”
Her eyes were questioning as she looked at him. “And damn, Skye?”
“Damn stupid promises I never should have made.”
Her face broke into the drug smile as her arms went up around his neck, and her legs did the same around his waist. Triaten carried her upstairs.
~~~
Skye’s slap across his face stung. But not nearly as bad as the scathing disappointment dripping from her voice, “How could you, Triaten?”
It had only taken Skye a second of being in the kitchen with Triaten and Shiv, to figure out what was going on between the two of them. Aiden and Skye had walked into the ranch, and had found Triaten and Shiv easily enough. Triaten hadn’t expected them to be back so soon from the island.
Once Skye had seen the two of them together, laughing at the kitchen table, Shiv’s hand on his thigh, she had practically grabbed Triaten’s ear and dragged him to the study. She had slammed the door closed so hard, it bounced back from the frame — she had to slide it twice more before she eased it gentle enough for the latch to close.
And now she stared at him, a perceptible shake of anger reverberated in her arms as she crossed them over her ribcage, trying to stymie her fury. “How could you?”
Each word snapped.
“It was wrong of me to promise you anything, Skye.” Triaten’s hands were up in defense right away. “I thought I could keep the promise, but I was wrong. I shouldn’t have made the promise, and I’m sorry.”
“It was twelve hours, Triaten. Twelve.” She paced, arms flinging. “You couldn’t keep your dick in your pants for half a day? A cup of coffee didn’t occur to you? A walk? A movie? Anything but banging my sister?”
Triaten had never seen Skye this angry, or crass. “Skye, really, you’re over-blowing what you saw. What you thought you saw.”
Her hand flew up to stop him. “Don’t even start. I know what I saw in there. You are playing with my sister, Triaten. This will never go anywhere, and you know it.”
She spun away from him, arm lashing through the air. “God, why would you be so stupid? Every moment you spend with her gets you — gets her — in deeper and deeper. That much is obvious.”
She turned back to him, finger pointing. “And where’s it going to end? Are you going to tell her you’re a Panthenite? Are you really going to put her in that sort of danger? Are you going to get her pregnant, only to have an elder come on by and kill her baby — or her? You know your father is not going to let this fly. What the hell are you thinking, Triaten? You know this is going nowhere, but there you are — sitting there with her, a charming asshole.”
A knock on the door interrupted Skye’s tirade. Without waiting for an answer to the knock, Aiden slid open the door and stuck his head in. “Skye, Shiv wants to talk to you.”
Skye glared at Aiden. She wasn’t done with Triaten. She had only just begun.
Aiden took the glare for what it meant. “I know. And I imagine she mostly wants to get Triaten off the hook. You’re not exactly being discrete in here.”
“Shit, did she hear anything?”
“No, it was muffled. But loud. Go talk to her. This is your chance, even if it is to save Triaten’s hide from you.”
Skye shot Triaten a look meant to fry. “I’m not done with you.”
“I know.” Triaten sighed.
Skye stepped past Aiden and walked back to the kitchen. Shiv stood at the back door, pulling on a dark wool pea coat.
“Take a walk with me?” She pointed at the door.
Skye paused, still livid. Her fingers played with the zipper on her coat. She hadn’t even taken it off, she had been so quick to drag Triaten out of the kitchen. She watched Shiv pull her long dark hair out from under the back of her coat. It was the same distinct motion Shiv had used her whole life, and Skye couldn’t help but see her as the awkward fourteen-year-old girl from years ago. Skye resisted the urge to grab Shiv’s arm, drag her to the jeep, and drive her as far away from this mountain as possible.
That Triaten would play this game with her. Skye’s body began to shake again. She had to squash her anger before she let it slip with Shiv.
Shiv opened the back door and looked over her shoulder. “Coming?”
Skye zipped her coat and followed her.
Outside, Rafe caught sight of the sisters and bounded up from barn, tongue hanging loose as he tore across the browning grass. He barreled into Skye, sending her flying onto her backside. He stood over her, tongue mopping every exposed inch of skin. It had been months since he had seen his mistress. A happier dog didn’t exist. And Skye’s anger vanished.
“Triaten said he was your dog. But jeez, I had no idea. He really loves you.”
Laughing, Skye looked past the furry ear she was scratching, up at Shiv. Jealousy painfully lined Shiv’s pinched smile.
Skye got to her feet, her hand still deep in the fur on Rafe’s head. “Rafe is the best. He kept you good company, didn’t he?”
Shiv nodded.
Skye pointed to an opening in the woods behind the barn. “Shall we walk?”
Into the woods, Rafe out in front, they crunched on fallen leaves for five minutes before Skye broke the silence.
“Do you remember the stories I used to tell you about our parents and how they named us?”
“Vaguely. Remind me.” Shiv produced, her voice wooden.
“Well, they used to tell me that one day I dropped from the sky, and that’s how they named me. But yours I never understood when they told it. They used to talk about how when you were a baby you had really sharp fingernails, little blades, they used to call them. So they named you Shiv. I never really got it until I went to juvie and learned that a shiv was a make-shift blade.”
“Really? I do not remember that one at all. They truly named me after a cobbled together knife?”
“I guess, yes. I have found no other definition.”
“You mean they didn’t just like the name Shivanoe and shorten it? That’s what I always assumed.”
Skye laughed at her incredulous look. “Swear to god. That’s the story they used to tell us.”
A smile cracked Shiv’s face. “How bizarre.”
“I know. And when I found out what a shiv actually was, I wanted to get a hold of you right away.” Skye scanned the treetops. “But they wouldn’t let me. So I have been sitting on that fascinating tidbit of information for years.”
They walked in silence for another ten minutes before pulling up as the trail opened to the bank of the river. Skye walked to the edge of the water, staring at the flow. Rafe stayed by her side, lapping up a drink.
“I’ve never seen you that close to moving water before.” Shiv said to Skye’s back. She had stopped at the edge of the woods, arms crossed.
Skye turned around to her. “The fear isn’t completely gone — I’m not going to dive in or anything. But I do have a certain level of peace with water now.”
“How did you do it? Reach the peace, I mean?”
“I’m different now.”
“Different how?”
Skye sighed. She couldn’t actually tell Shiv she was a Panthenite, and that she couldn’t really die from drowning anymore. That much was proven when Evan had her in the cave. Phobias ease up considerably once the core of the fear goes away. But Skye couldn’t tell Shiv that. “You know when I was knocked out and I had amnesia? It was like a reset button for me. For my whole life. I woke up and I had no history, no clue who I was or how I acted. So I got to be a completely new person. A better person, I hope.”
“And what happened when your memory came back?”
“I was horrified at the person I was. How I hurt you. How I failed you. But I was already on a new path, so I didn’t have to wallow in the past.”
“And you fell in love? I suppose that helped.”
“Yes.”
Skye could see Shiv hedge on her next question. Then it came out in a blurt.
“So when you got your memory back, why didn’t you find me?”
“Honestly, Shiv, I wanted nothing more.” Skye stepped toward her. “But it was clear from your reaction to Triaten and Charlotte, that you wanted nothing to do with me. If I had thought there was the slightest chance you would have opened your door...would have said hello. I would have taken anything — the smallest bone from you. But I didn’t want to cause you more pain. So I didn’t come.”
“Were you ever going to come?”
“Probably, but I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I always just believed that in the future, you’d see me again. Be my sister again. Forgive me. At least I hoped.”
Shiv turned sideways, looking upriver instead of at Skye.
Skye stepped in front of her vision. “Shiv, the other day at the house. You said I wasn’t there for you when you needed me. What happened? Why did you need me?”
Shiv shrugged, avoiding Skye’s eyes. “I don’t have time to dwell, nor do I want to, but I’ve been in a bad place. Basically, my life disintegrated on me, and you’re all I could think of that I had left.”
“What happened?”
Shiv shook her head in sad hope. “I wish I had your reset button. But I don’t. The short answer is that I was having an affair with a married man. I got pregnant. He beat me almost to death. I lost the baby. And then...”
Skye’s stomach clenched in horror. Horror that ballooned into rage. “What? Who the hell is this guy? I am going to find him and –”
Shiv’s hand flew up. “Skye, stop. I don’t think about him anymore. I don’t have time for that. And you shouldn’t waste any emotion on him either.”
Skye’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean you don’t have time for that?”
Hesitating, Shiv looked up at the blue sky, tears welling. She took a deep breath and looked at Skye. “I’m going to tell you this quickly, and only once, because I haven’t told anyone, but I have to at least tell you. When I was in the hospital, they found it.”
Skye’s heart stopped. “Found what?” The question crawled out.
“The cancer.” The words were a whisper.
“Cancer?”
Shiv closed her eyes, letting the words come out. “I didn’t even know I had anything. And it had spread quickly. I have about seven months.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“But you’re fine,” Skye reasoned. “You’re healthy. You look healthy.”
“I know. I’m not in any pain right now. They say that’s to come.”
“No.”
“Yes. Skye, please don’t make this harder. I’ve only just recently convinced myself this was true. I don’t want to have to convince you, too.”
“No, we fight it Shiv. We can do something. Money is not an issue.”
“Skye, we can’t. It’s too widespread and inoperable. I’ve had four second opinions.”
Skye stepped forward and fiercely grabbed Shiv’s shoulders. “No, Shiv. We fight. You can’t give up.”
Shiv just shook her head. “Skye, please. This is really hard. There is nothing to fight. It’s already won, and I’m just trying to come to terms with what will be the end. I’m just trying to enjoy life before the pain comes.”
“God, no.” Skye begged as her hands loosened their grasp, moving instead to wrap her arms around Shiv, gripping with every ounce. Tears were free-falling. “No. I can’t accept this. I will find something. Some way to heal this.”
“Skye, there isn’t anything you can do.” Shiv said over Skye’s shoulder. “I really just need you to be there for me. Be there when things get really bad.”
Skye swallowed a sob, not wanting her next words to come out, because they sounded like defeat. But Shiv needed to hear it. “You don’t need to ask. Anything you need. I will make it happen. I promise you that.”
Shiv’s arms finally came up, enclosing Skye and squeezing her hard. Leaning on her.
Moments ticked by. Clouds passed. Birds cawed. Water ran down the river. The world turned, even though it had just stopped for Skye.
Shiv pulled back from the embrace to look at Skye, but she kept her hands around her. “So here is what I need from you right now. No one knows about it. Especially not Triaten. And I need you to back off of him.”
“But –”
“No buts. Triaten helps me forget what’s going on. How my body is failing me. I am alive when I’m with him. I’m not wallowing in self-pity, or terrified about what is to come. While I still feel healthy, I need to live like I am. And Triaten helps me do it.”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want him to use you.”
A sarcastic chuckle flew out of Shiv. “Well now, you don’t have to worry about that. There’s not enough time for me to get hurt. Really, I’m using him more than he is using me.”
“And what if you fall in love?”
“So what? It isn’t going to change anything. The outcome will be the same — whatever we have is going to end soon enough anyway.”
Skye looked hard at her sister. She wasn’t going to accept this diagnosis, but Shiv didn’t want to hear that, so she wasn’t going to tell her. “Are you planning on telling Triaten?”
“That’s the other thing I need from you. You have to promise me that you won’t tell him. Won’t tell anyone.”
After a long pause, Skye relented. “I won’t.”
“And you’ll leave Triaten alone?”
Giving up on that front, Skye sighed. “Fine.”
At that moment, Rafe ambled over and stuck his head under Shiv’s hand for a pet. She smiled down at the dog. “And I may have to steal Rafe from you from time to time.”
“Gladly,” Skye smiled as she rubbed Rafe’s neck behind Shiv’s hand. The dog gloried in the double attention. “Anything you need is yours.”
“Thank you.” Shiv grabbed Skye’s hand.
Skye bit her lip, trying to hold back the tears that were re-surfacing. She hadn’t held Shiv’s hand since they were little. But their hands still entwined the same as always, as though she was ten, and Shiv was her little, little sister again. Skye’s throat swelled.
“All these years. All these years I’ve missed with you. And now...”
Shiv squeezed her hand. “I know.”
“I am so sorry, Shiv. I am so sorry I left you.”
“I know.” Shiv reached up and wiped a tear from Skye’s cheek. “I know. I forgive you, if you can forgive me for holding you away. For not seeing you.”
“There is nothing for me to forgive, Shiv. I set it all in motion. And as heartbroken as I am right now, I’m still just so happy you’re here.”
“Let’s head back,” Shiv said with a smile and she pointed in the direction of the ranch. “I think you’ll get a kick out of what I’m making in the library. I didn’t know it when I started it, but it’s pretty clear now what it is.”
“In the library?” Skye hid a shudder. Mary almost killed her in there, and then Charlotte had put Mary out of her misery on that floor. “What in the world are you doing in there?” she asked, perplexed.
“A mosaic.”
No one was more surprised by the reversal of Skye’s anger than Triaten.
Triaten and Aiden were at the smaller barn, just walking out of the new structure that held an expanded arsenal for Panthenites, when the sisters had emerged from the woods, hand-in-hand.
As they made it closer, Triaten could see both had red-rimmed eyes. Shiv looked at peace. Skye looked an odd mix of happy and worried.
As the women walked across the clearing, Triaten braced himself for the upcoming tongue lashing Skye was going to unleash on him. But it never came.
Instead the two stopped by the barn to report they were going inside. Skye gave Aiden a kiss on the cheek and Triaten a smile, then they walked up to the main house, Rafe trotting happily behind.
Over the next two days, Triaten noted that every moment Skye could steal with her sister, she did. Aiden also reported that Skye had stubbornly suspended training with little explanation, much to his ire, especially after her poor showing in Mustique. It was the moment in time that Aiden needed to push her more than ever, and she was refusing to be pushed.
Most important to Triaten, though, Skye allowed him a wide berth after the sisters’ walk in the woods. Even smiling, with a wave, when Triaten and Shiv went off together somewhere.
Shiv threw herself into her work on the mosaic, and Skye would sit in the library for hours with her as she worked on the art. Skye would mix cement or chip pieces of the smalti tile into size to keep busy, but mainly, she would just sit and talk for hours on end with Shiv.
And then the phone rang.
Shiv and Skye had spent the morning in the library, only stopping when Aiden and Triaten came in from the barn for lunch.
The four were sitting at the kitchen table, slapping together sandwiches while listening to Stewart rant about the lack of good peaches, so brutally soon after a stellar crop of Colorado peaches.
