Page 51 of Love, Nemesis
“Or?” Lethe prodded, hiding his smile now under a guise of stark confusion.
“You aren’t going to…well, you know, try and kidnap her…or them, or something, are you?”
“Maybe. Can I see that?” Lethe asked, gesturing to Cal’s Atlas.
Cal glanced down at it and then at Lethe.
“Sure,” he said hesitantly. “Be careful.” He removed it from his belt and started handing it over. “Be really careful.”
“I will, I will,” Lethe said, taking the Atlas and lifting it up to the light. He’d never admit it outwardly, but he did find them intriguing.
He really did like Cal. The boy was constantly asking to be messed with, and Lethe took advantage, but—
He also told me that if I manage to put up with you then in return, you’d do everything you could to keep me safe. Manaj said that’s how you work.
Cal’s words surfaced in his head, repeated from Manaj. Lethe grimaced. The old man thought he had him figured out. Not true.
He tossed the Atlas up and caught it, inspecting it again.
He couldn’t be figured out so easily.
He tossed the Atlas up again and caught it. He tossed it again.
Not that easily.
This time when he caught it, his finger hit one of the triggers. The Atlas activated. Lethe leapt back and up to his feet, but his arm was caught in the time orb. Almost as quickly, the time slapped back into it, and Lethe held it in his hands, eyebrows solidified in a high arch. He looked at Cal.
Cal looked horrified, having scrambled up beside Lethe. He snatched the Atlas back, staring at it in alarm.
“You used my time! How much did you use?”
“I don’t know. Why isn’t there some type of safety setting on those things?”
Cal rotated the Atlas in his hand, panicked. “I-I haven’t used any time since the commitment ceremony when I first became a Number! I haven’t—wait.” Cal went still, turning the Atlas slower now. He looked up at Lethe. “This isn’t mine,” he whispered.
Both Lethe and Cal looked over at Jasper and Ana, who were watching the commotion from the other side of the campsite. Ana, who was close enough to hear everything, checked her own Atlas and then looked back at the one in Cal’s hands.
“Oh no,” she whispered, mouth hanging slightly open, her other hand still full of twigs she’d collected for the fire. All three of them looked back at Jasper, who was holding a bucket that one of the horses was drinking out of.
He looked at Ana’s face and, reading her alarm, glanced over to where a utility belt lay outstretched over a saddle.
“I’m so sorry,” Cal blurted out. “You took yours off—I thought it was a good idea. I must have picked the wrong one back up.”
Jasper laid down the bucket and marched across the grass, snatching his Atlas back before lifting it up to the light. As he lowered it, he looked over at Lethe.
“You used twenty minutes at maximum concentration, twenty minutes of my time—my life.”
Lethe crossed his arms. “All right, it’s just twenty minutes.”
“Just twenty minutes?” Jasper exclaimed as Ana walked up behind him.
“Yes,” Lethe groaned. “Just twenty. Look, you used about an hour of mine talking about the theory of time synthesis yesterday. If anything, we’re even.”
“Even?” Jasper said louder. “How can you possibly call that even?” Ana put her hand on his arm, tugging him backward.
“You’re right! Let me spend an hour. Give that back,” Lethe extended his hand, and Jasper withdrew the Atlas to his chest.
“I did you all a favor sharing this information. It’s very important,” Jasper stressed. “You’re lucky anyone tries to teach a bullheaded war hero like you anything.”
