Infinity

by Jus Accardo

  Again, I was speechless.

  It didn’t matter, though. He kept going as though he’d forgotten I was even there. “She loved him, just not the same way he loved her. I never told him. Never will, either. I wanted to. Would have if things hadn’t gone down the way they did.” He looked at me, then turned away again. “Probably… Now though? What’s the point?”

  “Why didn’t she tell him herself?” Obviously a part of me was hurt by Noah’s revelation, but another part was angry—for Cade’s sake. “Why string him along?”

  “It wasn’t like that.” There was a twinge of anger in his voice. His expression hardened—then softened a moment later. “Not really.”

  I folded my arms. “Sounds like a real peach.”

  “My sister loved Cade. She did. It just wasn’t the right kind of love. Everyone expected them to end up together, and she didn’t want to hurt him or disappoint them.”

  “So she, what, would have just gone along and never said a word?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah. Probably would have married him, too. But the connection he was looking for, the one he felt, would never have been returned.”

  For a moment I was speechless. Who the hell would marry someone they weren’t in love with? It took a minute, but I found my voice. “Why tell me?” I grabbed his arm and turned him so that we were face-to-face. I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly, but I was horrified by his admission. Angry. I just didn’t know on whose behalf I was pissed. The other me for her obvious betrayal, or Cade, because Noah should have told him. I threw my hands into the air. “Why the hell would you tell me that? You can’t stand me. Why confess? Why now?”

  He shook his head and pulled free. “You’re nothing like my sister but, and I hate to even admit this, you are like me. I know exactly what was going through your head when I explained about their lack of a physical relationship. You were thinking he used you.”

  “He did,” I spat without thinking. The pain and betrayal in my voice made me cringe. And as Noah stood, watching me with a justified expression, I sighed. “This is all moot. I’m either dead, or you guys will leave. Not like I’m going to have to awkwardly run into him for years to come. Besides, it was just a kiss. There’s nothing between us. We don’t know each other.”

  “You’re dumb as shit, aren’t you?”

  My blood ran cold. “Excuse me?”

  Noah’s lips twisted into a fierce scowl. “You haven’t known him long, but there’s no way you can’t see it. What kind of guy he is. He’d never pull a dick move like that.” He backed down a bit. “I won’t tell you he’s not still in love with my sister. The guy was blindly head over ass. But I know him. Better than I know myself in some ways. And if he was doing anything with you—FYI I don’t want details—it was because of you, not her.”

  It was a nice thought, but when I called him on it, Cade had even started apologizing, because we both knew I was right. And, as much of an ass as he was, Noah was fiercely loyal. I didn’t want to be the one to shatter the oddly perfect perception he had of his friend.

  I was about to head back inside, but lights in the parking lot below us caught my attention. “Wow,” I said, leaning over the edge. A row of cars eight long was pulling into the parking lot. “Either someone decided to throw a motel party, or gypsies just rolled into town.”

  Noah joined me at the railing. “Kinda late for a mass check-in.”

  As I watched, the cars parked side by side, and one by one, the engines died. Then, when at the far side of the lot, the driver of the first car emerged, I nearly fell over. A familiar hulking form stomped toward the building.

  Noah cursed and I pushed off the railing. “They found us.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Cade!” Noah bellowed, shoving past me and sprinting into the hotel room. He pounded on the small bedroom door, then dove for Cade’s jacket. “Gotta bounce, man. Rise and shine.”

  A few moments later a still-sleepy Cade appeared in the doorway. “What the hell are you—”

  Noah threw the jacket at him. “Simmons is here with half of Fort Hannity. Probably better if they don’t find us.”

  He thrust both arms into the leather and began collecting the few supplies we’d gathered along the way. “How did he—” He froze, then slammed a fist down against the end table next to the couch. “Damnit!”

  I grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the door. “How later. Escape, now.”

  I pulled open the door, but Noah came up behind me and slammed it closed. “Are you insane?”

  I blinked, genuinely confused. “Um, if you don’t want them to find us, staying here is bad.”