The ring of the phone interrupted the chef, and Triaten got up to answer it. It took him a moment to decipher through the thick accent that English was being spoken to him. A woman’s voice, high-pitched and frantic, spoke as quickly as her jumbled English would allow.
“Who is this? Can you slow down?” Triaten asked.
“It’s Simbali. I at the camp. They come. This is number Doctor C say — this number. She say call quick. They kill everyone. Doctor C went out at them. They come now. They –”
The line went dead.
Seeing Triaten’s face, Aiden was already on his feet.
Triaten turned to the wall. Slowly, his head down, he placed the phone back in its set.
“What is it?” Aiden asked.
Face white, Triaten looked over at Aiden. “Charlotte.”
Without a breath, both strode to the door and out, not looking back at the confused eyes of Stewart, Skye, and Shiv.
Aiden’s hand grasped the jeep’s handle before Skye had even made it a third of the way to them, running at top speed. “Aiden — stop. What’s going on?”
Aiden paused and looked over at Triaten, halfway into the driver’s side. Skye screeched to a stop in front of the jeep, hands catching herself on the hood.
She looked through the windshield. “Triaten, what’s going on?”
He stuck his head out the window. “It was a call from the refugee camp. Charlotte’s in trouble.” He started up the engine.
Skye looked over at Aiden.
He shook his head. “You’re staying here, Skye.”
“What? No. I’m coming with.” She ran around the vehicle to Aiden.
He looked down at her, face unmoved. “No. We don’t know what’s going on. And you’re not ready.”
“But what if you need me to throw back time?” She ducked her head in through the open door at Triaten. “If you don’t know what’s going on Triaten, you need me there. I can do this.”
Aiden grabbed her shoulders, pulling her attention back to him. “Skye. You are staying here. It’s too risky and I’m not putting you in danger again.”
Skye grabbed his wrists with fierceness in her eyes. “Aiden, this is Charlotte. You don’t have to worry about me. I can do this. I can. I will hold nothing back. Nothing.”
Aiden assessed her. He remained unmoved until he saw the raw determination in her eyes. Reluctantly, he relented, releasing her shoulders and nodding her into the jeep.
Skye jumped into the back seat, not giving Aiden another second to rethink the decision. Aiden got in the front, slamming his door closed.
Triaten shoved a satellite phone into Aiden’s hand and threw the jeep into gear. “You contact the airfield. The plane needs to be ready by the time we get there.”
“How are the supplies at the airfield? Do we need to stop at my place?”
“We’re good. We’re well-stocked there right now. Firepower and steel. Just tell them we don’t know what we’re walking into, so we need it all.”
“How long is the flight?” Skye asked.
“To Tanzania?” Triaten answered. “Twelve hours, give or take. Then another half-hour by helicopter to the camp.”
Dust flew, kicking up from the speeding wheels as they raced along the front fence of the ranch. Through the cloud of debris, none of the three noticed Shiv walking around the side of the ranch, looking for them.
~~~
The plane ride, all excruciating twelve hours of it, captured the multitude of personalities on board.
Aiden sat, slept, and did an occasional set of push-ups.
Triaten sat on take-off, and that was it. The moment they gained altitude, he unbuckled and stood. He paced up and down the expanse of the cabin, from the cockpit, through the seating area, past a thin wall and the bed right after it, to the back of the plane. He would spin on his heel, and complete the loop in reverse. A methodical pace with his head down, his concentration belying the thick uneasiness he struggled to keep at bay.
Skye alternated between sitting and standing, biting her nails as her leg jerked with a nervous tick. Occasionally she would join Triaten in a pace. Her track was shorter, back and forth in the seating area, a skittish rabbit stuck in a cage.
What Skye had gotten out of the mostly mute Triaten and Aiden was minimal. This was the refugee camp Charlotte had helped a Doctor Saima Mohamed start near the Tanzania border years ago, on the doctor’s family land. Charlotte had met Thomas, also a doctor, there. She married him, and the two worked there for years before Mary killed Thomas. Since those early years, the population of the camp had swelled to more than ten-thousand.
An hour before they landed, the plane’s phone rang. It was a quick conversation, and Triaten’s face grew increasingly grave as he listened. He ended the conversation with a, “We’re on it,” and hung up.
Aiden didn’t get up from the couch, but he did put his hand on Skye’s jumping knee, steadying it. Her knee strained against his palm, but it did slow from the frantic pace it had maintained for hours.
Aiden gave Triaten a quizzical look.
“Horace.” He said, and sat heavily on the swivel chair opposite Aiden and Skye. He rubbed his jaw, the usually clean-shaven face giving way to dark stubble.
“And?” Aiden asked when Triaten didn’t continue.
Triaten leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands clasped. “And the attack on Doctor Saima’s camp wasn’t the only one. Not by far.”
“There were more?”
“Refugee camps, villages — all across Africa. A coordinated attack on hundreds of peaceful areas. And they’re still getting more reports in.”
“Malefics?” Aiden asked.
Triaten nodded.
“But why?” Skye’s face was ashen.
Triaten shrugged. “Upheaval of an entire continent and all the natural resources it supplies to the world. Oil, gas, minerals.”
Skye shook her head. “But what does that gain the Malefics?”
“The world is tied to the teat of Africa, Skye.” Triaten paused and looked down, rubbing his weary eyes with the heels of his palms. He looked back up at Skye. “Take an already unstable continent. Create complete mayhem. Lots of opportunity for power arises.”
“And they want power?” She turned to Aiden. “But you said Malefics rarely worked together.”
“They haven’t. They don’t.” Concern broke Aiden’s usual calm facade. “A few here and there. But nothing like this. This is new.”
“That’s not all,” Triaten said.
Aiden and Skye looked across to him.
“It was only a matter of time. The elders think this is the first strike in this flame moon cycle.”
“Shit.” Aiden swore under his breath. He looked down at Skye, but didn’t say anything.
Triaten studied her as well.
Skye’s eyes shifted back and forth from the two. “What? Can we stop it?”
Triaten looked at Aiden and nodded.
Aiden’s hand tightened on her knee. “We can’t, Skye. But you can.”
Understanding slowly played out on Skye’s face. She exhaled nervousness and leaned back against the couch. Her hand went to Aiden’s arm, playing with the short dark hairs lining the muscles on his forearm. “You need me to shift time back?”
“Yes,” Triaten answered, “but we need to concentrate on getting to Charlotte first. We can’t chance her safety. And if something has happened to her, and you go back to the wrong moment in time…” His voice trailed, not willing to speak the possibility of Charlotte’s death.
And so, in the early morning African darkness, Triaten, Aiden, and Skye ran from the plane to a waiting helicopter, swords and guns strapped to every appendage.
Within twenty minutes, they landed a half mile from the compound and made their way to the far northern edge of the camp. The early rays of first light filtered across the mostly barren earth. The camp was eerily quiet from a distance, even at the early hour. And the dense sound of silence only thickened as they approached the tall, barbed wire fence that denoted the border of the camp. The air curdled with a muck of stench Skye couldn’t place.
As Aiden easily lifted up the fence, Triaten and Skye slid under, and Aiden followed. The dead silence was quickly being replaced by a buzz as the morning light grew stronger. A constant buzz that grew louder and louder with each step they took into the camp.
Having encountered no one, the three approached the closest line of tin shacks. When they came around to the front of the shacks, Skye realized what the buzz was that filled her ears. In front of them, as far as the eye could see, bodies were strewn. The buzz was deafening. The sound of a cloud of flies feasting on rotting corpses.
Skye processed the sight, but she didn’t believe what she saw until her eyes managed to focus on the body closest to her.
Face down, the gaping hole in the woman’s back was obvious, the threads of her thin dress mangled into the skin, disappearing into the gory black-red hole just below her right shoulder blade. But it was the foot that froze Skye and seared her soul. Jutting out from under the woman’s belly was a leg. A tiny, motionless leg, its limp foot buried in the dirt. A foot that couldn’t belong to anyone over the age of three.
All breathing stopped, and Skye looked out at the aisle between the rows of shacks again, now seeing each individual body all at once. Women, children, babies. Piles of them. Piles rotting. Meat for the insects.
Skye staggered backward, hitting the metal shack behind her, hard. A jagged edge of the tin wall dug into her back, drawing blood, but she didn’t feel it. Her feet kept pushing at the ground, grinding her back into the sharp metal, her body instinctively trying to remove herself from the smell, the scene, the horror.
Having moved through the masses of bodies without pause, Triaten and Aiden had almost disappeared down the path to the perpendicular row of housing, when Aiden realized Skye was not following them. He whistled, and Triaten stopped. Aiden pointed back at Skye, and then motioned Triaten to keep moving. Triaten nodded and vanished in the labyrinth of random shanties.
Aiden went to Skye swiftly, planting himself in front of her and grabbing her shoulders, pulling her forward off the slicing tin. “Get a hold of yourself, Skye.”
Her eyes stayed fixated on the grisly sight and her feet continued to push at the ground. Aiden shook her.
“Skye,” his voice was a harsh whisper, “get yourself back here right now. Center.”
At his words, Skye blinked and bile immediately rose into her throat. The stench of the rotting flesh baking in the sun had intensified, and she twisted her body over Aiden’s arm and vomited.
Coughing and wiping her mouth with the back of her arm, her look darted to him, frantic. “I can’t be here, Aiden. I can’t. That this could even exist...” Her head shook as she began pushing his arms off of her. He didn’t let her succeed.
“It helps if you don’t look.”
“Don’t look? God, Aiden, how can you even say that? How can you not? Why didn’t you warn me? What sort of hell is this? That this is even possible...this isn’t what I thought it would be.”
“What did you think we were going to find here, Skye?”
“I don’t know...” Her eyes pleaded to the heavens. “Not this. God. I thought it would be like Mustique. Contained and beautiful and dangerous...not gruesome...not rotting corpses...not innocents...not babies. Who does this?”
“Skye, I know it’s hard, but we don’t have time. You need to come right now.”
“Wait. I can go back. Go back and –”
Her voice dropped off as Aiden’s right hand released her shoulder, grabbed the gun strapped to his hip, and aimed it down the path where Triaten had disappeared. A man, fumbling to get an automatic rifle in place, had wandered into view. Aiden pulled the trigger without hesitation and the man fell.
Skye watched him hit the ground. She hadn’t seen or heard him appear. “Is he a Malefic?”
Aiden watched the prone form in the dirt, and then shook his head. “No, he’d be up again by now if he was.” He looked back down at her.
“Aiden, I have to change time.”
“No, we need to move right now. We have to find Charlotte first.” Aiden grabbed her arm and pulled her as he started down the path, avoiding bodies. She stumbled a few feet, and then dug her toes into the ground.
“Aiden, I can’t do this. I’m not you. I’m not that strong.”
He stopped and grabbed her shoulders again. “You are and you have to. Skye, this is why you exist, why you have your power. It’s not to save a dog. Or to save one person.”
His arm swung, motioning to the carnage around them. “Your power can save thousands of innocents. These thousands. Tens of thousands at the other camps. You have the power and you will change this. But we have to do it right, we have to walk through this and find Charlotte. If we don’t find her and talk to her, and you push back time, only to go to the wrong spot, the timing may be off, and we might not save any of them. None.”
His voice had escalated to commanding, not allowing Skye the option to argue. “So you need straighten your spine, find some strength, come with me to find Charlotte, and then turn back time. Are you ready?”
It was the verbal ass-kick Skye needed. Silently, she nodded. Aiden grabbed her hand and they ran in the direction Triaten had left them.
It didn’t take long for the sound of gunfire to tell Skye and Aiden where Triaten was. They quickly pulled up behind him, and a dust cloud from their feet flew up, sitting in the thick air.
Triaten’s guns were drawn, and he had positioned himself half-behind one of the tin houses. A group of militia, seven or eight, were gathered at the front entrance to a large building. Built of white stuccoed block, it was the tallest structure in the compound. A red cross was painted above the door. Gunfire occasionally burst from the group toward Aiden, Triaten and Skye.
Triaten glanced over his shoulder at them, then nodded at the building. “It’s the hospital, and it’s where the only phone is if I remember correctly. And they’re guarding it.”
“Which means there is something important in there.” Aiden interjected. “Could be Doc S or Charlotte.”
Triaten nodded. “Let’s go.”
Skye fell into line behind the shoulders of Aiden and Triaten. All three had guns drawn as they moved in a wall at the group of men. A hailstorm of bullets flew at them, but both Triaten and Aiden picked off the militia one by one, quickly and efficiently, not paying any mind to the bullets that sliced into their Panthenite bodies.
The guarding militia down, Triaten kicked several bodies away from the door, and the three stepped into the building.
The question of Doctor Saima’s fate was answered three steps into the building, as her body laid on its back by the door, baby in her arms.
Skye had to swallow hard on the bile that rose again in her throat as they stepped past the bodies. Noise above them drew the three up the stairs. At the top, the concrete block hallway was empty, but of the rooms branching off the hall, only one door was closed.
Triaten started down the hall, just as a charging scream preceded a hulking man, sword drawn, charging out from the closest open room. Triaten had his blade up just in time to block the first heavy swing. By the time the clash of swords rang into the air, Aiden had drawn a dagger and thrust it past Triaten’s shoulder, into the heart of the Malefic. The Malefic slid to the ground, sword still above his head.
Triaten shot Aiden an enraged look as he continued down the hall. “Malefics led this.” It confirmed what the elders had said.
With a nod, Aiden moved past Triaten and kicked open the closed wooden door in front of them. Three Malefics, swords swinging, rushed at the group. Aiden grabbed the wrist of one as it flew past him, jerking him to a stop, and sunk his dagger into his back.
Triaten handled the next through the door, and after two swings by the Malefic, he pounced on unsteadiness and kicked him in the chest, sending him to the ground.
Triaten’s blade sliced off his head in one furious motion.
Furious, because the third Malefic had stopped and slunk back into the room. The Malefic’s blade was over the body on the floor — Charlotte. He sneered as he raised the sword, ready to sink it into Charlotte.
The sneer lasted only an instant, for a dagger flew across the room, impaling the Malefic between the eyes. Both Triaten and Aiden glanced down in surprise at Skye, who had just thrown the blade. The Malefic fell backward, and Aiden was over to him in a blink, sword burying into the Malefic’s chest.
Aiden and Skye looked around, watching for more attacks, but it was silent. Triaten was already at Charlotte’s head, his hand on her cheek, trying to open her closed eyes.
