He regards us with a slight head nod and waits until Roman returns with two chairs from the meeting room for me and him to sit on.
“Well? Did you get your dark cities like you wanted?” Roman asks in an annoyed tone.
Nolan grins and nods. “Yes, in a way, I did.” His voice is cold and smooth, a familiar sound that both makes me shudder and curious. Have we met before? I think about it but come up blank. “Roman, my time as the general has been reaching its expiration date. I’m sure you’ve noticed, as has Captain Bridger, I’m fucking tired. Too tired to steal the youth from recruits and tired of playing all these senseless games with our corrupt system. The Forces are a young man’s campaign.”
The general’s eyes find me, and they make me still.
“You always reminded me of her, of Private Gallows,” Nolan says, sounding nostalgic. It makes me uncomfortable since I have no idea who this Gallows person is. “Your resilience in the face of cruel men and their bad manners. Maybe it’s why I chose you to begin with.” He lets out a long breath.
What does that mean? Chose me? I don’t think I’ve met this man before. I look at the others and find them all staring at me with knitted brows. They know something that I don’t.
“What is he talking about?” I ask Roman.
He squeezes my hand and looks at me tenderly. “You’re like me, Briar. You’re…” He lets his words trail off and swallows thickly a few times. Pain lingers in his gaze, and he won’t look me in the eyes.
“Project Lethe,” Nolan answers for him.
Lethe?Why does that word make the back of my neck prickle. It’s almost as if my body and subconscious mind know more than I do.
My eyes widen and I shake my head, confused at what this psychopath is getting at. “What does that mean?”
Nolan walks up to me and tilts my jaw with his cold hand until I meet his eyes. “It means that you’ve been in the Dark Forces’ care for many years, Briar. We’ve fed you stories and fake memories as if they were sweet dreams. A life you never truly had. And yet, you of all the other candidates, remained wholeduring the process. Your humanity stayed intact, and you always leaned on love. The perfect sleeper.”
That…can’t be true. My memories aren’t artificial, I remember my parents so vividly—my jaw flexes when I try to picture their faces. It’s like a hazy photograph of strangers. Faces blurred, and I can’t pull any specific features from them.
I look at Roman. “He’s lying… That’s not true.”
Roman’s brows pinch, and his eyes linger on my neck. “Tell me where you were when you were on the run from Callum. It was months ago, right? Where did you go after Seattle but before you came here?” He gently rubs his thumb over the back of my hand with empathetic eyes.
I open my mouth to reply but come up blank. I blink a few times. Where did I go…I was on the move. Wait, no. I was… I was…
“You don’t know, do you? You only remember driving into town.” Nolan’s voice skates across my nerves, sending chills over my arms and a pit in my stomach.
“But… I remember my father, he passed away.” I sound like I’m not sure, because the more I think about it the fuzzier everything is. Is that why I feel nothing when it comes to the death of them? But that would make me…
Lethe.I hear the name clearly in the recesses of my mind.
“And your entire family, too, isn’t that right? Do you remember any of them? What job did you have in Seattle before meeting Callum?” the general asks as he walks slowly back to the center of the room.
I’m quiet. So is everyone else.
“Oh my God.” I swallow the dread in my throat. Because I can’t remember. “Who…am I?” I stare down at my ?hands, studying ?the scars in a new light. Many of them I have no recollection of how I got them. My throat tightens, and tears brim in my eyes.
Roman runs his hand through my hair. “You’re Briar Thornton.”
I blink and look up at him. I don’t feel like anyone else except me. Even if my memories are fake, it doesn’t rob the warmth of them. The diner with my dad and gardening with my mom… Even if it’s fake, like an altered scar, it’s a story that let me keep my heart.
“Briar Thornton isn’t real,” I choke the words out with a teary smile.
Roman offers a gentle smile that warms my soul. “Neither is Roman Syxx.”
He pulls me in and wraps his arms around me in a tight embrace.We really are man-made monsters.
Nolan pulls five black dog tags withDFengraved on them from his pocket and holds them out toward us. “Lieutenant Roman Syxx. I am hereby announcing my retirement from the Dark Forces, and your promotion into the role of the commanding general.”
Roman’s eyes widen, and he stands abruptly from his chair. The metal clanks loudly against the floor. “What? No, you said we’d get our freedom. Not put me into another position.” He doesn’t sound angry, more shocked.
“You may walk free, if it’s what you truly want. What do I care? I’m done, but Roman, the Dark Forces are evolving—just as the world around us is. With you as the commanding general of the new branch, think of the possibilities.”
