Page 53 of Love, Nemesis (Ocean to Ashes #2)

ANA HAD EXPECTED Lethe to argue with her more. She knew in her renewed convictions she’d wounded him, but for the first time in her life, she’d known without a doubt the right way forward.

In many ways, he was to thank for that, but judging by the way he’d recoiled at her statement in the cabin, she knew she couldn’t tell him that, not yet.

She was so grateful to him. Grateful in ways she could not express. Unwittingly, he’d released her from the burden of her own life simply by witnessing and absolving her of her shame and her guilt. Now, she did feel like a ghost, but not one who haunts.

She felt ready at last to move on to whatever waited behind The Great Light.

She was tempted to express this on their way back to the city, but the silence was raw between them. Lethe, so often a man of quick and sharp commentary, showed great pain in the simple act of his silence.

I am so grateful , she kept waiting to say, kept wanting to take the feelings and infuse them into him, so he could understand the depth of what he’d done for her, but maybe that was selfish.

He’d made it very clear that the illusion of her existence still captivated something in him, and maybe for that reason, more than others, she knew it was okay for her to let go of this life at last. In the end, she really had meant something to the world, real or not.

Ana expected more obstacles on her way to Hailey’s office.

She knew she’d be the primary suspect in Hailey’s death, and had expected to face a full force of Numbers upon her return.

The city and government had been in a scramble, not only in light of Hailey’s death but also due to the emerging threat of the Mystic army that had been spotted only a few miles away.

The offices of the Var and Sub-Var had been evacuated to safer quarters, which made their passage easier.

It also helped that Lethe had been keen on their route to Hailey’s office, and seemed to have a distinct sense of the movements of people within the capital.

Strange as his uncanny sense of awareness was, Ana couldn’t help attributing it to his past experiences functioning in obscurity as a Rider of Saint East. His confidence now was, however, an odd change from his uncertainty back at the cabin.

Now, it was almost as if he wanted to find The Great Light as much as she did.

The more she came to know him, the less she understood about him, but as strange as it was, as she’d come to accept her own past, she’d recognized and connected with something in Lethe that felt intangible and, in its own way, unbreakable.

She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it, granted that it seemed largely out of her control. Right now, it was just a distraction, and as they searched Hailey’s office, she tried her best to keep her inner musings at bay.

She rushed through another stack of papers, a box on Hailey’s desk, and a few of his drawers.

Still nothing.

She glanced up at Lethe, keeping watch near the door with his arms crossed. As if sensing her gaze, he looked over at her.

“I’m sure we’ll find something,” he said. He seemed resolved to support her, but also withdrawn into himself. “You said Hailey never keeps the lab key on his person, right?”

They both looked sharply toward the corner of the room as something fell from a small wooden stand and shattered on the ground. Cal sat there on the ground with a metal box in his hand, working on the combination. During his fidgeting, he’d bumped a nearby wooden stand and knocked off the vase.

Ana had handed off the metal box she’d discovered in Hailey’s desk to Cal after trying every combination she could think of. Her next move after finishing her search of the office would likely be to beat that box with anything she could find.

Cal grinned sheepishly. “Sorry,” he whispered.

Lethe and Ana exchanged glances.

“Why did you insist on bringing him?” she asked.

Lethe shrugged. “He’s a wildcard. I like wildcards.”

Ana kept shuffling through Hailey’s desk. “I feel like we have enough wildcards.”

Another few minutes passed. Lethe leaned his head out the door at one point and whispered something, which caught her attention.

“Hey,” she said, but he didn’t lean back in. Now, it looked as if he was waving someone over.

Ana ran over to the door. Lethe opened it just in time for Diane to storm in. She and Ana nearly ran into each other, and face to face, Diane simply stared for a moment. Her eyes looked down at Chronos, then the office, then Cal.

Ana explained their motives, leaving Diane still standing there as she processed the events as they’d transpired. She glanced at Lethe, eyes narrowing.

“How did you recognize me?” she asked.

Ana looked at Lethe too. That was a good question.

“You’re in an Hour’s uniform sneaking around the capitol building alone. I took an educated guess,” he said.

“Still seems like a risk,” Diane said.

Lethe unfolded his arms, revealing the cherry knife tucked along the inside of his forearm. “Not really.”