  “So is walking right out the front door.” Cade went to the window and peered down. “By now they’ve made it to the clerk’s desk. They’ll be getting our room number.”

  We’d paid cash and used a fake name, but all it would take is a description and they’d know who we were. Two guys and a girl? Not exactly inconspicuous. As it was, the desk clerk had eyed me with disdain when we checked in. “Okay. So then what are our options?”

  The boys exchanged a look, then both turned to the window.

  “You want to jump?” I exclaimed, backing away from them. “That’s insane.”

  Noah rolled his eyes. “Of course it is.” He crossed the room and threw open the window. “There’s a ledge. We’ll head to the next room.”

  “Oh,” I said, throwing my hands into the air. “Is that all?”

  Noah rolled his eyes. “Says the girl who dangled herself over the edge of a ravine less than twenty-four hours ago?”

  Cade glared at him and took my arm. He steered me toward the window. “It’ll be fine. The ledge is plenty big enough.” I peered out the window. He was right. The ledge was pretty wide. That wasn’t the issue. The problem was, it didn’t look to be in pristine condition. It wasn’t dilapidated or anything, but it wasn’t brand-new. There were cracks in the cement.

  “Time to go,” Noah said, giving me a nice hard shove. “I’m behind you.”

  I slipped my right foot over the sill and snorted. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better. You’ll probably push me.”

  “Don’t be an ass.” The second my other foot hit the ledge, Noah climbed out behind me. “If I pushed you, they’d know we were up here.”

  “God,” Cade huffed as he climbed out behind Noah. “Am I going to have to separate you?”

  “She started it.”

  Noah nudged me gently. “Hurry. We can’t stand here. Start moving toward the next window.”

  With a deep breath, I started inching my way to the right. I didn’t have an issue with heights—we weren’t even that high up—still I refused to look down. I kept my back to the lot below and moved sideways, facing the building. It was a great plan until my foot came down on a loose piece of the ledge.

  It wasn’t one of those moments where time seems to come to a jarring stop. There was no freeze-frame picture of horror mere seconds before I fell. It was instant and blurring. One second I was standing on the ledge, the next I was plummeting like a stone.

  Stars exploded in my eyes, and a sharp pain prickled up one of my arms. At first I wasn’t sure which one. Everything was spinning at warp speed. But, I was vaguely aware that the jarring stop and assumedly sickening crack of multiple bones that would have surely come with crashing to the ground below, were not present.

  “For fuck’s sake! Stop squirming,” Noah bellowed from somewhere above me.

  Heart racing, I lifted my head as my vision cleared. Noah’s hands were wrapped around my left wrist as I dangled off the side of the crumbled ledge. His grip slipped an inch at first. Then another. “Don’t let me fall,” I cried.

  He was teetering on the ledge, leaning back with all his weight, and it still didn’t seem like it was enough. Cade leaned forward to grab the back of his shirt, but Noah shook him off. “Don’t! Stay back.”

  The concrete on either side of us was cracked and crumbling. Cade straightened
and shimmied a few steps back toward the window. “Be careful.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Noah said, adjusting his stance. What was there to stop him from simply letting go? If it was a choice between me dragging us both down, or simply me plummeting to the ground below, I knew which way it’d go. I wasn’t his sister. His Kori. I was an imposter in his eyes. Someone wearing her face and polluting her memory.

  “Hang on,” he snapped. “I have to—” His grip shook. “Get a better foothold before I can pull you up.”

  While he struggled with his footing, a million thoughts raced through my mind. Everything from what I wanted my last memories on Earth to be, to the things I’d never done. Things I’d never said. Dreams I’d never followed.

  With a mighty heave, he managed to get my shoulders above the ledge. I kicked out my feet until I was able to hook the right one over the edge of the concrete, but it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t get the leverage I needed to hoist myself up.

  Noah’s grip slipped a bit. “Cade…”

  A second later, Cade grabbed me. I’d never been happier to have someone pawing my ass. “You okay?” he huffed once all three of us were securely propped against the building.

