Page 10 of Love, Nemesis
“You’re late for school,” he said.
“I know that’s a stopwatch. I’m not an idiot. I was going to see if you could braid my hair.” She stepped in front of him, facing the door. “Can you?”
Lethe glanced back up at the door to the house.
“Fine,” he said, offering his hand to her.
Jamie dropped hairpins into his hand after pulling them from her bag. “Are you teaching any soldiering classes this week?” She tilted her head to look at him, and he thumped her in the temple. “Ouch!”
“Watch the braid.” He started tugging gently at strands of her dark brown hair, holding the pins in the corner of his mouthas he wove the strands with practiced expertise. “Was thinking about it, but they’re taking the horses to Fort North to trade,” he said.
“I hate when there’s no riding.” She looked up as the door creaked open, Manaj poking his head through.
“Good morning, Mr. Manaj,” Jamie called.
“Good morning, Jamie,” Manaj said, still mostly hidden behind the door.
“What did you do to him?” Jamie asked Lethe.
“Nothing. He just walked in at the wrong time.” Knowing Jamie would likely repeat this story verbatim to all of her friends, he clarified, “I was reading a book he didn’t like.” He clarified further, “A science book. I was trying a science experiment.”
“What kind of experiment?”
“A dangerous one, and it scared him.”
“Hmph.” She accepted the information with no qualms.
He had to give Jamie credit. She’d sought him out when others avoided him for surviving the war. Though he wasn’t sure what that meant of her good sense.
He knew she’d heard the stories.
He’d burned more than a few people, killed plenty more than that. There was even a rumor that Lethe once choked a man with his own dismembered foot.
Only part of that was true. It had been someone else’s foot.
He’d been in a bind under very specific circumstances, and desperate times called for desperate measures. In the war-torn version of the world, he’d been a creative master of a most desperate persuasion.
The only problem was, the times weren’t that desperate anymore.
He put in the last pin. “There. It’s done. Go.”
Jamie felt her hair, patting the design gently.
“Looks great. Go,” Lethe said, checking his stopwatch. “You’re late for school.”
“I told you. I’m not an idiot,” Jamie protested.
“Yeah, yeah.” Lethe waved her off.
“You’re late,” Manaj noted.
“Ah!” She scrambled off and whirled around, running backward. “I’ll see you tonight! I’m coming to”—she tripped, gathering her footing abruptly before turning around—“visit!”
Lethe watched her join the others in the schoolyard. He started up the porch, Manaj still watching through a crack in the door.
“Manaj,” Lethe began.
Manaj slammed the door, opened it a second later to throw Lethe his flask, and then slammed it again.
