He was gone in a flash, and I didn’t watch to make sure he did as I asked. I didn’t need to. I trusted him.

I wasn’t sure I had it in me to shift again, but in my belly, I knew Smithy was right. Again, I was faced with either bending my morals or dying. Life was worth fighting for, I knew that. I called the shift forward and let it take me. My snake form reared up, high above Hera, but only for a split second.

Hera’s form grew, rising up until she was the same size as me. This was what Smithy had meant, then.

A giant woman to face a giant snake. Oh dear, this was not going to go well. I pulled back, readying to strike, when she swept forward with her sword, which had also unfortunately grown in size. I fell backward, twisting to spin around until I faced her again, now from flat out on the ground. I wasn’t going to be fast enough. I could feel it in my blood and muscles. The toxins and then the healing from Panacea had taken too much out of me.

Hera smiled down at me, her hair spooling out all around her on a breeze I couldn’t feel. She looked every inch the warrior goddess, and I knew that fighting her would only end with one of us dead—most likely me. I flicked my tail out and slammed it into her legs, throwing her off balance. She stumbled sideways toward the Blue Box and barely caught her balance at the doors. The few humans left there cried out and stared up at her in horror.

I gathered the last of my reserves. This was like the last dessert at a bake-a-thon gone terribly wrong—I had to just hold on long enough to get through to the finish line. I coiled back, rising up higher than I ever had before, until I was almost completely on the back quarter of my tail. I was nearly twice my normal height as I slithered forward, moving as fast as I could. Hera spun up with her sword, and her eyes widened as she had to look up at me.

“Why won’t you just die?” She pulled her arm back for a swing, and it was my opening. I shot forward with the last of my reserves driving me. I coiled around her body and arms, squeezing her until she dropped the sword. Her body shrunk, like a deflating vanilla soufflé disappearing into my coils. I wasn’t going to lose her—not this time. I didn’t know if I could, but I thought about being smaller, shifting down to a comparable size.

Behind us, Ernie cheered. “Go, Alena, go! You’ve got her on the run.”

“Little shit,” Hera snarled. But I was following her in size, so as she finished her downsizing I was still there, wrapped around her, squeezing her tight, staring into her eyes. Something passed between us, and for a moment I saw myself. I saw a woman scorned, tossed aside like she was nothing, unloved by the man who should have stood by her forever. It cut through me as sharp as any weapon.

I shook, shifted, and stumbled away from her, shaking my head. “I can’t.”

The crowd around us sucked in a collective breath, and I slowly turned. Hera had her sword pointed at my neck, but she didn’t thrust it, didn’t swing it. “Why can’t you? You are a monster, you’re designed, created even, to kill and maim.”

“I . . . my husband cheated on me when I lay dying in my hospital bed. He used me for my money, he used me because I was a fool in love with him, my eyes closed to his faults.”

Her eyes narrowed, and I swallowed hard. “I know you don’t want to think this is about a divorce, that this isn’t about you and Zeus . . . but I would hate him too. And you know what? If you’d come to me first, I have no doubt I’d be on your side of the field. Because I understand what it means to be hurt by the one you love the best, the one who held your heart and crushed it in his unfeeling hands.”

She didn’t move. It was as if my words had frozen her. Her lips parted. “And what does it mean to me that we suddenly understand one another? You want to be friends?” She laughed and stepped back. “You are a fool. The pantheon doesn’t work that way.”

I kept my eyes on her. “Maybe I just want to help make things right. Maybe I want to see if you truly have the best interest of the world in you. You want to rule? Well, maybe you need to show some compassion. End the virus.”

I glanced at Ernie and nodded. From behind me shuffled those still able to walk but sick with the Aegrus virus. “You can save them, Hera,” I said. “You can be their hero.”

The crowd oohed, but Hera didn’t move, her eyes half-closed, her body still.

Those who were sick stumbled toward us, crying out for her to save them. That they would love her forever. Her eyes opened wide, a flash of pity in them. Hera slowly raised her sword, pointing it at Hades. “I will end the virus.”

The sick humans cried out. She glared at Hades. “Do it, Hades.”

“Are you sure? I think she’s just trying to make you do what—”

“Hades!” we both yelled at the same time. He grimaced, nodded.

“Fine.”

The humans stopped moving, and a flash of green light flickered above their heads, flowing down like pixie dust, coating them. Within seconds, they were cheering. Healed. I closed my eyes, praying that Remo was just as healed.

I shivered where I stood, and Hera stared at me. “Now what?”

I shrugged. “Divorce Zeus, but take half of everything. Including control of Olympus.” I gave her a small smile. “Make him pay for what he’s done, but hurt him, not the rest of us.”

She snorted, shook her head, and then looked over the parking lot. “And the pantheon? Would they split down the middle?”

“Not my issue,” I said. “I just want the virus stopped, and I don’t want to be stalked by your heroes anymore. Go kick Zeus’s ass. I’m tired.”