The lava had blocked them in, cornering them on a shallow island that was quickly disappearing. And the helicopter was leaving without them if Aiden couldn’t get Triaten to move. If it could even fly through the ash. Aiden yanked again, but Triaten stood, unmoved, still stretched out, trying to save what was left of a torso.
Time slowed, and Aiden stared at the boiling liquid rock in front of them. When it hit the front of Triaten’s boots, the leather sizzled instantly. That was enough. Aiden swung his arm across Triaten’s chest, yanking him off his feet.
Aiden turned to the hovering helicopter and ran across the last of the solid ground, launching both of their bodies up into the side opening of the helicopter. They hit the opposite wall of the helicopter, their bodies landing in a heap.
But Triaten was not moved from his mission.
“We can’t leave them!” He screamed as he scrambled to his feet, trying to go back out the side.
Aiden jumped and landed on him, knocking him face down back to the floor.
Body on top of him, Aiden pinned Triaten down. “We get back to Skye, she can fix this, Tri.” Aiden yelled in his ear. “We just need to get back to her, and we’ll erase this. We’ll save them.”
“We can still save them now.” Triaten looked out the opening, and pounded his fist on the floor, denting the metal. But Aiden didn’t let him up.
Aiden’s eyes traced Triaten’s stare out the helicopter’s side. They were still low enough, going over the last pockets of what was left of the Russian castle and compound. The few remaining spots that had not been swallowed by fire and lava.
Faces of friends, Panthenites they had fought side-by-side with for a century, looked up at the retreating helicopter, hopeless as death crept to swallow them.
The sight seared into Aiden’s mind. He wanted to close his eyes against the abomination, but he forced his eyes to meet each one of them, to acknowledge each of their faces as they were abandoned.
Skye needed to fix this. But when she did, Aiden had no idea which of the fallen would survive the time shift, and which would remain dead. So he captured each one of their faces in his mind.
Why the hell had he been dragged back into this?
It was already obvious this strike had been a set-up. The Folottos had left just enough Malefics in the compound to make it look real. It wasn’t until all the Panthenites were on the ground, surrounding the compound, that the explosions started to happen. Several splits in the earth, and the volcano lining the compound had let loose its lava. The lava had tumbled and swallowed. A hundred of the strongest Panthenites, gone in a matter of minutes.
The helicopter pulled up, gaining altitude quickly now that they were at the edge of the maelstrom of fire and ash. Clearing the surrounding snow-peaked mountaintops, they could see the valley where the Folotto compound once stood, was now a black hole of fiery explosions.
“What the hell is that?” Triaten pointed, still pinned down under Aiden.
Aiden let him up, searching the mountain that Triaten pointed at. Triaten turned and grabbed binoculars off the utility belt of one of the other four that had escaped in the helicopter.
He put them to his face, searching. “What the fuck?”
He handed the binoculars to Aiden, pointing. “That mountain. Second tallest peak that looks over the valley. Right near the top. You see it?”
Aiden scanned the line of mountains. And then he saw it. A small contingent of males, maybe thirty of them, stood watching the destruction in front of them. Aiden refocused the binoculars. They were lined in a semi-circle behind a shrouded figure. All of them had swords strapped to their backs—Malefics.
Aiden could just barely make out the one in the blue shroud, hood up over his head. He was bent over, hands poking out from the dark fabric. The hands were solidly on the ground in front of him.
He handed the binoculars back to Triaten. “What is that?”
Triaten looked through the binoculars again at the scene. “Not sure. Whatever it is, that line of Malefics is protecting the one in the middle. But what that one on his knees is doing, I haven’t a clue.”
He pulled the binoculars from his eyes, still watching the mountaintop. “It matters. But we need to get back to Skye first and fix this best we can.” His hand crushed the binoculars. “Then we find out who betrayed us.”
{ Chapter 8 }
After a long plane ride from the Soviet Union to the states, Aiden and Triaten hopped a helicopter, and were soon landing in the snow outside the Montana cabin. The landing area Triaten had cleared days ago had new snow on it, but it was only a few inches.