“Charlotte. Wake up.” He patted her dirt-crusted cheek. “Wake up.”
“Triaten, her hand,” Skye whispered.
Triaten looked down at her body. Charlotte’s left hand sat flattened, palm down, over her own heart. Blood soaked the white t-shirt she wore. The blood was clearly thickest above her heart, tapering out in circular fashion from the spot below her hand. On the back of Charlotte’s hand, there was the faintest glow of red emanating from her skin.
“Shit, she’s healing herself,” Aiden murmured in awe what all three were thinking.
“Charlotte,” Triaten whispered, his voice desperate. He slapped her face harder as he pulled her head into his lap, taking care to not jar her hand from her heart. “Charlotte. Wake up.”
Slowly, through the dirt blanketing her face, the whites of Charlotte’s eyes appeared behind the tiniest cracks in her lashes.
Her mouth opened and air came out, but no sound.
“Charlotte, I’m right here. Open your eyes, Charlotte.”
She closed her mouth and reopened it. This time, sound made it through. “Thomas?”
“No, Char,” Triaten’s voice cracked, “it’s Triaten.”
At his words, Charlotte’s lashes opened and her eyes tried to focus on the face above her. “Tri — I knew you would come.” She took a shallow breath as her eyes closed again. “Tri, Thomas is here.”
“Thomas is where, Charlotte?”
“He wants me to come. I told him I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave you. But I’m getting so tired.”
“Charlotte, open your eyes. Look at me,” Triaten demanded of her.
When her eyes re-opened, Triaten pounced. “When did they attack? How long ago? We need to know, Char.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how long I’ve been here.” She drew a shuddered breath, and a blood-soaked cough was her reward. The red droplets flew out of her mouth, landing in a trail down her chin, but she kept talking once the cough ceased.
“I was moving through the bodies, helping the little ones I could find, until they found me crawling. I was so weak from healing. I couldn’t fight. They took me here. And tried to kill me, but couldn’t. And then they knew what I was...and they brought that one...that Malefic to kill me. He nicked my heart with his blade. How long have I been here?” Her eyes slid closed again.
It wasn’t the answer Triaten needed. “Char, stay with me. How long were they here before the girl called me? Think Charlotte, how long?”
She didn’t open her eyes, but her voice still came out. “Three, maybe four hours. They worked their way in from the fence — we didn’t know it was happening — and when we did, we tried to move some.”
Satisfied with the timeline, Triaten smoothed the hair at her forehead. “Don’t worry Char, Skye is here and she’s going to set it back. We’ll go back and be ready when they come again.”
Triaten tore his eyes from Charlotte and commanded Skye. “You need to go back days. We have to have time for the flight and to be ready. Go back to the day you two came back from Mustique.”
Charlotte’s body jerked and her hand slipped off her heart. It became obvious her mind was no longer clear as she started to mumbled. “Thomas? I know. But I can’t go...No, it’s Tri…Yes, Tri, he’s here. I told you he would come…no…I don’t want to…” She was silent for a moment.
“Char, stay with me.” Triaten ordered.
“But...no...please no…I can’t…but…okay. Goodbye? I can’t. Don’t make me. No...I won’t…okay. I’ll come.”
The mumbled conversation behind Charlotte’s closed eyes terrified Triaten, and in despair, he grabbed her hand and put it back over her heart. But the glow was gone. He leaned down, close to her face, grasping her cheeks.
“Stay with me, Char. Stay. Here, right here. Skye will fix this. You need to just stay with me.”
Her eyes slit open. “Tri. Promise me.” The words muddled in her labored breath, barely audible.
“Anything Char. Anything.”
“Bring me home…after. My body. Bring me home. Don’t leave me here.”
Tears fell down from Triaten onto her face. “No, Char, you’re going to be fine. Just hold on. Stay with me. Just a little longer.”
“Promise me. I want to be near you.”
“Char.”
A weak cough sprayed more blood. “Promise me.”
Triaten’s head dropped, and he put his forehead onto hers. “I promise.”
Her eyes slid closed. “Thomas...now?”
Triaten’s hands moved, and he gripped Charlotte’s body, clutching her limpness into him. He looked up at Skye, yelling. “Skye — god, just do it — she’s dying.”
“I know. I’m trying.” Skye shot back, and slipped down against a wall onto her heels. Eyes closed, she clasped her hands over her face.
Seconds ticked by.
Charlotte’s breath slowed.
“Do it now, Skye, do it now.” Triaten’s voice pitched desperation. “She’s going. We don’t know what will happen if she dies. We could lose her. Go back, Skye. Hurry, god dammit.”
Skye didn’t answer, didn’t move.
A gargle of air popped through Charlotte’s mouth. She was taking her last breaths.
“For god’s sake, Skye, just do it, dammit!” Anguish etched Triaten’s words.
Aiden strode from the open doorway and slapped Triaten across the head. “She needs it quiet.”
“What the fuck, Aiden? Charlotte’s dying and Skye needs it quiet?”
Aiden crossed his arms, glaring down at Triaten. “Skye can do it, Triaten, just shut the hell up.”
Aiden looked over at the ball Skye had wrapped herself into at the wall. “Do it now, Skye.” It was a demanding whisper. “You can do it. Just send it back.”
In an instant, Skye was standing in the study at the ranch, swinging her hand at Triaten. Her arm froze in mid-slap as they looked at each other. It was the day Aiden and she had come back from Mustique, and she was just about to deck Triaten for sleeping with her sister.
Triaten and Skye stared at each other as the enormity of what Skye had just done sunk in. And once it did sink in, Triaten ran at Skye and wrapped his arms around her, crushing her as he yanked her off the ground.
“You did it. Thank god, Skye.” The relief in his words were ground shaking. “Thank god. Thank you.”
“Skye.” Aiden opened the study door and walked in.
Triaten reluctantly put her down, only to pass the manhandling to Aiden. Aiden grabbed her shoulders and spun her toward him.
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 were 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.
“You 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 Charlotte,” 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 closely 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 that 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 chest, 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 waiting 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 obviously 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 almost 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 actually 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.
“What?” she asked when she caught his grin.
“I think you’ve taken care of it all. I don’t think we have anything left to prep.”
Charlotte glanced around them, assessing. “Hmmm. Probably not. I didn’t leave much for you guys, did I?”
“Nope.”
“But you brought plenty of firepower, I hope?”
Triaten and Aiden both tapped the large black bags they were carrying.
“Good.” She nodded. “I think the only thing to do now is to wait. I have to be honest — and believe me when I say I need you here and helping — but I, frankly, can’t wait for these guys to show up so I can kill as many as possible. They...” Her voice trailed off.
“They what, Charlotte?” Triaten asked.
She shook her head, clearing whatever image had invaded her mind. “They are the worst kind of vile. And they killed hundreds of our babies.” Her eyes glazed over as her hand went to the dagger at her waist, her fingers gripping the hilt so tightly, her knuckles turned white. “They are going to pay.”
“How many attacked?” Aiden asked.
“I’m not sure. By the time we knew what was happening, they had worked their way inward toward the hospital from at least three directions.” Her hand relaxed and dropped from her steel. “Maybe thirty. Maybe fifty. I counted at least five Malefics in the bunch.”
The four of them walked into the hospital, and Doctor Saima stood just inside the door, waiting to greet them.
“Triaten, Aiden. Good, good.” She said in her thick English accent, as she grasped each of their arms. Although her age should have put her in the frail category, her grip on them was an iron clamp. It had been more than thirty years since she had seen Triaten or Aiden, but she showed no hesitation in her welcome or her memory of the two of them. She turned to Skye. “And this is your wife, Aiden?”
“It is.” Aiden put his arm behind the small of Skye’s back. “This is Skye.”
Doc Saima grasped her hand, her dark plump hands enveloping Skye’s. “It is good to meet you. Aiden is a fine man. So you must be a fine woman. Welcome.”
Charlotte waited, finger tapping her thigh. She acknowledged the need for pleasantries, but was still slightly impatient about them. She didn’t want to take any chances on not being ready. “I’ve scoped out the sight lines, and there are three rooms on the second level where we’ll have good overview of them coming. We only have another hour of light, and if they hit at the same time as they did before, they’ll be coming shortly after dawn in the morning. So we’ll need to set up now.”
Skye looked over at the doctor in surprise.
Charlotte saw the question in her eyes. “Doctor Saima knows all about us. And your ability to shift time. We can talk openly in front of her.” She looked at the rest of the group. “Shall we go up?”
It took an anxious night-long wait before there was any movement in through the west end of the camp.
Triaten saw them first. He was in the north-west room, Aiden and Skye were in the west-facing room, and Charlotte watched from the south-west room. It was only a half-hour after dawn broke, and the terrorists had already made it halfway through the camp. Not having anyone to kill along the way had sped their descent on the epicenter of the camp, the hospital.
“Closing in band of ten. Five trailing.” Triaten said over his headset.
“Negative here. Char?” Aiden replied.
“Negative. Wait. Here they come. I’ve got twelve. No, twenty. They’re spread down in front of you, Aiden. You got them now?”
“I do. And a trailing band directly out. Another twenty, maybe. They’re ducking in and out of the shacks.”
“Full automatics on each of mine.” Charlotte reported.
“Mine too. Everyone ready to start picking?” Triaten asked.
“I’m a go.” Charlotte replied. Even over the headsets, the venom in her words was obvious.
Aiden motioned Skye up to the window next to his. She hadn’t had much firearm practice, so she didn’t have much hope of hitting any of them, but it was good practice, if nothing else. She readied herself behind the rifle, checked the scope, and gave Aiden a thumb up.
“We’re set. Call it, Charlotte.” Aiden commanded.
“Fire ‘em up, guys.”
In a flurry of bullets, rows of the militants fell, before the smart ones could duck into the lean-tos and tin houses. The first slew of firepower easily took out half the contingent.
For the next half hour, Triaten, Aiden, Charlotte, and Skye whittled down the line of assailants, the slightest movement in the labyrinth of shacks was rewarded with a bullet.
It wasn’t until a small group appeared, creeping alongside a row of lean-tos right in front of Aiden’s window, that the Malefics in the bunch became evident. Aiden sent a spray of bullets down on them. But all remained standing. And all had a sword or machete strapped to their waists. They moved closer to the hospital, shooting back at the windows on the second story.
A break in the firing allowed Aiden to pop his head out the window and look at the door directly below him. “We’ve got six coming in the building. All were shot and are moving. That means Malefics.”
“I’m on it.” Charlotte barked. The distinctive swoosh of a sword pulled free, crackled over the earpieces.
“I’m with you.” Triaten shot out.
Skye looked at Aiden. His hand paused over his shoulder, antsy on his own sword. “Go. I’ll stay up here to make sure there are no more approaching. I must have hit one or two. So I’ll probably hit a few more. And if you hear a shot, you know there’s more out there.”
“I don’t like having you out of sight.”
Skye shook her head. “They’re not going to make it past you up the stairs. The best use of me, is to have me up here watching to make sure no more are coming. Go.”
Aiden nodded and ran out of the room, closing the door behind him. Skye turned, hand on the trigger of her weapon, and trained her eyes on the rows of houses, the tin on them reflecting the hot morning sun. Dust still swirled where bodies had hit the ground, some of their limbs still twitching, but beyond that, all remained still.
Outside Skye’s door, Charlotte and Triaten had already converged at the staircase and were flying down the two flights. Aiden was close behind.
They hit the landing just as the six Malefics clamored in through the door. Two of them were burly — big pieces of meat; two were tall and skinny; one stout; and the last one was small and frail-looking. His size was deceiving, as he was the one to watch out for. Charlotte, Aiden and Triaten all recognized him as the leader, the one that had almost killed Charlotte the first time around.
Upon seeing the three Panthenites rush at them from the stairs, the leader broke from the group and ran down one long hallway. A second Malefic peeled off down the opposite hallway.
Before the remaining four in the wide entryway could attack, Charlotte yelled out, “He’s mine,” and darted to the side, slipping off in pursuit of the leader down the hallway.
“You got the other one Tri?” Aiden confirmed, just as his blade hit the machete that was aimed at his head.
“You good with these four?”
Aiden was already fully engaged with two of them, forcing them back toward the door. “No problem,” he grunted as he lunged.
Triaten took off in the opposite direction of Charlotte, just as one of the four Aiden fought snuck off to the side. He followed Charlotte and the leader down the hall.
Charlotte was already in one of the hospital rooms, staring down the scrawny Malefic. Her knees had a slight bend in them as she circled him in the sparse room. A limp mattress lying on a rusty bed was the only thing between her and the leader.
It was uncharacteristic of Charlotte to engage an opponent verbally, but she had been waiting two days for this moment. Two very angry days. Her eyes narrowed. “I am not only going to kick your ass, I’m going to make you wish you were dead a hundred times over before I kill you.”
He sneered. “Doubt it, bitch. But let’s see what you’ve got.” He scurried like a rat around the room, keeping the distance.
Aiden’s voice came through her ear piece. “Char, one more on your way.”
With that piece of knowledge, Charlotte moved around the room so her back stood right in front of the door.
A taunting smile crept across the Malefic’s face. He stood straight and the sword he gripped in his hand went lazily to his side. “A dumb bitch, ain’t you. Thought you’d be better than this after that first round we had with you.”
Charlotte trained her ears on the air behind her. The moment the second Malefic turned the corner into the room, she spun, her steel flashing in a fluid spiral. He didn’t see it coming. And he didn’t stand a chance. His head flew off of Charlotte’s blade, rolling to a stop half under the bed.
The leader chuckled. “Not bad. But you ain’t gonna be quick enough for me.”
Charlotte blinked, and in the millisecond that passed, she found herself in sudden pain. She looked down at her thigh. Blood oozed from a shallow slice in her leg, soaking into the black fabric of her pants.
A speed Malefic. He’d been in and sliced her without her even seeing it. Charlotte hadn’t figured that out in their first encounter, when he had almost killed her. That’s what being half-dead did to her senses.
She swore under her breath. Speed Malefics were conniving warriors, using their speed to dart in and away from opponents. She always hated when she ran across one. They were speedy rats until you could corner them. And it was really hard to corner them.
He crouched across the room, snickering at her.
A floor above them, Skye saw movement in the sea of silver shacks. She ignored the sound of blades clashing in her ear piece, and tilted her head down to the mic on her shirt — she wasn’t used to the contraption. “Shit. Aiden. There’s another band of them coming. Another ten — no, hell — twenty-five. Straight down the middle. Right at this window.”