  I rubbed my shoulder, now sore from Noah catching me. “Oh. Yeah. I’m peachy. Let’s do it again sometime.”

  It wasn’t funny, but for some reason we all burst out laughing. In fact, we kept laughing until we were out of breath and my sides were sore.

  “We have to move,” Cade said, climbing to his feet. Noah and I followed suit, and we carefully made our way around the corner of the building and to the next room.

  ...

  Luckily the window to the room next door was unlocked and we’d been able to get inside. Hearing commotion in the hallway, we waited, then snuck down to the main lobby as soon as the coast was clear. Simmons and his men were still there, but we managed to slip unnoticed into the employee lounge and out the back door.

  We’d been driving almost an hour now. Our new ride—a “borrowed” station wagon—had a full tank of gas and a wide array of SpongeBob SquarePants toys. I felt guilty for taking the car, but we’d had no choice. It was the only vehicle at the far end of the lot, away from Simmons and his men. I made a mental note to check the registration and send the family an anonymous apology, as well as an address where the car could be found once we were finished with it.

  We made really good time, and just after sunset, found ourselves three blocks from the old address Noah dug up on Mr. Harris. Since it was just after seven in the morning and far too early to go banging on doors, Cade and I settled at a picnic table at the community park while Noah ran for breakfast.

  It was Monday, and I was officially skipping school—which kind of sucked. We had someone coming in from the Drovan Program—an organization that took on art students as apprentices of sorts—to talk to the class. I’d been hoping to do some schmoozing. Possibly even some bootlicking. Drovan was notoriously hard to get into. I wanted every advantage I could get. But instead of showing off my portfolio, I was chasing a lunatic on a quest to commit inter-realm abduction and mass murder for the slim chance to see my eighteenth birthday.

  Not exactly how I saw my senior year going…

  “We’ve got this, Kori,” Cade said. He was sitting across from me, carving out a pattern in the wood using the station wagon’s key.

  There was a pressure in my chest, a nugget of fear that had been growing bigger and bigger since that first moment with Dylan in the alley. If we didn’t find Ava and get the key to remove this ticking time bomb on my wrist, it would explode and take all of me with it. It was taking all my willpower not to let that fear consume everything that I was. I knew if I let it in, I’d be nothing more than a fetal ball waiting for the end.

  Suck it up, Anderson!

  That’s not what a good soldier would do. A good soldier would fight—so that’s what I chose to do. “When this is all over, you guys should be able to head home, right?”

  “Hypothetically,” he responded. “My main concern is getting that key. A lot could go wrong.”

  “But it could go right.”

  He shrugged and tilted his head up to the sunlight. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. “It could, but we’ve been close before. A month ago I had him cornered. It was just him and me, and he was injured. I should have been able to take him out.”

  “What happened?”

  He paused, then sighed. “I hesitated. He’d been shot—”

  “Shot?” I exclaimed.

  “He tried breaking into Ava’s house. Her dad was home and was simply defending his family.” He set down the keys and brushed his hands over the design he’d carved into the wood. “We were in that alley. Just the two of us. I could have taken him out—I had the advantage. But he made me think the wound was worse than it was. He… The truth is, my brother is a weak spot for me. We’d always been so close. It was us against the world, ya know? Well, until Ava…”

  “You were worried about him.”

  “I made a mistake. I hesitated.” His expression darkened. “Don’t worry. I’m past all that now. He has to pay for what he did.”

  How would I feel if I were in his position? If someone I trusted, someone I loved, took everything from me? Would there be lingering loyalty? Would I be able to look past their transgressions? I didn’t think so. Cade was a rare soul. A truly good-hearted person. And even though he swore he’d kill Dylan for what he’d done, I wasn’t sure I believed it.

  I leaned over to get a better look at what he’d carved into the table. It was an infinity symbol made up of Celtic knots. “So what’s that?”

  He looked down at the carving. “The Infinity Division shield. Since Cora was born in Ireland, you thought it was fitting.”

