Page 29 of Love, Nemesis (Ocean to Ashes #2)

“ANA,” ARES CHIMED from inside the kitchen.

Cal moved to go outside, and Jasper followed as he exchanged glances with Ana.

“I’ll be fine,” she whispered, nodding once as Jasper stepped out.

Ana walked uneasily into the kitchen. She washed her hands with a damp cloth before grabbing a pot from the wall and filling it with water.

With great tact, Ares peeled and chopped the potatoes. Ana eyed the clock tattoo on his trigger finger. All hands of the clock were filled in, signifying him as the First Hour.

She scanned the cabin as she slowly poured the water from a bucket into the pot.

“This was a home for me before it was a hideout,” Ares said without looking at her.

“A place for my thoughts, like that secret cabin you have out near Satellite.” He spoke as though they were old friends catching up.

It was his current mode of operating. Ana quickly remembered what it was like to interact with Ares.

She turned her eyes from the rest of the house, realizing the water was running over.

“Now you’re just showing off,” she said, trying to sound casual and earning a subtle smile from him. She certainly wished her cabin was still a secret, a secret Hailey had never set foot in.

Ana pulled back her sleeves, grabbing several vegetables on the counter and washing them in the bucket, the pot now set to the side.

“Tell me about your painting,” Ares said.

“I haven’t painted in years,” she said, feeling suddenly embarrassed.

“I started several months ago.”

“I’m sure you’ve already mastered it.” She picked up several tomatoes and started to clean them before setting them aside near Ares.

The tension was palpable for her, though she knew Ares couldn’t sense it.

She tried to recall their long exchange again in the bell tower. What did she remember about him?

“Do you still sculpt?” she asked.

“I lost interest,” Ares replied. “But painting and drawing…they have been my constant companions these past weeks. I tried to recreate a painting you did years ago. It’s a scene with so many different blues. It’s like looking right into a vibrant sky. What did you call it?”

She thought through her paintings first, quickly followed by how he could have ever seen them. She’d given up painting ever since her accident.

“Setting Sail,” she said, remembering the one he referenced. It had never been her favorite.

“Setting Sail,” Ares whispered. “It filled me with some kind of longing, like I could have a piece of space and freedom and life and keep it all to myself. That’s art. You have a gift.”

“Thank you,” Ana replied, and she listened to his knife sliding through the potatoes until Jasper returned inside and set the herbs on the counter. As he did, he made eye contact with Ana, who nodded in affirmation that she was fine.

“You can relax,” Ares said. “Ana knows I will not hurt her.”

Not quite, but she was pleased to hear it.

“Jasper, you need to be less preoccupied with her,” Ares said, taking the herbs and positioning them before slicing through them in bunches. “You aren’t doing her or yourself any favors.”

Jasper looked stunned. He looked back at Ana. Her lips pursed as she shrugged at him.

He walked off, clearly sorting through the statement.

“Was I off-color?” Ares asked as Jasper walked away, a statement she’d heard him say a multitude of times in the bell tower when he thought he’d said something he wasn’t sure the average man or woman would.

“Not quite,” she said, facing the counter. “But I wouldn’t say it again.”

“Understood. Take this. Crush it.” He pushed a pestle and mortar toward her with a mix of herbs and what smelled like garlic.

She started to crush it.

“Interesting group you have here.” Ares continued to work the knife, the blade always seeming to come dangerously close to his fingers. He didn’t slow down at all as he talked.

Ana couldn’t help but be wary of the blade. It was a combat knife, not a kitchen knife, after all.

“I almost felt bad taking the green hostage. He was very scared. Jasper talked him through it. I was grateful. Luckily, you all understand the nature of my previous career and have the intelligence to listen…well, most of you at least.”

“It wasn’t our choice to bring the green,” Ana said. “His name is Cal. He was our soft spot.”

“Soft spot of the orange. Did you think of that?” Ares asked, pulling from a vast collection of perfectly stored memory. “Creative of your brain to remember that then. I like it. You know, I didn’t want to do things this way. I was going to talk to you outside of camp last night.”

“Last night?” she asked, looking over at him.

“Yes. I would have invited you all to dinner, not breakfast. I was glad to see you. Ideally, I would have spoken to you then, but I didn’t realize the nature of your new partner.”

“My new—you mean Lethe?” she asked.