Bullets sprayed into the building, just outside of Skye’s window, sending bits of concrete flying. Skye ducked behind the wall next to the opening. Silence. She peeked her head around. They were getting closer.
Her voice became more frantic. “Aiden — anyone catch that?”
“Got it.” Aiden’s voice came in through her ear piece. The crash of metal and a gurgling sound followed. Skye’s heart stopped.
“Aiden!”
“You got any shots?” Aiden asked calmly, even as the sound of steel continued to clang violently.
Skye glanced out the window again. “I do. I’ll work on it.”
She positioned herself low, her head just above the bottom of the window sill. She fired off a couple rounds, and after minor adjustments to her aim, she zeroed in and took down at least seven of them. But her shots also sent them scurrying like cockroaches, and they spread themselves wide throughout the little boxes.
Skye stood up to get a better vantage point on where to shoot next, and a bullet ripped through her shoulder, blasting her down to the ground. She lay for a second, staring at a plaster crack in the dingy white ceiling above her, trying to get her wits back.
“Oh, fuck.” She exhaled, after feeling her right shoulder and realizing what had sent her onto her back.
“Skye!” Aiden’s yell was louder coming up the stairs than in the sound-limiting ear piece.
Skye sat up. “I’m okay.” She crawled over to the window and looked out.
“Guys. They’re coming in two spots. One at the main door and the other off to my left. What’s over there?”
“Charlotte.” Triaten’s voice jabbed in. “How many, Skye?”
Skye assessed. “Five off to the side. The rest fifty feet off the main door. Ten — fifteen of them.”
“You got that Charlotte?” Triaten asked.
“Yes. And I’ve got a speeder in here.” Charlotte answered, out of breath.
“I’m coming.” Triaten replied.
Skye watched the Malefics charge the building and she did the math in her head. Triaten and Charlotte had six, and one was a speeder, whatever that was. Aiden had ten, maybe more coming at him. She stood up, stretching her hand over her bullet-ridden shoulder and grabbed the handle to her sword, pulling it free. The movement sent a jab of pain down the side of her body, but she gritted her teeth and ignored it.
“I’m coming down.”
“Skye, you’re staying upstairs.”
The earpiece did nothing to hide Aiden’s growl. She didn’t answer him.
“Skye. Stay put.” Aiden’s voice thundered, dangerously low.
She was already out the door and running along the hallway when she heard the expanded clashes of steel below her. Halfway down the bottom set of stairs, she froze.
Aiden was directly in front of her. He was already engaged with four of them, half-circled in front of him. More Malefics piled in the through the doorway behind the first four. The entry was wide, and they fanned out, their half-circle three deep in every direction. There were already three Malefic bodies littering the ground in front of him.
Aiden parried the two closest to him, just as the Malefic group circled him. “Get the hell back up the stairs, Skye,” he said low, knowing her ear piece was still in.
“Hell, no,” she whispered back. “You’re forgetting that I saw what they did to those babies. They’re not getting to them again.” Aiden was now blocked from her view. And the Malefics on the ground level still hadn’t noticed her midway up the stairs, so intent they were on Aiden. When the group swelled inward at her husband, Skye broke through her last shreds of restraint.
Furious fire burned in her blood as she barreled down the steps, ignoring the pain in her shoulder and grabbing her dagger with her free hand. She plunged it into the back of the nearest Malefic, aiming at his heart. She yanked it from his body and he sank to the ground, falling on the feet of a Malefic just to the right of him.
Skye waited until that Malefic realized what a body on his feet meant, and looked up at her. Before he could get his machete-holding arm up, she swung, slicing halfway through his neck with her sword.
She killed two more that way, skirting along behind the crowd, picking them off as their attention was on Aiden. The masters had drilled it into her head that surprise, sneaking, and fighting dirty would be her best friends in a melee like this. They were right.
When two Malefics finally realized death was sneaking up on them from behind, Skye lost her edge. She had to block one heavy old sword, while trying to dodge the thin saber swinging at her belly from the other. The saber soon hit flesh, and cut into her side.
But instead of hindering her, the slice triggered the memory from the first time they were here. The memory of that first dead woman, with her back split open and baby legs poking out from under her. The image flashed in Skye’s mind, and triggered something deep within her — unleashing a lethal firestorm of rage.
And then she lost all control.
She dropped to the ground and rolled, dagger in her right hand slicing the tendons on the back of one of the Malefics’ ankles. Sword up, she got it just under his heart as he fell. She kicked him up and off her sword, rolling to avoid the falling body.
As she scrambled on the floor, she dug the dagger into the foot of another Malefic coming down on her. She dodged a thrust of his machete, and sent the side of her sword straight up between his legs. He crumbled in front of her, and she pulled a secondary dagger from her calf, and buried it into his heart through his back.
At the same time as Skye was making her way downstairs and into the battle, Triaten got down the hallway to the room Charlotte was in, just in time to see her swing her sword at thin air. The speeder Malefic stopped against a far wall, laughing. Blood trickled from Charlotte’s forearm.
“Char, behind you.” Triaten warned.
Malefics were climbing in the open window across the room.
Charlotte moved away from that side of the room and jumped onto the bed. “They’re yours, Tri. I’m settling a different score.”
Triaten rushed across the room, engaging the first two Malefics that had made it through the window.
Charlotte stood tall, but still, on the bed. She stared down at the mattress, its rumpled sheet half pulled off. She ignored the speeder Malefic at the corner of the room, all focus aimed next to her feet. She waited.
The mattress twitched, and Charlotte swung. The speeder’s movement onto the mattress gave her just enough time to react. A direct hit, sword sinking into flesh.
The Malefic’s speed slowed and he stumbled, falling off the bed. Charlotte jumped down after him, not allowing a second to pass in her pursuit. She swung her sword and connected, slicing his battle hand off at the wrist.
Immediately, the Malefic picked up his sword with his other hand, shaking it to set the severed hand free from the hilt. He jumped to his feet and Charlotte swung low, aiming at his ankle. The sword didn’t cut the entire way through the flesh, but it was enough to disconnect his entire foot, the heel only holding on to the leg by some sparse tendons and skin.
By the window, Triaten had two Malefics down, and he looked back over his shoulder as he waited for the next brave one to make it into the room. Charlotte danced around the speeder as he hobbled on one foot and swung at her, air light under her feet. She was beautiful to watch in battle. She had always been efficient at killing, and there was never any hesitation in her swing. A travelling guillotine.
So Triaten’s gut sank when he realized this time was different. She was aiming at all the appendages on this Malefic. Dismembering him, limb by limb.
Two Malefics busted through the window in tandem. Triaten got to the one closest to him, just as the other skirted across the room and out the door, not even pausing to give a go at Charlotte. Triaten pulled his blade out of the dead Malefic in front of him, and then tore out of the room after the runner.
Triaten caught him, just as he reached the main entryway. Grabbing him at the scruff of his neck, Triaten sent him pounding to the floor. The Malefic started to beg, but Triaten didn’t pause. He had no pity for the monsters that had massacred thousands of innocents. His sword sank quickly into the Malefic’s chest.
Looking up, Triaten was momentarily distracted by the full-out battle in front of him. Aiden had six on him, which wasn’t unusual and he was handling the lot of them just fine. But what got Triaten’s attention was watching Skye pick apart the Malefics, one by one. Whatever had been going through Skye’s mind when they were on Mustique, and she was fighting Genevieve, had clearly been replaced with a warrior spirit. She was still somewhat awkward in her fighting, but made up for it tenfold in brute rage.
Aiden and Skye clearly had this room under control, so Triaten sped back down the hall to Charlotte. He arrived just as Charlotte killed the fifth Malefic coming in through the window. Her steel was through the Malefic before his feet hit the floor. She shoved his body back out the window.
The speeder Malefic, still alive, was now a stump of a torso leaning up against a wall, sitting in a pool of blood. Every limb was absent.
Charlotte turned back from the window and went over to the speeder. With a high swing, her sword came down along the Malefic’s head. An ear went flying and he screeched in pain.
Alarm shot through Triaten. “Charlotte, what are you doing?”
She didn’t look at Triaten, her eyes trained at the stump in front of her. “Doing what deserves to be done.”
Slowly, she grabbed a dagger from her belt and bent down in front of the Malefic. She flipped the blade in her hand for leverage, and thrust it into him, just under his ribcage. Bit by bit, she slid the steel down the side of his stomach as he tried to jerk his body away. Entrails started to spill.
Triaten swallowed at the grotesque sight. He’d seen much worse. But he’d never seen it at the hands of Charlotte. “Stop it Charlotte. This isn’t you.”
“It is.”
“No, you need to stop and think, Char.”
“Leave then, Tri, if you don’t want to watch.” Her voice was deathly low as she stood back up. “This is what’s going to happen.”
Triaten moved into the room, his palm up to her, trying to reason. “I want to watch you kill him. Not torture him.”
Charlotte sheathed her dagger and shifted her sword back into her right hand. She brought the sword down, quickly slicing off the other ear. The Malefics screams had turned into shaking sobs.
“You’re better than this Char.”
Her eyes didn’t leave the ripped-apart Malefic. “Am I?”
“Yes.”
“He killed babies, Tri. He killed babies. Right. In. Front. Of. Me.” Vengeful spite punctuated each word.
“Yes. And we saved them. And he will die.”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. It’s not good enough. He still did it.”
Triaten was within arm’s reach of her. His voice was low, begging for her to listen to reason. “Char, it’s how he goes that you have to live with. Just kill him and be done.”
Charlotte raised her sword to waist level, and then her hand wavered. Her eyes went to Triaten. The calm reason he exuded managed to break through the crusty shell of revenge she had erected. She glared at him, and then, with a frustrated growl, she swung, slicing off the Malefic’s head.
Before her sword even halted, Triaten snatched her, enveloping her into his chest. She crumpled into him.
The shaking started, as was usually the case with Charlotte immediately after battle. Triaten gripped her as tightly as he could to his chest, trying to stop the trembling, all the while knowing it would just have to subside on its own. He really couldn’t do anything to stop it.
His left hand went to her neck, caressing rock-hard tendons. He stood for minutes, holding her up, until the shaking eventually petered out. When he was sure Charlotte had her feet about her again, he pulled away from her to report to Aiden and Skye.
“All’s good here. We’re off to check the perimeter.”
Aiden’s voice came back in their ears. “We’re almost done here.”
In the entryway, Skye worked over every Malefic that was within reach. And it wasn’t that she had suddenly developed superior strength or skill, nor elegance in how she fought — she was still clumsy, but at the same time, gritty and tenacious. Any stab, any slice into her body didn’t slow her down. Blood drawn from her veins only added to her tornado of fury.
Skye lost count after six, and across from her, Aiden fought in contrast to her, elegant and cold as he cut down Malefic after Malefic. His strength and speed benefitted him, in that blades rarely made it close to his body.
A dagger sunk into the back of her shoulder in the same spot the bullet had hit. The hilt of the blade stuck out of her back as she twirled, facing two in-sync attackers. Both big. And both looking like they were about to tear her limbs off.
She dove to the ground in-between the two. She switched the sword from her left to right hand so she could try to get the dagger out of her back. She couldn’t reach it. A machete blade came down on her thigh.
Two shots burst through the air, a bullet hitting each of the Malefics above her. Skye gave a quick glance in time to see Aiden throw the gun in the corner, just as he blocked two swords close to his neck.
The Malefics were both blown back against the wall, and it was the sliver of opportunity Skye needed. She moved to her feet instantly, swinging her sword, and was rewarded with slicing the head off of one. The other snarled at her as he straightened up from the bullet shot. Skye ducked as he swung at her head, and she kicked her leg out, toppling him at his feet. She grabbed the hilt of her sword with both hands and sunk the tip straight down into his heart.
It was quiet behind her.
And then a pain shot through her body, straight from where the dagger was still embedded in her shoulder. She spun, sword close to her head for protection, but also to kill whatever was behind her.
Aiden caught her wrist just as the sword sunk into the muscle on his forearm.
“Easy, tiger.”
“Holy hell, Aiden! Do you not see what state I’m in — I almost killed you.”
Aiden smiled. “Killed, no. You are the first one today to draw some blood, though.” He looked down at his bronzed arm, now marred with a thin line of blood.
Skye followed his eyes. Only Aiden could fight twenty-plus Malefics and not have a scratch. Maddening, and she wasn’t really so sorry she had sliced him. But she coughed out an apology anyway. “Sorry. But still. What the hell are you doing to me?”
“The dagger in your shoulder. Remember? I thought I could slide it out quick before you knew what was happening. I expected to be quicker than you, and instead I just sliced the cut open farther.”
He stepped around her and grabbed her shoulder right above the blade, steadying her in place before he grabbed the hilt again. “Don’t move this time.”
He slid it straight out, smooth and almost painlessly.
Almost. “Eeeesh,” Skye exhaled.
“Skye, you have wounds and gaping holes all over your body, and this you ‘Eeeesh’?” He stepped back in front of her.
She looked at him like he had just grown a medusa head. “I don’t have gaping holes.”
Aiden’s finger started to point to various spots on her body. Arm, stomach, thigh, neck, calf, wrist, and forehead — the bath of blood that covered her was grotesque.
“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.
Triaten 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.
Now 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 supposed 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 hands 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 supposed 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 she 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.”
Surprised, Charlotte looked up from her lap to Triaten. “You did?” Utter confusion filled her words.
“Just because we’re in a crazy place, doesn’t mean I can’t still take care of you.”
Charlotte nodded silently, not having a clue what was going through Triaten’s mind.
“Are you going to be okay?” he asked.
She looked away, out the window, but gave a half-nod. “I will.”
She opened the door and cool air rushed into the jeep, sending goose bumps across her bare arms. Still dressed in her battle gear, the black tank top did nothing against the bitter air. One foot out the door, Charlotte stopped and looked back at Triaten. She opened and closed her mouth several times before she let words out.
“It took me a long time to get to this point, Tri. To let the past be the past. And now that I’m here...I want you. I want us. I want you to take me inside. To touch me. To prove how right we can be together, instead of how wrong. But if you’re not ready...” Her voice trailed.
“Char –”
She forced a bright smile that cut him off, the one word telling her all she needed to know. “It’s okay. I will wait. I don’t have much choice.”
