Ernie bopped in front of me, nodding. “There may be no one here; the pantheon on Zeus’s side may not have shown up at all.”

“True, but I doubt it. I think they would try and make things happen even without Zeus. I think Smithy will organize them.” At least, that was what I was hoping for. I passed by the shoes and the lingerie section, then hit the swinging doors that led into the back storage room. To my right was a set of stairs, and I hurried up it, not bothering to be quiet. At the top, there was a single door, and I didn’t knock. Just turned the handle and pushed my way in. And pushed was the right term. The room was loaded with people. At the front of the room was Smithy, and his eyes shot to mine. “Alena! You’re alive?”

“For now,” I said and shoved my way to the front of the room. I took a good look around. Yaya was there, or at least I thought it was Yaya. The woman I’d called grandmother for so long stared at me from a face as young as mine. Again the doubts surfaced about her motives, and I had to push them away. One problem at a time. “I need to get to Hera.”

“That’s what we’re all discussing,” a woman said, and I turned to see Artemis watching me, her body bristling with weapons. “Hera has made it clear that she will not be coming out of hiding anytime soon.”

A surge of anger flushed through me, and I struggled not to shift right there. Breathing carefully, I got the urge under control after a few deep breaths. I looked around. Everyone had peeled back from me and had pressed up against the various walls. I wanted to laugh. I blew out a breath. “I think—no, I know—this has to be a full-on assault. I will meet the Hydra and Hercules, but I need the rest of you to actually stand with me.”

“You want us to fight for you?” a man from the back slurred, his eyes not entirely focusing on me. I struggled to place him for about three seconds before I recalled his name in the recesses of my early learning. God of wine. Of course we would get him on our side. “No, Dionysus. I don’t want you to fight for me. I want you to face the pantheon that Hera has brought to her side. I will face the monsters; you keep the rest from attacking me.”

“And the vampires?” Yaya asked, arching a delicate dark-brown eyebrow at me. “They are completely out of control without Remo or Santos guiding them, though that young one, Max, is making an effort.”

A bakery full of smoke and burnt cookies when there was a line of customers waiting outside couldn’t have been more stressful, though it was close. I went through my options quickly in my head. There wasn’t a lot I had left to me.

“I need the vampires held off; they can’t be brought into this. I will deal with them if I survive.” I stared hard at her. “You and your priestesses got any juice left in you?”

She grinned, a slow spreading of her lips that made me think I wouldn’t want to cross her, even if she was my yaya. “That we do.”

“Great. Get the last of the SDMP together, and they can help you with the vampires.” I glanced at Smithy, and he nodded.

“I’ll put in a call to Oberfall. He’ll help,” he said.

I looked back to my yaya, who seemed fiercer than I’d ever recalled her being. “Keep them off me until I can deal with Hera.”

My shockingly youthful grandmother gave a salute. “General.”

Someone at the back raised her hand and pushed forward. It was the satyr and healer Damara. Her horns glittered in the fluorescent lights. “What about the rest of us who aren’t actually part of the pantheon?”

I thought for a moment. “Triage. Do what you can to keep the casualties down. Get the humans and Super Dupers who don’t want to be a part of the fight out of the area.”

She nodded. “Done.”

I looked around the room, seeing all the faces. Seeing they were looking to me to make it happen. They thought I could take out a goddess. A sudden wave of anxiety flushed through me, but before it took root, I pushed it away, forcing it back. “No more hiding. We do this and bring Hera to her knees. If I . . . do this right, you will all be free to divorce those you want to.”

Behind me, Smithy jerked as if I’d punched him in the gut. “Why would you do that?”

I didn’t look at him. “Because it is the only thing I could do to convince Hades to stop the virus. It’s a boon for all of you, though.” I did look at him then. “You can be free from the bonds that have held you all for so long, if you want.”

They seemed stunned, so I kept talking. “Ernie, you said that you knew where Hercules and the Hydra are holed up?”

He nodded and lowered himself to stand on the table. “Yes.”

I was ready, I could do this. “Then take us there.”

CHAPTER 19

It didn’t take long to mobilize everyone. The pantheon had their own ways of traveling, and I sent them all off first. As the room emptied, they touched me, wished me luck, and in general said their good-byes. Artemis gave me a nod, as if I should know what she was getting at. I just nodded back.

Panacea was the last to leave, and she took both my hands in hers. “You have a bit of a healer’s touch, Alena. You are not all monster and power and rage. Remember that.” She leaned in and kissed me on the mouth, surprising me, and then she was gone.

Okay, so Panacea wasn’t really the last one in the room. “Why are you really doing this?” Smithy said.

“My family, Remo, my life. I want it back, Smithy. Hera is not going to stop, which means either I die or I find a way to thwart her. I can’t keep living like this. Running, fighting, trying to find a life, trying to find peace when around every corner someone I love is threatened.” I thought about Remo lying in the hospital bed, my heart breaking. What would I do if I lost him?