Page 143 of Love, Nemesis
“No,” he replied firmly.
“Do you know why I am still here?” she asked.
Immediately, she saw he had an answer, and she leapt for it.
“Why?” she asked sharply.
Lethe winced as if the question wounded something in him. “Ana,” he started. “I had no idea at first. Even now, I only have a theory.”
“What is it?” she pushed. Something in her was dying to hear him say the words—she was convinced that he and only he had the answer.
“I shouldn’t say anything,” he said. “This is something you need to explore on your own. I gave us the space that I did in hopes that maybe that could happen.”
“Tell me,” Ana demanded.
Lethe looked away, and she wondered what could cause him to have so much hesitation. Slowly, he moved to his neck and removed his stopwatch. He offered it to her.
Ana took it and moved her hands along the smooth surface. It felt strangely familiar. She wanted to ask him why he’d handed itto her, but she was drawn in by the object. Her fingers traced the edges, the front, the back. She flipped it open and even the subtle click of it opening resonated strangely through her. She was fixated on the glass, the numbers, the engraving of two initials on the interior. E.S.
All the while she could feel Lethe’s eyes focused intently on her like she was the only living thing in the world.
This was his theory?
What theory could ever jar him so deeply and—
She stopped.
She looked away from him, shocked as she scanned the ground. The truth settled inside her like a key, unlocking something deep that felt as if it had waited for years to be given a voice. The words came, echoed since childhood:
You’re an illusion.
But now, they finished their claims.
This isn’t your life.
Ana slowly sat down in the grass.
In the minutes that followed, she tried to consider the concept, consider it even though already it rang true.
Lethe knelt in front of her. After a few minutes, he said, “You gave her the life she never had,” he whispered. “She will always be remembered now. People will always remember her as the girl who broke The Great Light—the girl who set everyone free.”
The words settled. Lethe didn’t speak again for a long time.
“You were there when Ana died—you saw her die. It was too much for you. You couldn’t let her life end that way. You had to carry it on for her, make up for the losses you witnessed. You set out to help build a city that I burned, and Emma, you did more than either of us could have ever anticipated.”
Ana shook her head, the use of Emma’s name bringing tears to her eyes. She couldn’t trace the feeling, only that something—someone inside her was crying.
Every word he brought invited a stronger torrent of emotion.
“It’s time to come back,” Lethe said, eyes pleading as he reached toward her face. She grabbed his hand, stopping him.
“You did what you set out to do,” he whispered. “Fought her fears, lived her life, carried her pain, and you beat her enemies. You won.”
She slowly released his hand, allowing it to touch her face. That similar sensation, her buried soul rising to the touch of his fingers, swam through her.
Lethe pulled her close into his chest as she cried, gripping his clothes as at last the pieces came together.
The torrent of emotions overwhelmed her, and the memories divided themselves from her. And for the first time, she remembered Lethe in pictures rather than in feelings alone. Every early morning and late night, battle and argument and celebration. Every grief they’d ever shared. His body shook as he held her tightly to his chest in a long-awaited reconciliation.