Triaten slapped the face again, hitting cheekbone and sending blood droplets flying across the room. This was way easier than going up to the ranch. He wasn’t quite sure how he was going to face Shiv at the moment — hell — he didn’t even want to be in his own mind right now.
So instead, he bent down, his face in front of the one eyeball that wasn’t forced shut under a bloody, swollen mess of skin. “It’s time, DeLisio. This can go on all day. Or you can tell me what Genevieve knew about the attacks in Africa. What you knew.”
DeLisio spit blood out of his mouth, just missing Triaten’s chest. The spray splattered onto his lap, leaving a string of spittle left dangling down his chin.
Triaten glanced up at Aiden, leaning against the wall, and then back down at DeLisio, tied to the chair in front of him. Edmund, hands clasped under his chin per usual, sat in a chair at the corner opposite Aiden. Edmund was the one elder that rarely missed an interrogation. They’d been at this for two hours, and Triaten was getting annoyed. He almost always had more patience than Aiden did for this work, but he realized from Aiden’s casual stance, that he himself was suddenly the impatient one. And it annoyed him even further.
He reached out and wrapped his fingers around DeLisio’s throat. “She knew what was going to happen. Which means that you did too.” His tightened the clamp against DeLisio’s throbbing vein. “Thousands died, DeLisio. Thousands. And you are going to pay for those lives one way or another.”
Aiden cleared his throat, and Triaten released his grip. DeLisio’s head dropped to the side. Triaten straightened, stood for a moment looking down at the still form, and then he gave DeLisio’s cheek a slap. DeLisio’s eye opened.
His look focused on Triaten. “It doesn’t matter anymore. It doesn’t matter now that she’s gone.” DeLisio’s words tumbled out low, jumbled from the broken jaw.
“What doesn’t matter now that she’s gone?”
DeLisio shook his head. A powerful man, beaten. “She was going to give me the one thing I could never have.”
Triaten crossed his arms across his chest. “What’s the one thing? What does a billionaire need?”
“All this money. And I’m still going to die.” His one open eyeball traced up to Triaten’s face. “She was going to make me immortal.”
“Immortal? What do you mean? What did you think she could do to you?”
DeLisio took a dramatic sigh.
“Start talking.” Triaten demanded.
“It wasn’t me, but it was to be my legacy. It was the child she was carrying. My child. My son was to be a god.”
Aiden’s eyebrow rose, but he remained leaning against the wall.
“What the hell are you talking about, DeLisio?”
“You may be older than me, but you are a boy,” DeLisio spat out. “You do not understand what getting old does. How you have to grab. Grab at anything that will help you hold on. Grab at anything that will make you live beyond your grave. And I’m getting old, so what is my legacy? If I’m going to die, what do I leave?”
“And you think your child will be a god?” Triaten questioned. “That’s the ultimate goal for you? How do you think that’s going to happen?”
DeLisio coughed, and more blood snot dripped down his chin. “I know all about your kind. Panthenites.” He spit the word out in disgust. “Genevieve was Malefic. Our child would have been Malefic. And there are Malefics all around the world that think it’s time to put the god back into the species.”
“Put the god back in the species? What is that supposed to mean?”
“Why do you think they coordinated attacks, boy? For fun? Killed thousands for no reason? They’re not that stupid. They’re taking control. Killing as many as they can. Every death they dole out is worth a thousand times the destruction in fear created. The fear becomes exponential. And fear is what makes gods. It’s what makes power. It always has been.”
Triaten took a step back from DeLisio, horrified and not bothering to hide it. “The Malefics want to be worshipped as gods again?”
“They haven’t been successful at destroying mankind, so they’re trying a new tactic — going back to the old ways.”
“One where they’re gods?
DeLisio chuckled through a cough. “And there are plenty of Panthenites that want that same thing.”
“No.”
“Don’t be ignorant, boy. We are all wired to want control. Man, Malefic, Panthenite. All of us. And expand that power. We get some, we want more. So why not make the Panthenites and Malefics into gods once more? Why not have man serve you again? And why would I not want a piece of that?”
“What Panthenites? Who?” Triaten held his fist tight to his thigh, somehow managing not to beat DeLisio even further.
DeLisio laughed again and shook his head.
Triaten advanced at him, punching his good eye. DeLisio’s head snapped back, then fell off to the side. A whimpered groan gave evidence he remained conscious.
Triaten gripped his grey hair, lifting his head up. “Which Panthenites? Give me names, DeLisio. Now.”
A half-smile curved into DeLisio’s mangled cheek. “Take a look around, boy. Who’s not in the room?”
Triaten looked up, meeting Aiden’s eyes, and then Edmund’s. Beyond those two, the room was empty. He shoved DeLisio’s head as he released his grip.
He strode over to the door and flung it open, looking up and down the hallway just outside the back room. Aiden followed at his heels.
Triaten went to the adjacent rooms, opening and closing doors as he checked in them. There were a set of six back rooms behind the main parlor in Hotel Auric. The rooms were all used by the Panthenites for purposes such as this. Triaten ducked into one last door, the one that led to the main parlor, and then came back to the center of the hallway where Aiden was waiting.
“He’s not here?” Aiden asked.
Triaten shook his head.
Edmund stepped out of DeLisio’s room and shuffled over to the two. “Horace is gone, isn’t he?”
“It doesn’t mean a thing, Edmund,” Aiden reasoned.
“Doesn’t it? I had suspected something. He has wanted more power for too long. And now there’s proof.” He focused on Triaten. “Your father is playing for the wrong side, Triaten. And you will have to admit it and renounce him.”
Triaten’s jaw set hard as he shook his head. “I don’t believe you, Edmund. Nor do I believe DeLisio. Horace wouldn’t join forces with the Malefics. Not after everything he has done — has helped to build with the Panthenites. Not after he helped save our species from extinction.”
Splotches of red dotted Edmund’s face as his voice turned harsh. “You don’t believe he’s involved, or is it that you don’t want to believe me? Don’t you forget that I saved the Panthenites as well. I’m not about to let Horace take anything over.”
Triaten’s eyes narrowed at Edmund. “And maybe that’s why you’re so quick to blame him, Edmund.”
“Do you have any other reason for why your father slipped out?”
Triaten’s lips tightened. “I will find him. There is a reason for this.”
~~~
“Cronus.”
Skye jumped as the word was whispered into her ear. She looked up to see Helen next to her. “I’m sorry?”
Helen looked down her bird-nose at Skye as she sidled up next to her, slipping onto a tall, black-leather chair adjacent to Skye’s. Helen leaned back in the chair as though walking over to the bar was exhausting. Skye became immediately uncomfortable. The leather and gold surrounding her in the Panthenite parlor at Hotel Auric made her uneasy, even sitting at the bar. And now Helen’s presence. There were a million places she could have waited, and how she let Aiden leave her stranded here, she didn’t know.
It had been hours since Aiden and Triaten had disappeared out through a back door in the parlor. Aiden insisted this was the safest place for her to wait. And for whatever reason, Aiden didn’t want her to have anything to do with what they had vanished to do. More secrets.
She was longing for the warm comfort of Joe’s, nursing a tumbler of neat scotch, when Helen had suddenly appeared. Skye’s stomach churned.
“Cronus.” Helen repeated. “That’s your lineage. We never bothered to track your mother’s lineage, because her powers were so weak, as were her mother’s. It’s why we never slated her for breeding. I am actually befuddled that any power made it through to you.”
Skye looked at the elderly Panthenite like she was talking Latin. She didn’t have a clue what Helen was telling her. “What is Cronus?”
An idiot-look shot out of Helen’s eyes at Skye. “It is not a ‘what.’ It is a ‘who’ is Cronus.”
“Okay,” Skye said slowly. She wasn’t looking to get a verbal beat-down by Helen, but she did want this conversation to end as quickly as possible. She looked over her shoulder at the door Aiden had left through. Still no sign of him, and all she wanted after the battle in Africa, and the plane ride back, was a hot bath and to curl up on Aiden’s bare chest. And to talk to Shiv. Skye took a deep breath. “So, who is Cronus?”
“You really know so little, don’t you.” A reprimand, not a question. Helen’s eyes narrowed at her. “You’re a descendent of Cronus, an original Panthenite. Cronus controlled time. It was one of the original powers.”
“So I have an original power?”
“Don’t get vain. It is too soon to tell. But you do have the closest thing I have ever seen to an original power. In the timeline of the Panthenites, original powers were lost. They morphed, they combined, but they are never as pure as they were when the original Panthenites had them.”
Skye took a drink of her scotch. “Interesting.” She managed the word when Helen paused, waiting for a response. Skye squelched the urge to mutter “so I have an original power, so what?” Clearly this meant a lot to Helen, even if it didn’t to Skye.
Helen looked even further down her nose at Skye. Skye had forgotten Helen was a mind reader. She hoped Helen missed what she was just thinking.
“Here is why you need to care, chit.”
Okay, Skye thought, so she did just catch that thought.
Helen continued. “There have been instances, where lost original powers have resurfaced, pure in their form. It has happened before major battles between good and evil. Only a few times in history. Before my time. When they have surfaced, they have coincided with the flame moons.”
“So if it’s true that I have this original power, then yay — good for the good guys?”
Helen shook her head. “It is not that easy. History tells us that both sides gain an original power.”
Skye closed her eyes with a sigh. She was so tired of being a Panthenite, and she’d only been one for a few months. “Of course. So there’s a Malefic out there with an original power too — one of them can also change time?”
“The Malefic won’t have your same power. Something different, but just as powerful because it’s true to its origins.”
Skye rubbed her forehead. “So why are telling me this?” She looked over her shoulder, scanning the room. Her eyes landed on Helen. “Edmund and Horace aren’t in the room. So I’m guessing the sharing of this information isn’t sanctioned by them?”
“No, it isn’t. I think you have a right to know. That is all.”
Helen abruptly stood. That was all she was going to say. With a curt nod to Skye, she turned and left the bar area.
Just as Helen took her leave and Skye swallowed the rest of her scotch, the back door opened and Aiden and Triaten stepped through. The presence of the two of them managed to fill the enormous room. Triaten didn’t stop; he walked across and out the main parlor door. Aiden veered over to Skye at the bar.
He grabbed her hand and slid her off the tall chair. “I know you want to stay on the mountain for spell, but we’re on the move again.”
Skye groaned. “Really? We can’t stay for a day?”
He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “Last one was for Charlotte. This one is for Triaten. We have time to stop at home, shower, and for you to say hi to Shiv.”
Triaten stepped through the back kitchen door of the ranch, the mid-day sun on his back. At the counter next to the stove, Stewart sliced carrots in rhythm to the classical music piping out of hidden speakers. He glanced over his shoulder at Triaten, giving him a nod.
“Shiv?” Triaten asked.
“On the river trail with Rafe, I believe. I usually ask her where she’s headed to, just in case.”
Triaten acknowledged with a tilt of his head. “Thanks.”
Even though he already paid him handsomely, Triaten made a mental note to raise Stewart’s salary. He was discrete, a fantastic chef, and he kept the place running better than Triaten ever could.
Triaten took off through the house, stopping at the library. A slow whistle escaped as he took in the mosaic. Shiv had completed the main figures and was now just working on the outer landscaping of the scene, where the smaller tiles were to trail into the larger ones that would cover the remainder of the floor.
Triaten had seen enough of what the world had to offer in this art medium, to recognize that what he was looking at was on par with masterpieces. He wondered if Shiv had any clue she was this talented.
He went out the front door and jogged over to the main river trail. His pace didn’t slow once on the path, easily leaping over boulders and roots as he took on the incline of the route. Within fifteen minutes, he knew that Rafe could sense him on the trail, for he could hear the dog punctuating the air with warning barks. A minute passed before Rafe caught his scent, and the barking stopped. The dog soon burst through the trail at him, tail wagging furiously.
Triaten caught his ears and rubbed his head as Rafe jumped, his front paws landing on Triaten’s chest.
“Hey boy, where’s Shiv?”
Rafe’s paws dropped to the ground and he took off up the trail, Triaten close behind.
Shiv’s voice echoed in the woods, calling for Rafe. In moments, she came into view from around a bend in the trail. Her eyes lit up like fireworks when she saw Rafe was trailed by Triaten. She didn’t slow her pace, instead, ran full force down the trail right at Triaten.
With a huge smile and laugh, she leapt, full force, onto Triaten’s body, sending him steps backward. But he managed to maintain his balance.
Laughing at her enthusiasm, he swung her to the ground.
“You are so much better than the bear I thought I was going to find.” Her cheeks glowed red from the cold, the running, or the grin that spread full width across her face. Her hair was in two low braids that came forward over her shoulders, entwined with the white ear buds that dangled onto her chest. She grabbed a hold of his upper arm with both hands.
“So tell me you’re actually back for a spell — as much fun as Stewart can be, he goes to bed early and gets up early, and, well let’s just say, he isn’t you in so many ways.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to be a big disappointment for you.”
“Ugh, really?”
Triaten’s smile faded. “Sorry, love. It’s why I’m up here on the trail looking for you. Were you headed down?”
“I am now — especially if it’s all the time I have to say hi to you.”
Triaten inclined his head. “Let’s walk.”
Rafe jumped ahead of them, trotting along, stopping every few feet for some underbrush sniffing. They walked a stretch, Shiv’s feet occasionally slipping on slick wet leaves. Her arm, firmly wrapped around Triaten’s arm, kept her upright.
“Are Skye and Aiden back as well?”
“Yes. They’re cleaning up at their house right now. I imagine they’ll be up in short order.”
She nodded. “And you’re headed out again? How long this time?”
“Couple days, I imagine.” Triaten shrugged.
A frown flashed across Shiv’s face, but it was almost immediately replaced by a bright smile. “Did you see the mosaic?”
“I did. It’s fantastic and you’re almost done, it looks like.”
“Yes, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were making up reasons to be gone so I’d keep working at it. I think I’ll be pretty bored when that thing is done.”
They walked a few more steps in silence before Triaten took a deep breath and dove into the real reason he needed to find Shiv.
“I have to tell you something, Shiv.”
She stopped walking and dropped her hands from Triaten’s arm. Her smile faded. “Is this when the shoe drops?”
“I have to tell you where we went — Skye, Aiden and I.”
Suspicion crept onto her face. “Why? You haven’t really told me anything of where you go or what you do. So why now?”
“We had to go help Charlotte.”
“Charlotte — the Charlotte that broke your heart?”
“Yes. She was in trouble. And she came back with us. She’s in town.”
