Page 52 of Love, Nemesis
Lethe lifted his hands. “Oh, yes. Thank you so much for bestowing your knowledge on me,” he said sarcastically. “What would I do if I didn’t know that five minutes of time, multiplied by a 4.8 concentration, slows something down by ten seconds? I’d be lost!”
Jasper’s eyes narrowed. He opened his mouth to protest, but then he stopped. “That’s right,” he said, lowering his Atlas, brows furrowed.
“What?” Lethe replied, looking between them.
“You got that from my talk yesterday? That’s right,” Jasper said.
Lethe crossed his arms. “Just a good guess, all right?”
“No.” Jasper shook his head, smiling as he slipped the Atlas into his belt. “You were listening.” He started walking off, lifting a finger. “You’re welcome!”
Ana smiled, throwing the sticks she’d collected near the fire before walking off into the woods to find more.
Lethe glared forward before cutting his eyes to the side to see Cal smiling.
“What?” he growled.
Cal shrugged. “Lifelines. Friends are like lifelines.” He referenced his monologue which he had repeated several lines of since its painful debut on day one.
Cal, the teaspoon, at work again.
Lethe rolled his eyes. He hated to admit it, but now he actually missed Evira.
“Ah, that’s my cue,” Lethe said. “Kidnapping time.” He slapped Cal on the shoulder as he started to leave in Ana’s direction.
“Hey, hey,” Cal said. “Wait. What? You said you were kidding about that.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Well, are you?” Cal asked, leaning toward him.
“Well, Cal, that’s a hard question to answer.”
Cal stared. “Is it?”
“I’m kidding.”
“About what part?” Cal called after him. “Lethe! Remember. Friends are like lifelines!”
Lethe waved back at Cal dismissively. “Yeah, got it,” he said, passing Jasper, who watched him go. He followed Ana’s path to a nearby overlook.
Chapter 14: In Smoke
LETHE FOUND ANA watching the jagged rise and fall of the Dragon’s Spine in the distance. He paused there by the trees, pondering his approach.
He liked the view of her in front of those mountains. Their sharp tops and snow had a severity that drew him in. Seeing her admire them as he had in State time a century ago made him feel like a part of history.
Did she see their severity like he did, or something else? He took patient steps toward her, watching as she glanced to her left, eyes centered on a single spot at the base of a tree. Some small mushrooms were growing among the tree roots. She watched them long enough that one might think she was admiring them, a foreign gentleness and openness in her eyes. He thought he almost saw a smile.
It won’t hurt to poke around, at least a little,he thought. Ana was steady and tough. He liked that about her. He could be himself without doing any real damage. He understood restraint—respected it, but everyone needed the opportunity to push barriers now and again.
He lived for that.
He walked around to her other side, eyes moving up her spine. He could imagine running his hand up her neck, savoring the soft skin, freeing her dark hair—feeling it through his fingers. An impulse, one of many, but unlike the others, it lingered.
Sometimes he felt like his body was full of chaos, lightning in need of a conductor to channel him somewhere. But not everyone was a conductor. He’d destroyed a few people that way. They were people who reveled in mutual chaos, only to realize they couldn’t go as far as he would.
Ana turned.
