Page 139 of Love, Nemesis
In every step, in each harsh breath in her lungs and pulse through her throat, she knew she was in her final moments. Time was all she had, and she was running out of it. Time was strange—this thing mankind wore like a bridle, forcing the full nature of the human experience into a set of years. In that way,her life was nothing but a pregnant pause between a question and an answer.
She’d found her answer. And the answer wasn’t final. An answer was something you lived with every day. Conviction.
She saw her own blood on her hands, on her legs, but looking into his amber eyes, she didn’t think of death. There she found that same question, issued to her from the universe.
More than ever, she found herself able to answer it.
And she wanted to be free.
She pushed herself up from the ground as she slid to a stop from a forceful blow. Her skin was torn ragged through her clothes. She didn’t feel it.
She charged again.
You’re running out of time.Ivan’s voice echoed, distantly. The mist stirred slowly around them.
This was it.
Her body burned with heat and sweat and adrenaline—ringing with life, but she couldn’t stop there, not just with fighting, not just struggling.
There was something to be grasped.
A question to be answered.
Spear,she asked.Nothing.Spear!she demanded.
One materialized in her hand from the mist.
She drove it forward. Lethe dodged, leaving her open, and in that second, her eyes flickered to his.
Life wasn’t just about struggling. There was something to be grasped.
The spear slipped through her fingers, easing out of her grip. She didn’t compel herself to chase it.
Lethe moved next.
She saw his direction, and through the speed, exhaustion, and urgency, the smallest window opened up to her like a glint against a window.
She didn’t doge. She took the blow and pulled Lethe close.
She heard the crack—no pain, just pressure, a kind of numbness in her legs, and she was weak.
She buckled into him, wrenching the fabric over his ribs as she caught herself against his chest. With all the force in her spirit, she held on, turning her fingers into her bloodied palms as she sank down against him, crushing the shell over his heart.
The world broke around her, her vision fracturing as if her sight were made of a thousand little mirrors. They fell out of the sky soundlessly.
In a second, it was all over.
Chapter 34: Awake
WHEN ANA AWOKE again, she felt sick, dizzy, and nauseous, but never so happy to see the sky, blue and bright with a single soft cloud inching across the sun.
The sun, surprisingly, hurt her eyes.
It was a peculiar sensation, Ana struggling to see past the light as she searched the makeshift room and the makeshift bed. Large chunks of the ceiling were missing, but not blown apart or destroyed. It was as if someone had simply forgotten to finish it.
She lifted her hand up and inspected her arm and then eased up on the mattress and looked around. She only recognized parts of this world.
Literally. Parts.