Shiv’s eyes shot to the ground and her head bobbed slowly as she digested the news. “So this means...” she looked up at Triaten, “this means what?”
Triaten sighed. He honestly didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? The woman you said you were deeply in love with is back, minutes away from you, and you don’t know what it means? Don’t you want her?”
Triaten hesitated. “I do. It’s just not as easy as that.”
“Why not? She doesn’t want you? You don’t want her?”
“No, that’s not it. I haven’t stopped loving her. I tried. But it didn’t take.”
Shiv’s hand flew up, palm stopping Triaten. “I get it, Triaten. She’s back. She’s special. You don’t have to say anymore.”
Shiv turned from him and started down the trail.
“Stop, Shiv.” Triaten’s hand shot out, grabbing her arm and pulling her back toward him. His hand went under her chin, tilting her eyes up to his. “You don’t think you’re special?”
His knuckles brushed her cheek. “Why do you think I’m here?’
She grabbed his wrist, stopping the movement. “No matter what you say, I’m not special enough for you to not mention Charlotte being back. That tells me more than anything, Triaten.”
Triaten’s hand fell to his side. “I don’t know what to tell you, Shiv.”
“You don’t need to tell me anything, Triaten.” Her arms crossed against her chest, and she looked down, kicking a small rock with her toe. “We never promised each other anything.”
His hand went to shoulder, but she pulled it away from him. “I know it’s not fair to you that I don’t have it figured out, Shiv. And I have to figure it out. But first I have to go away for a few days. I have to go away for reasons that don’t have anything to do with you, or Charlotte.”
Her eyes darted up to him. “Why? Who do you need to save now?”
“My father.”
~~~
A quick shower, clean clothes, and gear packed in the back of the jeep, and Triaten barreled down the mountain, taking the odometer down only a notch as he went through Brigton. Summer traffic was long gone, and the main street was empty. So when Charlotte stepped out in front of the jeep at Joe’s, tires squealed as Triaten jerked to avoid hitting her.
Coming to a quick stop, the jeep angled across the road, right at Charlotte’s feet. Triaten swore as Charlotte ran to the passenger side of the vehicle. He rolled down the window.
“Really, Char? Was that necessary?”
She smiled at him, charm oozing as she leaned in the window. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss me.”
“I almost plowed you over, was that what you were hoping for?”
“No. I was hoping you would be driving at a normal speed for town and come to a gentle stop right in front of me. That didn’t happen.”
“No. Not so much.” Triaten rubbed the back of his neck. He was tired. “What do you want, Charlotte?”
“Aiden told me what happened at the hotel and where you’re headed. If you’re going to find your father, I’m coming with.”
“No.”
“Yes. You don’t need to admit it. And you don’t have to want it. But you do need me with you on this one. This is your father.” Her tone left little room to argue.
Triaten’s hands gripped the steering wheel, knuckles turning white. He didn’t look at Charlotte, eyes trained instead, on the road in front of him.
“I’m not letting you do this one on your own, Triaten. Whatever goes down with him, I’m going to be there. I’m coming with. This doesn’t have anything to do with us. This is about our hundred years of friendship. No pressure. No strings. I promise.”
Moments ticked past before Triaten leaned over with a sigh, and silently opened the door for her. Charlotte turned and ran back to Joe’s to pick up the long black bag that leaned against the building. She tossed it into the back of the jeep and then jumped into the passenger seat.
“Aiden said they’d be following after they went up to the ranch so Skye could see Shiv.” She pulled her seatbelt on. “He figured they would be a few hours behind.”
Triaten nodded, his voice gruff. “Good. Shiv could use the visit.”
Charlotte leaned back in the seat. “So where is Horace? We need to call Aiden and tell him where we’re headed.”
“Not sure. But I imagine he’s where he usually goes for any dirty dealings — the Badlands. If he’s up to anything, he’s doing it from there. I’ll call the possible hotels on the way to confirm he’s checked in.”
~~~
Driving fast, the location in the Badlands they were headed to was a half-day’s drive from the mountain. They could have gotten there quicker via helicopter, but Triaten didn’t want the rest of the elders to know where he was headed to.
For the first three of those hours, Charlotte bit her tongue and chastised herself for promising no strings. She wanted — needed — those strings. So they rode in silence. Nothing but her own mind to make her crazy.
Triaten made no effort to engage her.
The sun set, and it wasn’t until they crossed into the grasslands separating the mountain range from the deep hills of the Badlands, that Charlotte could stand the silence no more. She was starting to get fidgety, and her chest was growing tighter and tighter — being this close to Triaten, coupled with not having a clue as to how to bridge the gaping wound between them — and she was broaching panic level. She had hoped for at least light banter between them. Not this weight of grim quiet.
She didn’t want to have to resort to sitting on her hands to keep them still, so she turned in her seat, rummaging through her bag in the back. Finding the bag of clementines she was searching for, she sat back down, drawing her left leg to a fold underneath her right thigh.
“Clementine?” She offered as she tore open the bag netting, fingers happy to be busy.
No response.
She focused on Triaten’s profile. His eyes didn’t twitch away from the dark road in front of them. Now he wasn’t even going to converse about an orange. Charlotte bit her lip, then jumped.
“I know I said I would give you time to figure all this out, Tri. But, dammit, I don’t want to.”
“You promised no strings, Charlotte. And what you’re talking about is a string.” His voice was casual, even if his words were not.
“I know. I thought I could be patient. But I was wrong.” She leaned her head against the headrest, her eyes not moving from him. Her nail broke the skin of the orange, and she peeled a long strip.
“We wouldn’t be in this spot right now if my mind had caught up to my heart. If I had stayed, things would be different,” she said, resigned. “You wouldn’t have gotten...‘involved’ with Shiv.”
Triaten’s thumbnail started to dig into the leather on the wheel. “Whatever is going on between us, Charlotte, we’re leaving Shiv out of it. She is not part of this conversation.”
“How can you say that, Triaten? How can she not be a part of the conversation?”
“You — me — we’re the responsible parties in this.” He shook his head to emphasize. “She’s an innocent bystander that just got blindsided by this drama. What I just had to tell her — she deserves better.”
“Shiv may be innocent, but right now, she’s a pretty big obstacle for me. For us.”
“And still innocent. And still a good person.” He ran a hand through his dark hair with a sigh. The dashboard lights lit the exasperation on his face. “Really Charlotte, you need to stop this. You were the one that made the choice to leave. You were the one that couldn’t wrap your head around the possibility of us. I was there. You were not.”
Charlotte wasn’t about to stop. “What did you expect, Triaten? After all those years on the mountain, that I was suddenly supposed to throw a switch? A switch that made me believe you could love me like that? You were in and out of our lives, Triaten. In and out.”
“You want to chastise me for continuing our work? For saving innocent lives? It was the work both you and Aiden abandoned.”
Charlotte’s leg slipped out from under her, and she turned away from Triaten to stare out the window. Her teeth worked over her lip as she mindlessly spun the half-peeled orange in her hand. Stars dotted her slight reflection in the dark window.
It was always his excuse. The work. The innocent lives. She had no argument against it. She couldn’t. Mind and heart racing in conjunction, she looked past her reflection, concentrating on the stars shining in the night sky, holding steady above her. Minutes passed.
When she spoke again, her voice was a low mumble. “We abandoned the work, and you abandoned me.” It was said softly enough, to have no real intention of being heard.
But Triaten heard her. “I abandoned you? When?”
Her head slowly shook. She didn’t want to go into the past. It was the past that kept getting her in trouble.
“When, Charlotte?”
She kept her face to the window, chest still on fire, throat closed against this topic. She swallowed down the choke.
“Charlotte, when?”
He wasn’t giving up on it. Dammit. Why was she in this jeep with him? Captive, she couldn’t just walk away from this.
Charlotte dug her finger into the juice of the orange, wedging out a slice. She popped it into her mouth, hoping it would take the rock in her throat down with it. The stars glowed brighter. It was time to tell him. But she wasn’t going to look at him.
“After Thomas died. I needed you. I needed both you and Aiden. And you were gone. You weren’t there for me when I needed you most.”
“It was twenty years ago, Charlotte.”
Her head swung to him. “Twenty years is like a month to us. And I couldn’t — can’t — just forget that you weren’t there when I was at my lowest. What you wanted from me — that you wanted us to be together — you were asking me to trust that you’ll be around. Be there for me. And Triaten, you failed me once on that accord.”
The words settled into the air around them. So that was the crux of it. Trust.
Triaten’s voice took on a decidedly softer tone. “Char, we’ve been over this a hundred times. Aiden out of the field meant there was a huge hole that had to be filled. I was all over the world — you knew what I was doing.”
She shifted her focus back to the black window. She’d heard this too many times. “We’ve been over it a hundred times, because every time I talked to you back then — every time — I asked you to come home. And you never did.”
The horror of those days after Thomas died washed over her. She didn’t want to go back there, and she had accidentally just opened the door. The shell that she was. The time and again Aiden had to save her from herself. Aiden had done what was needed. Showed up every day. Let her rail at him. Started a clinic in town for her, so she would have something to do, somewhere to go. A routine. But it had never been complete healing. She had become a peaceful, gaping wound. But a gaping wound, nonetheless.
Charlotte drew a shaky breath. “I knew what you were doing, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t need you, Tri. Aiden was there — he was a lifeline — but I needed a buoy. I needed you, Triaten. I needed you.”
They drove on in silence, the two lane road stretching out painfully long in front of them. Their headlights bounced off the pitted pavement.
Minutes passed, and Triaten cleared his throat. “Char, did you ever stop to wonder why it was Aiden that came back to be with you after Thomas died? Why it was him that you got engaged to?”
Charlotte didn’t turn from the blackness her eyes were fixated on. “No. Not really — I didn’t have my head about me. But I was a mess and Aiden could barely get me out of bed.”
“You never questioned why it wasn’t me that you got engaged too? Why it was with Aiden?”
“What are you talking about, Triaten?” She was curious, but still had no desire to look at him.
Triaten slowed the jeep, coming to a stop in the middle of the road. They hadn’t seen any traffic for hours, so he didn’t bother to pull off to the side of the road. He threw the jeep in park. Charlotte could feel him turn to her, could feel his intensity aimed at her back.
His hands slipped through the curled tips of her blond hair hanging over her shoulder. His fingers settled into the indent along her collar bone.
“Charlotte, look at me.”
Time ticked by until she took an engulfing breath and shifted her head to him.
“I’m talking about when Aiden and I decided it was a good idea to set up a fake engagement to get the elders off your back. We knew all about the pressure they bombarded you with after Thomas died. We know they didn’t even wait a day to send the procreation request to your door. So when we concocted the engagement farce to get them to leave you alone, at first, it was supposed to be me you would get engage to.”
Her brows collapsed together in confusion. “It was you?”
His hand slipped from her shoulder as he paused. “Yes, but truth told, Char, I didn’t want it to be me. That’s why I convinced Aiden to do it, to come back for you. It didn’t take much convincing — it was you, after all, and he was looking for a way out — he had enough of the killings.”
“Why didn’t you want it to be you?”
“I always told myself it was because I was afraid I couldn’t protect you against the elder’s demands like Aiden could — they weren’t going to cross him. And we couldn’t take the chance they would force breeding on you.”
Charlotte hid her wince at his words of breeding.
Triaten shrugged. “And that part was true. But beyond that, something has become clear in retrospect. I wasn’t going to be your rebound. I didn’t want to be the consolation prize in your life. The twenty-year ongoing engagement, the perpetual state of peace you were living in. No demands on your life. No passion. It was what you needed. But I didn’t want it to be with me.”
Triaten shook his head with clarity. “God, Char, even then, I wanted you. But not peaceful you. I wanted the Char that was full of life. Who could lead a contingent into battle with ease. The Char that didn’t blink. Didn’t back down. Wasn’t happy with the status quo. The Char that wanted — needed to make the world a better place. That’s the Char I wanted. Not the one that ignored the world. Ignored everything except what happened on that mountain. Which, for twenty years, was a whole lot of nothing. You lost that light in your eyes, Char.”
Charlotte stared at the dash in front of her, not looking at Triaten. She had known she was a shell. But she had also thought she hid it well. Apparently not. At least not to Triaten.
“And then Skye came along.” Her voice was small.
“Yes, Skye came along. And it blew up everything. And it moved you off the toadstool you were sitting on. And we ended up where we were always meant to be — in each other’s arms. Or so I thought.” His words ended bitterly.
She dropped the orange on her lap and grabbed his bare forearm. “Triaten. My head was not right. Aiden and I had just broken the engagement, the elders were hounding me again, Aiden was hell-bent on killing himself and dragging you along with him, and everything was so out-of-control...” Her nails dug into his skin. “I didn’t know — ”
“Char, do you know it tore my heart out to realize you were using me?” He removed her grasp from his arm, setting her hand onto the seat. “That you didn’t care that it was me who was holding you. Pleasuring you.”
Tears were immediate, and slid down Charlotte’s cheeks. The pain she had caused him was now her own. But she forced herself to look up at Triaten and meet his gaze. “I didn’t know, Triaten. I didn’t know that us being together would mean anything to you.”
She ignored the fact that he had just removed her touch from his body, and her hand went to his knee, this time, gripping. “But I know now. And Tri, we could be everything. Together.”
Triaten shook his head. “Except now, Shiv is in the picture.”
A gut punch. Stunned, Charlotte nodded, resigned, and her hand slipped from his leg. She leaned heavily back into the car seat, defeat slumping her shoulders.
She quickly wiped the tears off her cheeks as Triaten put the jeep into drive, and continued down the desolate road.
The lounge they were killing time in wasn’t just seventies-inspired, it was authentically-aged, and the melded smells collected over the decades — smoke, beer, and all manners of liquids spilled into the worn red carpet — were evidence of the grueling years.
An old neon sign flickered on a far gold lamé wallpapered wall. “Butternut Lounge,” it touted in an elaborate cursive font. The “ernut” in the sign had gone black long ago. Someone continued to plug the sign in every day, showcasing either sad humor, or a stubbornness against letting go of the past. Jazz music piped out from large speakers lining the empty stage at the front of the lounge.
That the hotel and connected lounge even remained open after all the years was testament to the lack of options in the small town Triaten and Charlotte had parked themselves. It was the most discrete choice in the sixty-mile area, and Triaten had covered his bases. A town and a city away, front desk clerks and doormen were paid-off and under strict instructions to alert Triaten if his father left the hotel he had checked into.
