Page 134 of Love, Nemesis
If The Great Light had been a failed, unstable experiment, what had the end product been destined to be?
“We’d wanted to perfect life,” Ivan said.
“Where are they?” Lethe growled from deep in his chest, a guttural, animalistic noise that Ana hadn’t imagined a man capable of producing.
“Traveled to the south,” Ivan said, “my real self stopped in Xal Xel, but you see, Peter and Amiel had much greater ambitions. They wanted to build this all over again, create an empire twice as strong, perfect the illusion of The Great Light. This was all just one experiment to them, and we didn’t even realize until it became our fate. We all came into awareness with an excruciating clarity that we, well other than myself, had been burned. Maybe Peter couldn’t activate The Great Light in time to salvage us, maybe he didn’t want to. Either way, here we are.”
“Stranded,” Ana whispered. “You manipulated the State to hide yourselves.”
“A Strike without hunger has no ambition,” Ivan said, releasing an annoyed breath as if he didn’t want to explain it any further. “We are vastly aware of our own nothingness and have been trying to find out how to recreate a perfected version of The Great Light in which we are not aware of this, a version in which we can become real. Unfortunately, it’s been a struggle without Peter. He was the one who initially brought the idea when he came from the North with Amiel.”
“Then break The Great Light,” Ana suggested, raising her voice as she eased toward them. “Set yourselves free.”
Ivan gave a noncommittal shrug. He opened his mouth, she suspected to casually say they’d decided against that option.
Instead, he simply said, “I won’t stop you, Lethe.”
Ana looked down to see Lethe, fingers poised against one another, thumb pressed to his middle finger, his eyes intent on Ivan as he attempted to maintain his breathing.
“In fact,” Ivan said, “I encourage you to explore it. Every path leads to the same place.”
“You made a mistake.” Lethe’s eyes flashed with amber rings. “I’ve been there before.”
He snapped his fingers.
A violent pulse pushed through the entire room.
Ivan slammed into the ground, and they rolled a second before being separated again.
Ivan simply laughed as Lethe appeared next to Ana again, pushing him behind her.
Her eyes widened as she saw the shell of The Great Light dangling from his darkened fingers.
“Lethe,” she breathed as all of the Strike converged around them. “Lethe, break it!” she cried, but he hesitated.
Ivan clapped as he rose back to her feet.
“Yes, break it! Please!” Ivan said, starting to circle them as he dusted off his clothes. He laughed. “Ana, we’ve managed the world in secret, only wanting to be left alone to quietly continue our effort to perfect The Great Light. We’ve considered breaking it, many times, truly. I can’t say we’d be too inclined to resist if Lethe broke it right now, but I don’t think we’re your concern.”
“You killed Jasper, and Ares, and the Mystics,” she shouted as she stood up, glancing over at Lethe and wondering why he hadn’t snapped the shell in two.
“Only on their way out,” Ivan said, running a hand through his hair. “Couldn’t have them spilling the truth, now, could we?”
“But we—”
“You aren’t hearing me, Ana,” Ivan said sharply, with a wicked smile. “You really don’t understand what’s happening. We are now the least of your worries.”
Ana’s gaze followed Ivan’s as it settled back on Lethe.
Lethe stood between them, the shell dangling on a fine string from his hand. Slowly, he tucked it away into a pocket of his uniform, protected over his heart.
“Lethe?” she asked questioningly.
“Interesting,” Ivan said, sitting back against the border of the pyre again and folding his arms.
“Lethe,” Ana pleaded, and in his eyes, she saw his answer, the answer that had been there from the beginning.
He would not release The Great Light.
