Page 59 of Love, Nemesis
She scanned the campsite. She eased toward the campfire, fingers searching the ground for a rock.
“Long time no see, or at least that’s what I’d like to say,” she said, rushing to put the pieces of Ares’s puzzle together and hoping Lethe would wake up.
“You’ll see me soon,” he replied, and she followed his voice to a different place in the woods. He was quiet, always so painfully quiet.
Her fingertips grazed a rock in her hand. She collected it into her palm. “I’m not sure how I feel about having a gun pointed at me in the dark. It’s a little unfair.”
“I’m not aiming at you,” Ares replied.
“Well, you haven’t shot yet,” she said. “What do you want?”
“Put down the rock.”
“A rock against a gun?”
“I don’t want to shoot your friend. And I’ve seen you use a rock,” he added with a lilt of humor. Mechanical as it was, it helped her relax. So, he wasn’t completely hostile, at least not yet.
It seemed after all this time, in his complicated mind, she was still categorized as a comrade, or at least a more neutral party.
“All right,” she said, and tossed the rock, hitting Lethe. She heard his breathing pause as he woke up.
“What did Hailey tell you?” Ares asked as he stepped toward her, nothing but a vague shape in the darkness, gun still aimed at Lethe.
“He told me you’d become an informant for the Mystics.”
“He’s right,” Ares whispered, voice light and ghostly.
Ana didn’t reply.
He lowered his gun.
“Why don’t you think I’ll turn on you?” she said.
“Because I have the green and Jasper,” Ares replied, green being a nod to Cal’s youth. “They’re both alive. I’m going to give you orders. I know you well enough to know you aren’t stupid, but hesitate, disobey, or make me the slightest bit uncomfortable, and each time it will mean a bullet through the joint of one of your friends,” he explained, deadpan, as if reading from an instruction manual. “If you want Jasper to keep his knees, I suggest you pay attention. Now, saddle the horses.”
He stepped back, and his small, dark silhouette dissolved into the shadows.
“Lethe,” Ana said.
Ares walked back into the woods, steps audible now. He circled a wide perimeter as if he was looking for someone. She heard Lethe shift.
“So, that’s him?” Lethe whispered sleepily.
“Yes,” Ana said.
“A lot shorter than I was expecting.”
“That’s your first thought?” she snapped, annoyed.
“No, his fairy-like voice was actually, but I thought that was impolite.”
“You thoughtthatwas impolite?” she shot back in a hushed voice as they started to gather their things around the perimeter. She didn’t realize Lethe had any kind of measure for what was impolite.
“Should we try and find an opening?” he asked.
“No.”
“I could find one,” he said casually.