This was where Horace did business away from the eyes of the other elders. Whether it was various private investments, or the human wife and half-breed son he once kept in the area, the elders didn’t know about this place. Horace always made sure he took at least two un-connected legs of flight en route to cover his tracks.
But Triaten knew about the place. And he also knew this is exactly where Horace would go if he really was dealing with the Malefics responsible for the latest atrocity in Africa. The total dead now numbered more than seven thousand at the vulnerable refugee camps the Panthenites didn’t have capacity to defend. That the total could have been twenty times that, had Skye not been able to send time back, made Triaten’s gut harden. If his father had anything to do with the attacks...Triaten didn’t even want to entertain the possibility and its repercussions. But here he was, nonetheless, waiting.
Hours passed before Aiden and Skye stepped into Butternut Lounge, only to be greeted by an odd sight and an odd sound. Dead air.
It was atypical that Triaten and Charlotte were in a room together, and there wasn’t a bubble of effortless energy that filled the room.
The stale air surrounded the four people, plus a bartender, in front of Aiden and Skye. An elderly couple sat across from each other in a half-circle booth in the middle of the room, full meals in front of them. They chewed their food so thoroughly; it overrode any conversation between the wrinkled faces. To the left of them, Charlotte sat at the bar, her chin resting on her hand, fingers tapping her cheekbone as she fiddled with the drink in front of her. The bartender hunkered over a newspaper at the end of the bar.
Across the room, to the right of the elderly couple eating, Triaten aimlessly walked around the lone pool table, cue in hand. Occasionally, he would bend over to knock a ball — but not into a pocket. Instead, he would send a ball bouncing around the table, bumper to bumper, staring at it until it rolled to a slow stop.
Skye glanced at Aiden, eyes raised and forehead crinkled in question.
He gave her a look back that said, I have no idea, as he shook his head. He watched Charlotte and Triaten at opposite ends of the room for another minute, and then leaned down to Skye’s ear. “Those two made us. I think it’s time for some payback. I take Triaten, you take Charlotte?”
Skye nodded with a whisper back. “I’ll give it a go. That must have been some car ride up here between the two of them.”
They split.
Skye slid onto a bar stool next to Charlotte.
“That is quite the shoulder slump you have going on there, my friend.”
Charlotte’s head jerked up at Skye’s voice. But her red-rimmed eyes trailed slowly from her drink to Skye’s face. She looked over her shoulder to locate Aiden, and turned back to Skye. A half-hearted smile was all Charlotte could conjure. “You guys are here. Good.”
Skye looked at the drink in front of Charlotte and back to her sad eyes. “How long have you two been here? I didn’t think we were that far behind.”
“Few hours.”
“And you two have been at opposite sides of this room the whole time?”
Charlotte didn’t even glance over her shoulder at Triaten. “We ate. In silence. Like them.” She pointed with her thumb at the couple eating. She shrugged. “And we’ve been like this ever since.”
“If it’s any consolation, he looks worse than you.”
Her eyes went sharply to Skye. “It’s not.” Then she forced her face to soften with a deep breath. “How did it go with Shiv? Aiden said you were going up to the ranch before you followed.”
It was Skye’s turn to shrug and avoid. The bartender was just walking back from delivering a beer to Aiden, so she motioned him over and ordered a gin and tonic. Drink delivered, Skye took a long sip, then answered, her gaze focused at the glazed mirror behind the bar. “It was a short conversation. It didn’t go well. She was already upset about Triaten.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve thrown everything into such a mess. I know how much you want to connect with your sister.”
Skye shook her head. “She’s angry at me. And that’s no one’s fault except my own. I just have to keep trying. I got through to her once — but it was erased by the time shift — so I can do it again. It just makes it hard seeing her, knowing we were back to good, and I remember it and she doesn’t.”
She took another sip of her drink. “But it gives me faith, and makes it easier to take all the anger she’s throwing at me.”
“I envy you, your faith.” Charlotte studied Skye while twirling the straw leaning in her glass. “Mine has been all over the place as of late.”
A smile broke Skye’s face. “Faith is easy when you come from nothing like I did — you three — you, Aiden, Triaten, gave me a home, a family, a real life. It was all I never knew I needed. So the faith part with Shiv — that comes easily. If I’ve learned anything these past months, it’s that life can change incredibly fast.”
A wry chuckle escaped Charlotte. “Skye, you are either the best thing to ever happen to me, or the worst.”
“Really?” Skye asked, perplexed. “Well, I like the ‘best thing’ part, but not the ‘worst’ — but what do I have to do with either?”
“You plopped from nowhere into our lives.” Charlotte swung her hand in the air for effect. “Took Aiden and the easy peace that I was living in away. Believe me, I don’t begrudge you any of that. You and Aiden are a force all your own. But it ended those twenty years of solid, unremarkable peace.”
With an exasperated sigh, Charlotte’s hands smoothed back her hair into a ponytail that she twisted into a knot. It almost immediately fell loose and hung down, twirled, in front of her shoulder. She ignored it as she looked at Skye. “It’s a tailspin we’ve all been in. And while it has turned out relatively well for you and Aiden, for me…well, you’ve seen how this has turned out. I just don’t know yet if all of this is bringing me to good or to bad. Whether or not I’m going to be included in the sort of happiness that has come to you and Aiden.”
“Arrrgh,” Charlotte laid her head down, hiding her face on her crossed forearms on the bar, “I’m sorry I’m so depressing. I don’t want to bring you into this,” she said into her arms.
Skye put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It is what it is. This isn’t easy for anybody, and –”
Charlotte jolted upright, interrupting her friend when Skye’s fingers touched the scar on the back of Charlotte’s neck.
“What is that?” Skye asked. “I’ve never noticed that — is it a tattoo?”
Charlotte’s hand went to her neck, covering the skin. She avoided Skye’s eyes. “It’s a brand.”
“What? Let me see.” Skye pulled Charlotte’s hand away, looking closely at the back of her neck. Following the top of her spine downward, about a finger-length long, the skin was raised, white, like a scar, but in a very specific pattern. A triple infinity pattern. It was easy to confuse it for a tattoo, as the lines had a certain beauty about them.
Skye was thoroughly confused. “A brand — like a hot-iron branding?”
“Yes.”
“Like what they do to cows?”
“Yes.”
Dread spread across Skye’s face. “Do I even want to know?”
Charlotte bit her lip in memory of deeds done long ago. She shrugged as she pushed the straw aside and took a sip of her drink, now water-downed. “They did it when I was a baby — they didn’t want to confuse me with the other abandoned babies — the weak ones.”
“The elders?” Horror crossed Skye’s face.
Charlotte nodded. “I am most useful to them as a breeder. They want my lineage to continue. So they made sure they could identify me.”
“My god — branding a baby — they know no bounds.” Shaking her head in shame, anger laced Skye’s words. “Why weren’t Aiden and Triaten branded?”
“Well,” Charlotte gave a wry chuckle, “Aiden was always huge — there was no mistaking him. And Triaten was Horace’s son, and wouldn’t allow it. Triaten was the one offspring he actually kept close track of — the chosen one, the one he considers his only true son — so he kept him with him.”
Skye leaned back on the barstool, still processing the origin of Charlotte’s scar. “I swear, every time I start to think the elders maybe aren’t so bad, I get a wake-up call.”
Charlotte pushed the twisted hair back behind her head, smoothing the strands over her neck. “Are they bad? I’ve honestly lived with their craziness so long, that I can’t identify it as crazy, I guess. Maybe that’s my trouble. I can’t identify my own crazy.”
Skye was quick to shake her head. “You, my friend, are the farthest thing from crazy. You may be in a bad patch right now, but crazy, you are not.”
“I’m glad that you think so. I’m not so sure Tri would agree with you.” For the first time, Charlotte looked over her shoulder and stared hard at Triaten. He was engaged in what looked like a serious conversation with Aiden.
“I know I’m pushing him. I thought I could wait for him, but I can’t.” She looked back at Skye. “I gave up Aiden so easily because I saw how good you were for him. But Triaten…I don’t think I can.”
Skye paused, words considered and slow. “Are you looking for encouragement, or are you asking for my permission, Charlotte? I love you dearly, but Shiv’s my sister — don’t make me choose one of you.”
“It’s not a choice,” Charlotte was emphatic. “It’s what’s best for Triaten. Best for your sister. What sort of life can they have together? She’s human. He’s Panthenite. And he loves me. She is not a part of our world, and being with Triaten is only going to cause her pain.”
Stunned at Charlotte’s sudden vehemence, Skye’s spine straightened as she turned fully on the bar stool and leveled her gaze on her friend. “Charlotte, what is going on with you? This doesn’t sound like you at all. I’ve never known you to manipulate. To decide for others what they need.”
Shock flashed across Charlotte’s face, then flickered away to chagrin. She turned to her drink and fiddled with the napkin underneath, tearing the edges away. “You’re right. That was uncalled for. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to put you in the middle.”
“Charlotte, it’s okay, but I’m just trying to understand. Yes, Shiv is involved with Triaten, and I wish that had never happened — but what is going on with you? Do you remember you once told me you would die for either Aiden or Triaten, you love them that much — but that they were your brothers, you would never have a real relationship with either? What’s changed?”
“Going to call me on that one, are you?” Charlotte sucked in air, and then exhaled it slowly, buying time as she picked her thoughts. “What’s changed? Everything...nothing. It’s been a lot to wrap my own head around.”
She swiveled on her stool and put her elbow on the bar, resting her chin on her palm as she looked at Skye. “It was that night you threw back time, right before the flame moon — do you remember it? That was the night Triaten and I were together the first time. I was beaten down — more than I can ever remember. We were just barely managing to keep Aiden alive, he was so out-of-control.”
Skye winced at the memory, but then nodded Charlotte on.
“We were in some crappy motel room and Aiden was next door, recovering. I was in the bathroom, washing off the blood from the battle that night. Triaten was there, and there was this one moment. He was behind me and was pulling my hair out of my face, putting it into a ponytail. And I looked up at him in the mirror. He stood, half-naked — he had all these cuts and wounds. He bleeds for all of us — me, Aiden, you — without question or judgment or asking for anything. He just does it.”
Charlotte paused, letting the memory wash over. “So he finished tying my hair back, and it was the tiniest of gestures he was doing, but it was the moment.”
“The moment?” Skye asked.
“In that moment, it overtook me. He was it. He was the one thing that I would die without, and he’d been there all along. I knew there was no one that would ever take better care of me than Triaten. No one ever had, or ever will. Everything changed for me in that one moment.”
“Changed how?”
Charlotte fidgeted. “How can I explain this…Everybody, everything lives in compartments in my mind. But in that moment, all the compartments I had always put Triaten in suddenly split and tore, and things in my mind started to bleed into each other. And that’s when it all went so wrong.”
Charlotte’s voice lowered. “When I seduced him, I started it knowing exactly who I was kissing. What I was doing. But Triaten has never loved any woman. And then I got scared. And out of nowhere, I suddenly felt like I was betraying Thomas. So I closed my eyes to all of it, and my mind went very, very, bad. Everything leaked into everything else. Thomas was in it, Triaten was in it. It was bad. All this fear, all this guilt, pureed in my mind. And I messed up. I used Triaten. And then I tried to use him again the night of the flame moon — and he was right to stop it — but I was humiliated.”
“So that’s why you disappeared.” Skye nodded, new understanding dawning. “I thought it odd you left so abruptly.”
“Yes, I know I said it, but I am truly sorry I missed your wedding, by the way. I should have stayed, but the ghosts I had to deal with were not waiting.”
“Wow.” Skye shook her head. “That’s a lot. So where does this leave you two?”
“I don’t know. And it’s driving me nuts. It’s just...being this close to him, and not talking. Not touching. It’s killing me and I’m at a loss as to what is right or wrong. I’ve never been this conflicted. But every instinct is telling me to push it and fight for him.”
“Well, I can’t tell you what to do,” Skye looked over at her husband and Triaten, “or what is right in this situation — I sure don’t know. And I don’t want Shiv to feel an ounce of pain. But I do know that your instincts are rarely wrong. And to be honest, if Triaten was involved with anyone but my sister, I would be telling you to march over to Triaten and make him see — feel — how ready you are for him.”
Charlotte leaned in and grabbed Skye’s forearm. Her voice was laced with desperation. “Skye, I am so scared. He humiliated me once. I’m afraid of what I’ll do — what he’ll do. I can’t go through the humiliation again. I can’t. If I put myself out there for him and he rejects me...”
Skye rubbed the back of Charlotte’s hand. “But you two also can’t stay like this. Opposite ends of the room. No matter what happens, you have Aiden, you have me, and you’ll always have Triaten, maybe just not the way you want.”
Across the room, the conversation was much more direct.
Aiden took a swipe of the beer he had motioned for the bartender to bring. Lukewarm, but serviceable. He had a cue stick in his hand, at least giving parody to the pool Triaten pretended to shoot. “So what’s your plan, Tri?”
“With Horace?”
“No. Your father may be why we’re here, but I could, frankly, care less about him. I’m talking about Charlotte.”
An eyebrow cocked and Triaten glared at Aiden. “Not your business.”
“I’ve heard that several times on this matter, and I’m beginning to believe it. But here I am, nonetheless.” Aiden leaned against the pool table. “Here’s what’s clear. You’re miserable. Charlotte’s miserable. Whatever happened between you two on the way here needs to be resolved. And better to do it before you face your father.”
“There’s not a quick fix for it, Aiden.”
“There, I think you’re wrong. What you want is two women. What you need is Charlotte. And you’re denying that need by throwing Shiv in front of it. That’s not fair to Shiv or Charlotte.”
“And what makes you so convinced I need Charlotte?”
Aiden shrugged. “Charlotte is your constant. She has been since we were five. She makes you laugh like no other. She heals you. She calms you. After everywhere you’ve been in the world, she’s always your home. She not only knows who you are, but what you’re capable of. And she understands you like only a Panthenite could. Do you need more reasons? Because I can keep going.”
Triaten didn’t look up from the stationary ball he stared at. “Charlotte has had the love of her life. There’s no competing with that.”
“I must say, your lack of arrogance on this is astounding, and a refreshing change from your usual character. But let’s explore ‘love of her life.’ That’s a ridiculous cliché. Especially for a Panthenite to utter. How many lives have we already lived over the past one-hundred years? We have centuries, millenniums to go.” Aiden set his beer down and lined up a shot in front of Triaten. A swift crack, and balls went splaying.