They were on the single-wide trail through the snow to the main cabin, Triaten in front, when the front door opened. Both stopped in their tracks when they saw who was coming at them.
Helen’s short grey bob blew in the bitter wind, almost giving flight to her slight frame, but she paid it no mind, instead rushing at Aiden and Triaten. Neither one had ever seen Helen run, much less step past a snail’s measured pace.
She stopped in front of them, blocking their path. Lips were pursed in disapproval, like always, but her eyes were grave.
“Boys.”
“Helen, what’s going on?” Triaten asked.
“You need to stop right here for a moment.”
“Helen.” Aiden’s word was a command.
Helen looked over Triaten’s shoulder at him. “Aiden, first, you need to know there was another.”
“Another what, Helen?”
“Another like Skye. A half-breed of her kind. Panthenite-Malefic. You need to find him if you have any hope with Skye. This is your only warning on the subject.”
Aiden pushed past Triaten, lording over Helen. “What the hell have you done?”
Helen didn’t let his toes touching hers move her. She glared up at him, yet there flickered a hint of compassion—or pity in her eyes. “Skye has become too unstable to exist. Aiden, you find him. You find the half-breed. Maybe he can fix her. If not…”
Aiden listened to no more. He stepped around Helen into the snow and charged at the cabin.
Triaten began to follow, but Helen put her hand on his chest. “The other thing, you need to be warned about, Triaten. You will not like what you find, but Charlotte will be fine.”
Blood drained from Triaten’s face as raced to the cabin.
Aiden was already bellowing throughout the cabin, searching for Skye. When Triaten came through the door, Aiden stopped for a moment in his search, and looked at him. “Charlotte’s in the loft.”
He turned back in pursuit of his wife. “Skye,” he yelled as he banged into the bathroom.
Triaten went up the stairs without a breath, and found Charlotte propping herself up on the bed. He was instantly on her, wrapping his arms around her body.
“Ouch.” She groaned into his chest.
Triaten pulled away. He hadn’t even seen that her upper arm was heavily bandaged, and he had just crushed it. Both of his hands went gently to the bandages. Then to her cheek where there was a gash, and then to her neck, where another wide bandage was blood-soaked.
“My god Char, what happened?”
Charlotte shook her head. “I was stupid. I thought I could help her.”
Triaten looked over his shoulder down the stairs of the loft. His gaze swung back to her. “Skye did this?”
Charlotte bit her lip, hedging, wanting to soften the truth, but not knowing how. “She’s not herself. I thought I could ease her pain. Ease the suffering. Try healing her, but it’s too deep within her.”
“She attacked you?”
Charlotte nodded.
Downstairs, Aiden was still bellowing, his search for his wife growing more frantic. Helen stepped in through the front door, and he turned on her.
“Where is she?”
“She’s in the floor.”
With an incompressible yell, Aiden tore into the kitchen, and slammed down with his heel on the end of a floorboard. The strip of wood flipped up, r
evealing an old iron ring.
He yanked it, the floor turning into an opening with a hidden dirt room under it. Aiden bent down, squinting at the dark, dank corners. That’s when he heard the soft wailing. He could just make out a small, huddle form in the corner.
He stood up, eyes throwing daggers at Helen. “Monster. You will pay for this.” He grabbed a short blade from the kitchen counter and went back to the hole in the floor.
He jumped into the pit, softly approaching his wife, far into the hole, in the darkest corner. “Skye, it’s me. You’re going to be okay.”
But his gentle words were not enough warning. She screamed when he touched her, turning and attacking, clawing at his limbs. In the dark, Aiden searched for an arm, a wrist, something he could grab to stop the flailing.
Her nails dug into his face, giving him a wrist, and he snatched it, thrusting the hilt of the dagger into her hand. Still screaming, still flailing, he brought her fingers and the blade to his forearm, and pushed them into his skin, again and again.
