Page 20 of Love, Nemesis (Ocean to Ashes #2)

SEVERAL MORE DAYS of the journey yielded much of the same, only with the increasing tension that they were growing closer to the conclusion of it all.

If Evira was right, Crow was camped out in the Dragon’s Spine, and every mile closer increased their chances of finding him.

The mountains loomed ominously in the near distance, filling the horizon like a cresting tidal wave of sheer rock and stone.

Lethe observed that everyone seemed to handle it in their own unique ways.

Evira had started keeping her distance from him, knowing perhaps that once he had access to Ares, he wouldn’t need her anymore.

Cal, on the other hand, stayed attached to his hip, his current positioning a perfect example as Cal sat in the grass next to Lethe at their latest camp near the foot of the mountains.

In the regular spirit of things, Evira announced she was going to scout the area and hopped on her horse before riding off. One day soon, he knew, she wouldn’t come back.

Lethe leaned back on his elbows, watching as Jasper directed Ana toward a possible site for a campfire. She started gathering sticks as he unsaddled her horse, giving it grain before moving to his own.

“You see that,” Lethe said, lifting a finger in their direction.

“What?” Cal asked, looking past a leaf he was now balancing over his stomach.

He always needed some trinket to play around with—leaves, pinecones, sometimes one of Lethe’s things.

Lethe never minded it, as his fingers were just as fidgety, though he had to direct Cal to leave his Snake Bite tablets be.

He wasn’t exactly ready to risk anything happening to those. It wouldn’t be good for anyone.

“Have you noticed how he asks her to do something but he’s just distracting her from the things he wants to do for her? He’s taking care of her,” Lethe said.

It was one of many observations he’d picked apart. Jasper and Ana were a fortress, and pushing on them only tightened their ranks. However, in the presence of peace and silence, their dynamic unfolded organically.

The ROSE had come to worship many things.

Spirituality had been the ever-present counterbalance to the violence their cause demanded.

Some ROSE even worshiped the essence of different emotions, revering and idolizing spirits of happiness, sadness, rage, and grief because Strike struggled to feel these things.

Emotions became a hallmark of the human experience, and the ROSE bowed at their feet.

Unanimously, the ROSE revered the Sanctus Ghost, which was the essence of faith and spirituality itself, but Lethe’s personal goddess was silence.

Everything began and ended with silence.

Everything that was ever truly meant to be ran its course in silence, and he had the feeling that there was something between him and Ana that was meant to be.

They’d interacted very little, but he could feel strings tugging in that vacancy, and patiently, he waited for the right moment to pull them harder.

“I don’t see it,” Cal said, glancing between them. “But I mean it makes sense, I guess.”

“Does it?” Lethe asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t know a lot, but people know about Ana because of her early retirement.

I think she and Jasper have been friends for a long time,” Cal said, lifting the leaf in front of his face, twisting it still.

It was browned at the edges, touched by the fall air ushered in from the mountains. “They entered the Numbers together.”

“But they aren’t lovers?” Lethe asked, already making his own assumptions and partially just wanting to prod at Cal’s reserved sensibilities.

Cal shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know. As far as I know, she doesn’t really have those, and people talk.”

“Really?” He raised his eyebrows, looking back over at Cal.

Cal shrugged. “She’s not really the type, I guess.”

“The type? The type for what?”

“I don’t know. Anything serious, I guess. They call her the Iron Maiden,” Cal replied, staring at his leaf as if it were the most important thing in the world.

“The Iron Maiden? Like the torture device?”

“What?” This caught the boy’s attention.

“Like a shell with spikes on the inside. They used to lock people in them,” Lethe explained, gesturing with his hands as if that might help paint the picture.

“What?”

“Never mind. It’s way before your lifetime…or world…I guess. Keep going. You said something about Ana.”

“She kept to herself when she joined the Numbers. We all thought maybe she and Jasper were something. There were a couple of others in their group. Diane, she’s an Hour now, out on the border, and then Rule. He was part of the State’s science division. They were always together.”

“Anything with either of them?” Lethe continued to prod.

“You mean Rule?” Cal asked.

“Sure. Or the other one.”

“Diane? Diane’s a woman,” Cal said, staring at Lethe as if confused by the question.

“You have a lot to learn, kid,” Lethe said, exasperated. “Either of them?”

Cal tilted his head. “Not that I know of, I guess. We really thought she and Jasper would get married or something, but no.”

“You really know a lot about this. Marriage big in the State too, I take it? People in En Sanctus can’t seem to get enough of it. Got to find something else to do without a war going on.”

“Everyone talks about the Numbers,” Cal said before he dropped the leaf on his stomach and reached for another one. “Mainly Hours and what they’re doing, but Ana’s situation two years ago at Dal Hull made her kind of popular for a while.” He proceeded to share the details freely.

“I see,” Lethe muttered. “So, one of the Numbers’ most accomplished Hours dies from doing sloppy work on a high-level mission because he doesn’t activate his Atlas in time and gets crushed in a mine. That doesn’t sound suspicious at all to you?”

“Why are you so curious about—”

“This isn’t a mission, this is death march, and there is no way Ana likes that Jasper is along for it,” Lethe mumbled. “Blood in the water between those two. Finally, ” he groaned. “Found it!”

He’d been trying to poke holes in their dynamic for days.

Something about their relationship was completely fabricated despite how close they appeared. Jasper could be a name-brand Statesman, clearly compensating for his Mystic heritage—and that hair.

That’s not real either ,he thought. Ana and Jasper were both playing make-believe and it irked him to his core. Ana was trying to keep the peace but—bah, peace.

“I hate it.” He voiced the rest of his thought out loud.

“What are you mumbling about?” Cal asked. “It sounds like a lot of guesswork.”

“Instinct,” Lethe whispered and then let the statement rest for a moment. “I like you, Cal. No secrets.”

“Thanks. I guess. Should that have been a secret?” Cal asked, honestly.

Lethe hesitated, watching Jasper and Ana engage in a conversation near their horses that seemed like it would last several more minutes.

All right, maybe Evira isn’t completely wrong. A little fun won’t hurt anyone , he thought. Even Manaj had to understand. Cal was such an easy target.

“Hmm…I think I’m in love,” Lethe said.

Cal dropped the leaf on his lap. He looked over at Lethe as if unsure about what he’d heard, and what response to give.

“You’re in love? You don’t even know her.”

“Yep,” Lethe said flatly.

The boy kept stumbling over the idea. “She doesn’t even like you, right? I’m pretty sure she really dislikes you.”

“I’m convinced,” Lethe said, eyes narrowing.

Cal continued to watch him as if analyzing him. “Do—” he started and then stopped as if thinking better of his question. “I mean do Riders, I guess…love people like normal?”

Lethe smirked. “What do you mean?”

Cal still stared, seeming uncertain how to explain his next point. His mouth hung slightly agape, like he was waiting for Lethe to reveal suddenly that he was joking. Cal sat up. “I mean…” he scratched his head. “Do you want to bring her flowers or something or…”

“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.”

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.