He stood up, analyzing Triaten. “And competing? That’s easy. A dead man can’t compete. Plus, you know the capacity Charlotte has in her heart.”
The sound of splintering wood came from Triaten’s cue-stick holding hand. “I won’t have her closing her eyes, imagining I’m Thomas.”
He set the broken stick gently onto the table. Crossing his arms across his chest, he glared at Aiden.
Aiden took the glare in stride. “Well then, it’s simple. You just need to make sure she has no room in her mind, or her heart, for anyone but you. That, I have no doubt, you can make happen. It’s time you got your arrogance back, Triaten.”
Aiden’s eyes met Charlotte’s as she was coming across the lounge. He gave her a short nod, and removed himself from the table.
Charlotte approached Triaten from behind. She saw him break the cue stick, but disregarded it. It wasn’t the first one she’d seen him snap through the years. God, she hoped Skye was right about her instincts. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do if he shut her down again.
Heart in throat, Charlotte reached out and placed her hand as lightly as she could on Triaten’s shoulder. She could see he was glaring at Aiden’s retreating form, and his muscles under her fingertips were so rigid, so tight, she thought they might explode at her touch.
She went to her toes and put her chin on the back of her hand, her lips moving close to Triaten’s ear. “Dance with me,” she whispered.
Triaten’s head shifted slightly to her, not looking at her, but definitely aware of her presence and her request. Several agonizing bars of jazz music passed, as his jaw flexed, and Charlotte held her breath.
No reaction from Triaten. So that was that.
Stunned, Charlotte took a step backward. Just as her hand left his shoulder, Triaten reached up across his chest, grabbing her fingertips.
“Char...stay.”
She froze. He didn’t turn to her, instead, he lifted her hand over his head, to move their joint hands to waist level behind him.
He walked over to the dance floor in front of the empty stage, pulling Charlotte behind him. Then he stopped, and dropped Charlotte’s hand. His chin down, he was still.
Behind him, Charlotte could see in his profile — the profile that she knew better than her own — that his eyes were closed. She also knew this was exactly what he did when he was drawing strength. But for what?
It was that strength, both in body and in mind, that made her burn. Ever since she had gotten her head straight, she couldn’t imagine his face, his body, without wanting him, skin on skin, his hard muscles molding her body. His mind invading hers. She wanted him in absolutely no way like the first time they were together. She wanted him right.
Charlotte fought the need to grab his jaw and turn him to her. Fought the need to find his lips and kiss away all the doubt in his body. To kiss away her own doubt.
The slow beat of the music kept the tempo of her needs in check, so instead, she crawled her left hand onto Triaten’s left shoulder. His muscles tensed under her fingers, and Charlotte stepped in, the front of her body brushing the back of his. She paused, inhaling the sweet, woodsy smell of him through his dark shirt.
Gently, she moved to the right, her hand lingering along his neck, fingers trailing in the wisps of his dark hair, and then onto his other shoulder as she rounded his wide frame. She curled in front of him, watching his closed eyes flicker, his throat swallow, and the deep breath he took when she stopped directly in front of him.
Triaten’s eyes remained closed, arms still at his sides.
Charlotte’s left hand slipped down his right arm, stopping only when she grabbed his wrist, and brought it around her waist. She stepped even tighter into his body. Her hand went back to Triaten’s shoulder, and then inward until her palm and fingers were wrapped solidly around the side of his neck.
With her right hand, she reached down, entwining her fingers into his, and she brought his arm up. Softly, with her hips, she began to sway.
The music didn’t waver, and silently, reluctantly, their bodies began to move in unison.
When Triaten’s eyes finally opened up to her, Charlotte swallowed hard. She wasn’t prepared for the intensity she saw in his dark eyes, the brown giving way to burning black flecks. Whatever happened, there would be no going back from this moment.
Unsure of her own voice, she started, “Tri,” but the word wasn’t audible. She attempted to quiet the frantic beating of her heart.
The second time she tried, her words were soft, but audible. “Tri, I tell you now, my head is aligned with my heart. It is you I want. You I choose. You need to trust that.”
His eyes were riveted on hers, but he didn’t reply. Charlotte was at a loss. Then the hand on her waist slipped to the small of her back, bringing her hips tightly into him. A shiver ran up her spine. It was all the encouragement she needed.
“You said you wanted the old Charlotte back. I’m ready — and I want to be that woman again.” Her fingers gripped the hair at the back of his head. “The time at refugee camp. The massacre. What they did to those babies and children. It all came back to me. What — why — we’ve been fighting all these years. It is who we are. What we were meant to do.”
“But this time,” she swallowed hard, “this time I need to be doing it by your side. There is no other place for me. No other home for me. And unless you tell me to go right now, I will fight for that spot by your side with every breath I take.”
Triaten’s feet came to a stop. His face was stony, hard, and Charlotte’s gut plummeted. She didn’t know what else she could say. She had no more words. She could promise no more.
Then his lips came down on her. He dropped her hand and sank his fingers into the thick of her hair, curving her head, pulling her mouth onto, into his, as he parted her lips. His mouth, his tongue, searched her, looking for truth.
She recognized it immediately, and closed her eyes, surrendering to the intensity, and the demands of Triaten’s kiss. What he needed to feel. Her free hand slipped behind him, moving along the ridges on his back, pulling deep into the muscles, trying to meld her body even closer to his. Her head leaned back, succumbing in body and mind to what Triaten was asking of her. She was willing to give him anything.
His breath plunged into hers, demanding answers. Charlotte acquiesced to his relentless examination, to his hand tilting her head so he could encompass her even deeper. She leaned into him, letting his chest, his hips, surround her. He pulled her ever tighter as his tongue plunged repeatedly, and every time Charlotte thought he would relent, he came in for more.
At the moment Charlotte thought she would pass out from the combined lack of oxygen and rush on her senses, Triaten pulled away, finally satisfied with his search of Charlotte’s soul.
His hand went to her cheek and she leaned into it. His voice was rough. “Char, before I touch you again, and hell, I’d move the moon right now to do it — we need to agree. From this moment on, the past, it’s gone. Whatever I’ve done. Whatever you’ve done. Not forgotten, but gone. We only look forward. It’s what I need from you.”
“And Shiv?”
Regret flashed on his face, but then disappeared as his dark eyes captivated Charlotte. “You’re the one, Char. You always have been.”
His head bowed, the ferocity of his words weighing.
Slowly, his eyes came back up to her, searching. “Forward, Char. It’s what I need.”
Charlotte’s knees almost buckled as she looked into his eyes, captivated by the ferocity that fired deep in his dark eyes. Both of her hands went to his face, palms gripping the rough stubble along his jaw. “You have it. Only forward.”
The shudder of relief that ran through Triaten was visible as he closed his eyes. Charlotte watched emotions flicker across his face, and then with a deep breath, he opened his lashes to her.
“Then god, Charlotte, I am about to touch you.”
Triaten grabbed her hands from his face, and led her out of the now empty lounge — they would have to thank Skye and Aiden for that. A breathless smile broke wide on Charlotte’s face as she trailed him.
The door clicked closed behind them as Triaten stopped in the middle of Charlotte’s room. She kept moving, not wasting a moment as she stepped forward and buried her forehead into the smooth curve between the ridges of muscles on Triaten’s back. His soft shirt did nothing to mask the heat emanating from him. Her hands slid around his waist, taking in his body as she moved them up his chest, landing on the front of his shoulders. She pulled her body into his back as she inhaled. Through her forehead, she could feel his skin pulsate in beat with his heart.
He spun on her, and without hesitation, leaned down to brush his lips lightly on hers. Much too lightly. His hand dove deep into her hair, tilting her head back as he trailed his mouth along her jaw and down her neck. Still with the lightest touch. He paused when his breath reached her ear. “I want this slow, Char — but hell, you taste so good.”
“No one said this had to be slow, or soft Tri.” Her lips found his neck. “I have been imagining this for months, and honestly, you’re going to drive me to pieces if you go any slower, or softer.”
He chuckled into her neck.
She pulled back from him, her eyes twinkling. “You said you wanted the old Charlotte back? Well, you know me better than anyone. How do you think I want this?”
The lascivious smile that curled Triaten’s lip shot electricity down Charlotte’s spine. His hand at the base of her neck took control, pulling her into him, his lips assaulting hers, his teeth pulling, teasing at her mouth. He tilted her head back, so he could trail the same path as earlier along her skin. Only this time, the ferocity with which he invaded her skin, made her desperately grip his neck and bicep, needing solid surfaces to hold her from falling.
Even as Charlotte’s head tipped upward, her hips went forward, drawn to Triaten’s heat. A moan escaped her throat, and Triaten took the opportunity to straighten and pull his shirt over his head. Not a moment passed before his hands were back on Charlotte, wrapped around her hips. His thumbs leading the way, his hands moved up along her bare skin, pushing her silky shirt as he went. Inward at her waist. Outward at her rib cage. His hands paused at her breasts, sliding to her back to unclasp her bra, and then back forward to caress her nipples.
With an impatient breath, he stopped himself, and ripped her shirt up in one quick motion. Her jeans and underwear disappeared under his fingers. There was no more time for clothes. He needed his hands back on her bare skin.
Charlotte moved in on his chest, as his hands moved across her body. She started at the crux of his neck and chest, and at first touch under her mouth, a low groan rumbled against her lips. She circled his chest, moving across the ridges, the tight muscles that she knew coiled impressive power.
Her hands had been over this skin, these muscles, thousands of times, but under her mouth, it was like she had never touched Triaten before. And it made her all the more hungry for his skin under her tongue.
It wasn’t until she was on her knees, circling the skin over his abs, that she bumped into his jeans, and the pulsating hardness underneath them. She had no idea how long she had been reveling in his body, but when she threw her head back to look up at Triaten, it was obvious by his smirk it had been a while. And that he had enjoyed every moment.
“As fun as that was, Char,” he leaned over and wrapped one arm around her naked waist, the other moving to the back of her neck. He lifted her up and set her on his hips. “I’m going to be dead if I’m not in you soon.”
She tightened her legs around his waist and looked down at him. “I was ready for that the second we walked in the door.” She descended on his mouth, parting his lips, and finding the heat, the soul she needed to feel under her.
Triaten carried her over to a waist-high round table, setting her down on the time-scarred wood. Her hands went down, ripping at his jeans, and then slipping over his backside as she sent them to the floor. He pulled her to the edge of the table, even as Charlotte’s legs wrapped back around his waist. Her head was buried in his neck.
“Charlotte, look at me.”
Lips swollen, cheeks flushed, Charlotte watched him, holding Triaten’s gaze with no hesitation. He entered her, filling her fully. Hands on her hips, he started slowly, watching her every movement, adjusting and elongating every moan he elicited from her.
Shuddering as the greedy pangs in her core pulled Triaten deeper into her body, she pushed hard against his hands, pulling at him with her legs, straining for speed. He held her steady, giving to her only in increments what her body wrenched for.
Nails deep into Triaten’s wrists, Charlotte’s head flew back, eyes shut tight in un-quenched agony as her screams grew louder.
Finally, Triaten slid one hand behind her, palm at the base of her spine, hand cupping her curves as he sped up and let her body gyrate openly on his. His other hand ran up the front of her body, landing fully around the front of her neck, fingers along her jaw.
“Open your eyes, Char.” The demand was harsh and not making it through the flood of senses going on in her head.
His hand tightened on her neck. “Char. Open your eyes.”
Triaten’s voice made it through this time, and her eyes flew open.
“Who am I?”
“Tri.”
“Say it again.”
“Tri — oh, god –” her head swung back, straining, and her eyes squeezed closed.
His hand slipped to the back of her neck, and he pulled her up, bringing her inches from his face. “Keep them open, Char. Look at me.”
Fluttering half-open, Char’s eyes were glazed as she tried to focus on Triaten.
“Who am I?”
“Tri.”
His hand tightened on the back of her head, deep in her hair, forcing her to not break sight even as her body writhed under his. “Right here, Char. Right here.”
Her eyes widened as she focused on Triaten. Her nails were into his neck, desperate. “God yes, Tri, don’t stop. Triaten, please.”
At that, he leaned her back on the table, eyes not losing contact. Her legs held him tight, demanding, as he slammed into her. She wasn’t going to look away, and as he pushed her to the brink, it was all she could think, all she could say. “Tri.” Over and over.
Triaten exploded in her, the extra force catapulting her into convulsing climax, taking all words, all thought, from her body. But her eyes stayed on Triaten’s.
Triaten collapsed forward on her, but after a moment, he thought the better of it, and picked her up, still pulsating deep within her, and backed them onto the bed, Charlotte on top.
She barely noticed. She was still gasping for breath, body shuddering. Triaten trailed tiny circles up and down her spine. It took ten minutes for her breathing to slow to normal.
“Sorry about that.” His voice came out rough.
It took effort, but Charlotte managed to prop her chin onto his chest so she could look at him. “Tri, I can barely move. Does the lump of me on top of you feel like it needs an apology?”
Triaten chuckled. “No, I have no doubt your body is satisfied. I’m talking about the end — I didn’t mean that to be weird. I just had to be sure where you were.”
“It wasn’t.” She reached one of her hands up, cupping his face. Her thumb caressed the dark whiskers on his cheek. “But Tri, believe me. I have been thinking of no one else. And honestly, since the plane ride home, I have had an extremely difficult time keeping my imagination off of this — lying naked on top of you.”
She pulled her body up even more as she made her point. “There is absolutely no room in my mind for anyone but you. No one. Alive or dead.”
Triaten smiled as he pushed a tendril of hair away from her eye. “That was kind-of the point.”
“It worked. But it also wasn’t in question — you were the only thing in my mind.”
His hands went behind her head and he pulled her down to him, kissing her hard. “Good. And since that time was more about me than you, I have some ground to make up.”
Charlotte buried her face into the warm crook of his neck and groaned. “I don’t know that my body can take another round — especially if it’s all about me.”
Triaten’s hands danced down her backside, pressing into the limp muscles. “Then you are out of practice, and it’s your turn to trust me.” He sat up, bringing Charlotte with him, his hands slipping into newly pulsating folds.
He flipped their bodies, tossing her on the bed, and then taking a step away from the mattress. He stood above her, taking a moment to fully study her naked body, to plan, and a slow smile broke across his face.
“And believe me, Char, it’s going to be worth it.”