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“You can open your eyes now, my love.”

Hera blinked. Then blinked again.

Her love?

“I didn’t know I could?”

Nemesis’s smile was fond. Hera wanted to bask in it. Drink it by the gallon. Like nectar.

“I understand the reluctance to do so in the presence of our family. They can be a lot.”

“Our?”

Hera lifted a weak hand and traced the full lower lip, feeling Nemesis smile against her fingertips.

“Our. If you think that after everything you pulled⁠—”

“I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I was…” Hera stopped, thoughts running into one another in her mind, scrambled and confused. “I don’t know. Millenia of disrespect, eternity of denigration. Being his forever scapegoat. I wanted him to burn. I was ready to die for it. Moreover, I thought him getting another wife would render me useless anyway. And I didn’t realize that living would be the best revenge.”

“I am the best Revenge.”

Nemesis’s smile bloomed wider. Hera kept caressing it, struggling to believe this was real.

“You are the only Revenge. Mine.”

Nemesis laughed, a low, wicked sound.

“It’s in writing now. Clio was right to fawn over the bureaucracy. The Fates do have their Ts crossed and Is dotted, you know.”

Hera tucked a lock of mahogany hair behind the surprisingly ticklish ear, making Nemesis twitch at the touch. Her heart overflowed with tenderness. She almost forgot the question she wanted to ask. Almost.

Ts? Is? What?

“You signed a bargain that if you were to break his heart, your own heart would be theirs, along with your soul. And while they could have had some claims over the soul part, since you gave your heart in an act of true love to me, they could not claim it. So the bargain was in jeopardy. Either of us could have pressed for a resolution. We’d have had to get Justice involved, and nobody has seen her in ages, anywhere in the world.”

Nemesis caressed her face, touching her like the touch alone was the point. Hera felt tears fill her eyes.

“And you did, I take it? Press?”

Nemesis lifted their joined hands and kissed her knuckles.

“My favor. You owed me first. When we struck our own deal, you wanted my help, and I wanted… I wanted you, in any shape or form. You agreed without ever asking me, which should’ve perhaps been my clue you were on some mission of no return.”

Nemesis gave her a heavy glare. Hera shivered not unpleasantly. Nemesis lifted her eyes to the heavens.

“Dammit, woman, never again. “ Hera nodded solemnly and nemesis went on. “Anyway, in the end, it was the sum of all things. What you owed me in exchange for the favor was the heart you gave me willingly. That was my argument. That the Fates had no claim on what was no longer yours. As for your soul… Well, now, I owe them a favor.”

“No!” Hera sat up in bed only to be gently pushed back down. “You hate owing favors. Those you owe favors to always drag you to Hell! Oftentimes literally. Nemesis⁠—”

She was met with a kiss on her forehead.

“You think I wouldn’t descend into Hell for you?”

Hera let herself sink back on the pillows, pulling the now serious face closer. The eyes had lost some of their ice, watching her closely, seeing her thoughts. Hera caught herself thinking she didn’t mind. Not now, not with this woman.

“No, I think you’d have challenged Hades to release me. And you’d have not turned to see if I followed.”

The flash of a smile was her answer at first, then she received another forehead kiss.