  I ran the tip of my finger over the marred wooden surface. “I thought?”

  He smiled. “Well, my world’s version of you.”

  “She designed it?” The scroll work was beautiful. Twisting lines that wrapped elegantly together with an almost embossed-looking center. I knew my mom would have loved it. She’d always gone out of her way to share her Irish roots with me. Histories and pictures and stories of growing up just outside of Dublin. I’d never met my grandparents, but Mom assured me they were real spitfires. We’d planned a trip there right after my graduation. If I made it out of this, I’d go for both of us.

  “She would really like you,” Cade said with a grin. “Our Cora. She’s a lot like you. Resilient. Tough. Nothing ever holds her back.”

  I didn’t say anything, letting my gaze fall to the cuff.

  Noah returned not long after that, with a tray of coffee and two brown paper bags. Donuts, bagels, and five egg and cheese sandwiches. By the time nine o’clock rolled around, all that remained were a pile of crumbs and three empty cups.

  “I can’t believe we ate all of that.” And by we, I meant Noah. Cade and I each had a coffee and bagel, while Noah inhaled the rest. It had to be a miracle of science, something in the water of their world, that he wasn’t four hundred pounds.

  He frowned and balled up one of the brown bags. “Woulda gotten more if I hadn’t run out of cash.”

  Cade frowned. “There’s no more?”

  “Not unless you’ve got a money tree growing out your ass.” Noah shook his head. “We’re hoofing it to Harris’s place.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  We took our time and ended up on the Harris doorstep just before ten a.m. There was a small white sedan in the driveway and several lights on inside. I took it as a good sign, and as Cade stepped up to knock on the door, crossed my fingers.

  But after five minutes, my hope was beginning to wane. “Don’t think anyone’s home, man,” Noah said, peering around to the side window.

  “There are lights on,” I said, not willing to give up yet. “Maybe they just didn’t hear the door.”

  He rolled his eyes and pushed Cade aside before pounding hard on the door. The sound echo
ed through the porch.

  “Yoo-hoo,” a gravelly voice called.

  We whirled to see an elderly man on the sidewalk in front of the house.

  “If you kids’re looking for the Richardsons, yer outta luck. They gone on vacation a few days back.”

  I came around the side and made my way down the steps. “Richardson? We were actually looking for the Harris family.”

  The old man hobbled up the walk. “Don’t remember the name—” He tapped the side of his head. “The old noggin isn’t what it used to be. But there was a military family here at one time. They left years ago.” He was wracked by a series of body-quaking coughs. When he calmed, he added, “Took that sweet little baby of theirs and moved away.”

  Cade was suddenly beside me. “Any chance you know exactly where?”

  “Can’t say as I do. Sorry. Might want to ask in town, though. The Mr. was an army man. Might’ve kept in touch with some of the good ole boys.”

  Noah grumbled something—presumably rude—but I elbowed him and smiled. “That’s a great idea. Thank you so much.”

  The man tossed us a shaky wave, then hobbled on his way. I turned to the boys. “Now what?”

  Cade didn’t look nearly as discouraged as I felt. “Might be worth a shot. We could ask around. Not much else to go on.”

  “We can split up. Dig and see if we can’t come up with something,” Noah said, zipping his jacket.

  Cade nodded. “Good call, but we can’t stay too long. We’ll meet back in the park at two.”

  Noah nodded and took off down the walk. A moment later, he turned the corner and disappeared from view. I was about to ask Cade where we should start, but a shadow fell across the walkway, followed by a wicked laugh.

  “Don’t you two look cozy?” Dylan stepped around and came to stand in front of us. He inclined his head toward the house, grinning. “Looks like the deal’s off.”

  Cade returned the grin. “Is it?” He nodded toward the house. “Go ahead. You won’t find her inside.”

  Dylan stood there for a minute, watching his brother. Probably trying to decide if he was bluffing. I waited for him to storm up to the door, but he remained where he was. Voice like a razor, he asked, “Where is she?”