Diane looked over at Ana, eyebrow raised, “I like him.”

Ana rolled her eyes, pulling Diane into the room to search. Without another word, Diane started tearing through the office too, looking for the lab key.

“So, you’re really okay now with breaking it?” Diane said, causing Lethe to look back into the room curiously, the door cracked beside him.

“Yes,” Ana replied. “The truth needs to get out.”

“Some of your family and friends could be illusions,” Diane replied, looking behind picture frames now before heading toward the box that Cal had. “The entire State could just be an illusion. Poof.”

“I know.”

“Generations of people will disappear. Natural disasters and damage in En Sanctus will be uncovered. Mass graveyards, pollution, miles of wreckage will appear again.”

“I know,” Ana replied simply, looking up to see Lethe and Diane exchange glances.

“What?” Ana straightened. “Is something wrong? Now that I’ve decided that this is something that needs to be done, you’re both hesitating? What is it?”

Lethe looked back out into the hallway.

Diane stopped fidgeting with the combination. “I’m sorry. We should have told you from the start.” She ran her sleeve across her temple, wiping away traces of sweat.

Ana kept searching through the things in the drawers, piling them on top of each other on the desk.

“You were doing what you thought was right, and you’re right.

If you’d told me earlier, I’m pretty sure I would have completely disagreed.

I’m stubborn and don’t change my opinions easily.

I can admit that. I was afraid too. I just hope I get to explain the same things to Jasper before all of this is over. ”

She straightened, running her hands through her hair with an exasperated sigh. Before she could say another word, Cal shouted and stumbled up and away from the box. It flipped out of his lap and rolled onto the floor, a large, heavy key falling out.

They all stared.

“Cal,” Ana said, weaving through the furniture to pick up the key. She ran her fingers over it. “You found it.”

“I was just playing around,” Cal replied, hands lifted as if he were guilty.

“Wildcard,” Lethe muttered from the door.

“Diane,” Ana addressed her, “what’s going on now with the Mystics? Shouldn’t they be here by now?”

“Yes,” Diane said, walking up to the window. “Ares went into the Mystics’ camp a few nights ago to plan the next stage of the attack, but ever since, it’s like everything’s come to a stalemate. Last I heard, they were delaying the attack.”

“Until when?” Ana asked.

Diane turned away from the window, looking over her shoulder with a view of the horizon on her back. “Today,” she said. “They should be coming over those hills any second. Not sure what the delays were about.”

“So, they were supposed to get here sooner? Maybe Ares was doing us a favor,” Ana said. “Can you deliver news to the army that Hailey is dead?”

“Chances are that they know already.”

“Can you guarantee it?” Ana asked.

Diane hesitated and then nodded. “All right, I get it. Cal, you’re coming with me.”

“You? Why?” Cal asked, getting to his feet.

“Because I said so,” Diane said, leaving the office.

Lethe looked at Cal and nodded after Diane. Cal skirted past Ana before whispering something to Lethe.

Lethe’s eyes narrowed, and Cal’s concerned expression caught Ana’s attention as he rushed off.

“What did he say?” Ana said. Lethe unfolded his arms. He looked past her, and Ana turned to see Hailey’s calendar hanging on the wall.

“The combination,” Lethe said pensively. “It was today’s date.”

“What?” She looked back at Lethe. “That’s not possible.”

“Maybe it was a coincidence,” Lethe said sarcastically.

“What does that even mean?” Ana asked, and then looked around as if for some sign that today’s date was relevant in any other way. It wasn’t.

He signed. “I don’t know. Nothing good, if anything at all. You ready to go?”

Ana sat for a moment. Had Hailey, somehow, known he was going to die? Had he known, despite delays, the Mystic army would somehow show up today.

“Not unless he could look into the future. Unlikely,” Lethe said, with such clear relevance to her thoughts as if he’d just read them.

Ana opened her mouth questioningly and he raised his eyebrows.

Educated guess , she could almost hear him saying and looked away.

“I guess there is no turning back now,” Ana breathed and walked through the door. They navigated the halls again, Ana leading them both to the great, locked doors of the science unit.

She inserted the key into the door. If she merely broke the blue shell, the entire conflict would come to an end. The world would breathe its first breath of truth in a long time.