It took moments, but the screeching turned into whimpering, and the flailing eased. Skye fell into him, and he picked her up, bringing her back to the entrance in the floor. He looked up to see Helen, Triaten and Charlotte peering down at him.
Skye moved, shielding her eyes from the light. Aiden looked at her, and then glared back up at Helen, disgusted.
“Aiden, your arm.” Charlotte said, worried.
“Help me get her out of here.” He handed Skye up to Triaten, who brought her to the couch and set her down. Aiden was at his heels. He knelt down in front of her.
Skye sat, awake and calm. Calm and mute. She wasn’t focusing on any of the faces around her.
“How long was she down there, Helen?” He looked up sharply. “Charlotte?”
Charlotte hustled from the kitchen with a wet cloth in hand. She stopped by the two of them, looking back and forth from Skye, to Aiden’s bloody arm, debating what should get the wet cloth first.
She wisely chose Skye, and started to dab the sweat and dirt from Skye’s face. Skye just looked at her numbly. Silent.
“How long was she down there, Char?” Aiden demanded.
“Two days.”
“Was that when that time shift happened? We called you. You said everything was fine.”
Helen spoke from behind the couch. “She shifted time after we got her into the hole. She tried to stop us. But I read her. She only went back five minutes, so I knew what was going to happen, and was ready for it. For being crazy, she can certainly still plan.”
“She’s not crazy, Helen.” Aiden’s voice was cool. “I hear those words from you again, and I will take you down, elder or not. You haven’t been able to read me for a hundred years, so you won’t even know what hits you if I choose to do so.”
“Threat acknowledged.” Helen waved her hand in dismissal.
Charlotte finished dabbing Skye’s face and looked at Aiden. “Aiden, let me get your arm.” She gently grabbed his wrist.
He yanked it away. “No. God-dammit, Char. I knew I shouldn’t have left. How could you do this to her? You know about her time in the cave with Evan. What did you think this was going to do to her? Or did you not think?”
“Aiden, she attacked me.”
“And you’re still stronger than her, Charlotte.”
Charlotte pulled up straight, arms crossing her chest. “Am I? Because I got knocked out and my ass kicked. And we couldn’t let her get out of here. She was beyond dangerous, and she almost took both of us out. So it was put her in that room or what? What would you have preferred?”
Aiden stood, facing her, and could barely keep his voice below a yell. “You find another way, Charlotte. You don’t shove her in a pit. In the dark. You find another god-damn way.”
Triaten wedged himself between the two. “Back off, Aiden. Did you even look at Charlotte? Do you even see what Skye did to her?”
Aiden turned from the two, refusing to look at either. He kept his eyes trained on the top of Skye’s head.
“Aiden. The Folotto compound. We need to fix it,” Triaten said.
Aiden shook his head immediately, wanting to dismiss the thought. “You want her to go back and re-live what was just done to her?”
“What do you mean? Have her go back to when Char and I got up here,” Triaten said. “You won’t have to leave her.”
Both Triaten and Charlotte looked perplexed. Aiden took several steps away from Skye, nodding with his head for them to follow. Helen followed as well.
He stopped in the kitchen, voice low. “We found out. She can’t go back further in time past a point where she already manipulated time.”
Triaten, Helen and Charlotte stared at him, understanding quickly dawning across each of their faces.
“And she threw back time just hours before we launched our attack. That was when we called Charlotte,” Triaten quickly reasoned. “So good. It’s a limitation, but it means she can still get us back in time to stop our attack.”
“Yes, but do you know what you’re asking?” Aiden asked, eyebrow raised. “That was right before they threw her in the floor. You’re asking her to willingly go back down in that pit.”
“What else are we going to do, Aiden?” Triaten was unmoved. “Let them all die?”
Aiden glared at Triaten, but he knew Triaten was right. It was the only way to save the Panthenite warriors.
With a heavy sigh, Aiden went back to Skye and knelt down, balancing on his heels in front of her. He recognized the glassy-eyed look of euphoria running through her. It was as good of time as any.
