Page 68 of Love, Nemesis
The silence was heavy, Lethe and Ana both trying to catch their breath. She relaxed slightly as Ares turned back toward the horses.
In a split second, he whipped back around and fired a single shot that split through Lethe’s knee.
Lethe crumpled with a shout, gripping his knee as Ana dropped down beside him.
Ares hoisted the rifle back over his shoulder. “Sixteen minutes late,” Ares said, barely raising his voice above Lethe’s cursing. “Don’t do it again.”
Lethe muttered insults under his breath between mentions of his knee as Ares returned the horses and hopped onto the blonde pony.
Ana helped hoist Lethe up, whispering into his hear, “I told you so.”
He paused from his cursing to laugh, perhaps at her audacity, and then fell silent as they reached the horses.
“How long does it take you to heal?” Ana asked.
“Don’t mention the healing or he’ll turn me into a human pincushion,” Lethe responded under his breath.
“I already know about the healing,” Ares said, turning back onto the path before starting to ride off.
“Cal,” Lethe and Ana both whispered in unison accusingly before Ana hopped onto her own horse.
“Yes,” Ares confirmed ahead as they both started to follow behind them.
“What? He has super hearing too?” Lethe complained, leaning over as he still gripped his knee that bled profusely down his pants.
Ana gave Lethe a knowing look, and they fell silent for the rest of the ride.
* * *
The remainder of the journey was tense and quiet. Ana was still trying to wrap her head around what had happened and what still could happen. She tried to imagine Ares’s plan for them all. Between John Hailey and Ares, it didn’t quite feel like there was much room for them to move on their own.
She continued to glance over at Lethe, who minute by minute seem to relax until he was sitting fully up, head tilted forward with exhaustion as if he were ready to fall asleep.
Eventually, they made their way to a refurbished cabin in a valley, with more horses tied up outside. Ares hopped off his horse and tied it up near the others. He removed his gun, propping it up onto his shoulder as Ana and Lethe dismounted. They followed him up the cabin porch. He opened the door, and they entered to find Jasper and Cal sitting on the couches inside, mid-conversation. Cal had his Atlas out on a table, sitting with his legs crossed on the couch and a pillow in his lap.
“They knew better than to run off,” Ares said, deadpan in the wake of Lethe and Ana’s complete and utter silence. Ares traversed the room and hung his rifle up on the wall, in full view and reach of the room. “As far as what is to be done about our varied interests, we have a lot to discuss.”
He walked through the living room, removing the faded purple apron from the doorframe inside the kitchen. “But before that, let’s rest. I brought in water from a well not far from here to cook with. Jasper and Cal, please go out to the garden and gather some herbs and mushrooms. Lethe, help yourself to a change of clothes upstairs.” He pulled a knife from a drawer and a pile of potatoes from the counter. He sliced open the bag, allowing them to spill over a chopping board. “Ana, will you help me here?”
Lethe marched into the room, searching the enclosure once and then twice as if for some type of threatening weapon, even a cage. “You’re kidding me,” he muttered, pulling pillows off the couch around Jasper and Cal like he was convinced a bomb might be hiding behind them. A pillow in each hand, he stared at both of them. The lack of evidence of a struggle seemed to offend every sensibility he had left.
“What happened to you two?” Cal asked, glancing between him and Ana.
Lethe cursed, whacking Cal across the head with one pillow and then tossing the other back onto the couch before storming outside. The door slammed behind him.
Ana walked into the room, searching it just as Lethe had. She looked at Jasper. “You two have just been waiting here like this all along?”
“Ares said if we tried anything he’d kill you,” Jasper said. “I’ve heard enough of the stories. He said he wanted to talk with you. We both thought it would be best to listen.”
She could hardly blame him. She would’ve done the same thing. She looked up at Ares in the kitchen.
“Friends are like lifelines,” Ares said, which seemed to catch Cal’s attention in particular.
Ares sliced the potatoes with a distinct chop that echoed from the kitchen. “If you pull on one, then you tug on them all.”
Chapter 18: Ares
“ANA,” ARES CHIMED from inside the kitchen.
