Page 53 of Love, Nemesis
Their eyes met, but she gave nothing away in her expression, her gaze certain, seemingly fearless.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hello,” he mimicked her dry greeting. He smiled at his own impulsive emotion—for a split second, she’d made him jealous of a mushroom. He didn’t want those stony eyes, the calm expression and steady presence that Jasper seemed to cherish.
He chuckled inwardly at the abrupt pace of his own feelings, reunited with sensations he hadn’t felt in a long time. Maybe he had been the one avoiding her all along, unsure of the result of his own urges.
He wanted that fire he’d seen at the festival, hidden in those rocks somewhere, the warmth, the beating heart in the statue, peeled back and raw. More than that, he wanted to be that fire, lightning urging her into an awakened state.
Granted, most things that got struck by lightning were more dead than alive afterward. He hated how his brain kept circling back to that, but Lethe had his bets that Ana was more a conductor than a tree. Only one way to know for sure.
“So, you only have one year left on your Atlas,” he said, and knew he’d played the piece he wanted when he watched the shift of discomfort move through her, admiring the brief vibrancy with which her body reflected the state of her soul.
Just as quickly, she locked up again, facing forward, arms crossed across her chest, posture firm and aligned like a soldier.
“Cal?” she asked.
“Yes.” Lethe contemplated his next move. He couldn’t push her again. She was expecting that.
Pull this time.
“You like being in nature,” he observed softly, and she glanced over at him, but he was watching the mushrooms now.
She looked down at them, following his eyes.
“You have to have a big heart to care about something like this,” he said.
Push.
He looked over at her, mind filing through the clues, connecting the dots through instincts that he lived through.
“You’re a liar and a fake.”
The blow landed. He chased her shock, knowing she’d soon discover what he was doing.
“You want to die a fake, don’t you? Pulling Jasper along so you don’t have to be alone?”
There was the subtlest flicker in her eyes. It was a touch of feeling extending like a ripple through water. He saw what his words could do. As he watched her, he imagined what he could do with more than just words.
If she would let him, he could sculpt art.
He saw her recover, reigning in her own emotion as she glanced off back toward the mountains. No doubt she knew she was being vetted or manipulated, but she didn’t react with any anger or offense. She internalized it in a moment, sensing a crack in her armor and recoiling.
He felt elated at her withdrawal, confident he could crack her further and see what lay hidden beneath it all.
Like wings unfurling, her arms dropped by her side and she relaxed. Her tension completely dissolved. He checked her view of the mountains but saw nothing.
“I never should have been a soldier,” she replied painlessly, and just like that, he felt her slip through his fingers.
The woman he watched now seemed in some way beyond his reach.
“But it’s what I needed to do.”
“Just like that?” he asked, leaning back against the tree near him, unable to hide his disappointment.
She looked over at him, raising her eyebrows. “I sabotaged Hailey’s plans at Dal Hull to recover an artifact from The Ocean’s War. He found out. He’s sending me to hunt Ares. Either way, hewins this in his own way, but so do I. I’m dying soon. I could be happier with my life, but nothing is perfect. I still get upset about it from time to time. I—”
Lethe groaned. “All right. Stop.”