He put his hands gently on her knees. The warmth of what was happening in her body flowed up through his hands.
“Skye, the attack on the Folotto compound went bad. It was a trap, and we lost a lot of lives. We need you to send time back.”
He stopped and looked at Triaten, hesitating. Triaten urged him on.
Aiden squeezed her knees. “God, Skye, I don’t want to even ask this. But, please, you need to send time back to the moment you went into that room under the floor. I will be back within hours and get you out. I swear, I will be here. It will only be for a little while.”
Aiden wondered for a long moment if Skye had even heard the words he said.
Then she titled her head upward.
The pure anger, the pure venom in the bent of her face as she looked up at Triaten and Charlotte, took all of them by surprise. But her voice was even more of a shock. It was calm in its cruelty. “You throw me in a pit, and now you want me to save your brethren.” She gave the slightest twinge of a wry smile. “You want me to help the Panthenites after what you did to me? After what you did to my sister?”
“Shiv has nothing to do with this, Skye. The lives of many are at stake. You have to help them.” Triaten’s voice was cautious.
“Yes. I understand. Here’s how I’m going to help.” She closed her eyes.
Aiden instantly recognized what she was about to do. “No, Skye, no—”
But it was too late. Skye shifted time back to the instant Triaten set her down on the couch.
The hope of sending time back to before the Folotto attack had just disappeared. The hope of regaining all those lives.
Not a muscle twitched in the room. Every body, every thought, was stunned.
Everything except for Skye, who sat on the couch, eyes closed, letting the waves of rapture flow through her body.
Triaten’s face slowly crumpled. “All those we left…” he whispered. His eyes pinned Aiden, voice rising. “We could have saved them. But you thought this was the better way. And I listened to you.”
“And you.” Bitterness dripped from Triaten’s words as he looked down at Skye. “This is unforgivable, Skye. Those deaths are on your hands.”
Skye stood, pushing Aiden’s hands off her knees, challenging Triaten without passion. “I was not the one that put blades in their hands. I was not the one playing war. You wanted me to fix something you started, Triaten,
and weren’t prepared to finish. That blood is on your hands, not mine.”
Before his threatening step at Skye hit the floor, Aiden punched Triaten in the jaw, sending him flailing back.
Triaten caught his footing.
“You need to go outside, Tri. Go outside and get a hold of yourself.” Aiden’s fists were clenched, absolutely ready to throw Triaten out of the cabin.
Triaten scowled at Aiden for only a second before he attacked, tackling him at waist level. It sent both of their bodies crashing onto a side table that splintered apart.
Only five punches were allowed before Charlotte and Helen entered the fray, scolding at the top of their lungs and pulling the two apart.
Back on his feet, Helen shoved Triaten out the front door.
Aiden stood, heaving, glowering at the door Triaten had just exited. Charlotte put her hand on his arm, but he jerked it away, spinning and stomping back to the kitchen, kicking wood chunks along the way.
Charlotte followed him into the kitchen, watching as he got a glass of water. He took several gulps, then slammed the glass down on the counter.
He looked at her. “What?”
Charlotte glanced into the main room at Skye, who had gone back to sitting on the couch. Charlotte stepped in close to Aiden, voice low. “Aiden, I know this is a mess, but you need to see this.”
He afforded a quick scan of her, and then Aiden tried to step around her to exit the kitchen. Charlotte grabbed his arm.
“Look at me, Aiden.” She didn’t let him go, didn’t continue until she had his eyes on her. “All last night. Skye was yelping, crying. In so much pain all night, I couldn’t take it. I was so sorry we had to put her down there, and I couldn’t listen to the horrific pain she was in. Helen tried to stop me, but I thought if I could just heal a little bit of her. Heal some part of her to stop the pain that was crushing her.”
“I don’t want to hear this.”
“Aiden, look at me.”
He reluctantly met her eyes.
Flux Flame (A Flame Moon Novel Page 7