“Yes. I didn’t want to risk anything. He’s impulsive, with little regard to the logic of safety. Jasper would stay put and so would you. I didn’t want to kill anyone, really. Not yet. I’m trying to do that less these days.”

“So, you weren’t surprised when he ran off,” she grumbled, realizing how thoroughly she’d been played.

They all had. She wiped her face with the back of her hand as the mist from the garlic caught her eye.

She passed it back to Ares. He set it aside near the pot before handing her other produce to chop for a half-prepared salad he’d already put together on the opposite counter.

He gave her a knife, chopping cucumbers with his now. Even though she wasn’t planning on using it, she did feel the slightest bit more comfortable with steel in her hand.

“I saw him hunt down Evira. I imagined he’d go back for her. I was still slightly taken aback by his complete disregard for a perceived threat. I knew it was unlikely you’d find him in ten minutes, which was perfect. I had to make a point.”

Ana glanced back to see Lethe now right outside, opening the door wide before peering in and then leaving the door open.

“Yeah,” she said as she finished her task. “It’s that Rider blood of his, I’m sure.”

“Rider?” Ares asked.

“He’s a Rider of Saint East.”

Ares put down his knife.

Ana looked over to see him fixated on her.

“You are being serious,” he observed. “They’re all supposed to be dead.”

“You’re really that surprised? In all of En Sanctus, you didn’t think there was one straggler who had survived?” Ana asked.

Ares looked past her shoulder with an intensity in his eyes that made her regret telling him. She realized too late that there could have been more than a strategic reason for him choosing a cabin out here.

“You’re a fan,” she prodded.

He reached down and hiked up his pants leg, exposing a tattoo—several lines from the Riders’ sayings, many of which were etched along the cave walls of the Dragon’s Spine.

“Somehow, I’m not surprised,” Ana said after a while.

Ares dropped his pants leg and finished putting the meal together in a rush as if she were no longer there. He left the potatoes to cook.

“Jasper and Cal seem to be enjoying the outdoors,” Ares said, craning his neck to peer out the window. “I am going to speak with your new lover.”

“His name is Lethe,” Ana corrected sharply.

“Was I off-color?” Ares asked, drying his hands off with a towel before handing it to her.

She copied his motion.

“I just, lover—never mind.”

“Understood.”

Ana put the towel on the counter, leaning against it as Ares walked past her.

She looked through the open door. Lethe was out on the porch, watching the fields.

She wondered if he was reminiscing, though she was sure he was keeping a wary ear inside.

It was clear he didn’t like being here by the way he paced back and forth.

Ana returned to the living room as Jasper walked in, and they sat close together as Ares walked outside, catching Lethe’s attention.

Jasper waited to speak to her, both of them seeming to sit with tense patience.

“How is Cal?” Ana asked, scanning the room.

“Out in the garden still. I don’t think he knows what to do with the infamous Ares, but he’s enjoying the garden a bit too much.

He won’t stop talking about this cute farm girl back at the State.

You’d think he’d completely missed the bit about our lives being in danger.

You know if Ares wanted to off us all right now, he—”

“I know.”

“What happened to you?” Jasper asked, looking her over.

“He made a run for it,” Ana replied flatly, nodding her chin in Lethe’s direction.

“Evira did too, I guess. Didn’t she?”

Ana rubbed her face. She couldn’t tell Jasper here. Not now.

Her thoughts flickered back to that moment in the rain, the discussion about The Great Light, Lethe kissing her wrist, her neck, her lips. She was embarrassed by it now. She could still feel his hands as they moved along her waist, still wanted them there.

What would Jasper think if he knew that too? Circumstances had changed so suddenly and yet not at all.

She and Jasper both perked up as Ares laughed joyously. Lethe was leaning over and pointing at something in the mountains. He was unusually talkative.

“They made friends really fast,” Jasper said suspiciously, leaning back on the couch with his arms crossed. “Did you hear that laugh? He’s giddy.”

Ana kept her eyes on them. “Yeah.”

After her most recent talk with Ares and her last interaction with Lethe, it worried her that the two men seemed to connect so easily. Both of them also seemed to have very firm ideas about the kind of person she was. What kind of people was she drawing in?

“Do we need a plan?” Jasper asked. Thank Jasper, he was her only outlier, a flag of sensibility in her vastly changing world.

She felt a pang of guilt and kept rubbing her face.

“Ana,” Jasper prodded.

“I’m not sure yet. Something tells me we’re a part of a plan already. Let’s let Ares make the first move.”