She squeezed me, mumbled something under her breath that I didn’t think was exactly an endearment and kept dragging.

I relaxed against her. Fighting would have just wasted energy. Besides, she obviously didn’t intend to hog-tie me and drive me somewhere herself, so this whole exercise could only have one conclusion: her letting me go and me heading right back.

You’d think she’d have known me better by now. Ten feet from my truck, she took a hard left. “My truck’s over there,” I said, letting my impatience to end the farce show.

She kept dragging. That’s when I got suspicious. I twisted, or tried to. Her arms held-as surely as titanium bars.

Another of her long-legged paces, even moving backward she could eat up ground at twice the pace I could, and we were beside a battered van-the windowless kind serial killers use to troll parking lots. Bubbe and one of the hearth-keepers I’d seen working in the cafeteria stood beside it.

I dug in my heels. Mother didn’t even slow her pace. The ground tugged on my boots as I jammed them into the earth. I pulled in a breath, my brain spinning through spells like cards on a Rolodex, searching for something I could use that would force her to release me without killing either of us.

“Melanippe.” Bubbe held up a hand, her face calm…understanding.

Hell no. I sucked in instead of blowing out and went limp, fell. The trick worked. It caught Mother, who was prepared for my fight, off guard. I slipped through her arms. She’d moved two giant steps backward before she realized the loss. By then I was jogging to the front.

I got as far as the corner, paused, again weighing shop or gym. And again, I didn’t have to make the choice. Someone made it for me-actually, a mob made it for me.

Amazons began pouring out the front, Alcippe in their lead. She took one look at me and yelled. Twenty pairs of angry feet pounded toward me. Instinctively I spun. Mother and Bubbe were a few feet behind me, both waving for me to come toward them, to run to the van and disappear. I leaned in their direction, my body automatically moving to safety. Then I remembered why I was here, that someone needed to face Alcippe, and that someone was me.

I turned back to the crowd and began mumbling the first spell that sprang to my brain. It started to rain-hard. Drops fell from the sky like lead balls, big, too big to be natural, and hard, edged with ice. My shirt and pants clung to me. The Amazons racing toward me slipped on the instantly saturated ground. They piled one on top of the other in an almost comical display. I might have laughed if I’d known what I was doing, if I’d felt like I could stop the deluge I’d beckoned. Instead, I listened to my teeth chatter and watched, wild-eyed, wondering what to do next.

Alcippe clung to the corner of the gym, her long dress hindering her movement. She started to raise her arms and, again without thought, I blasted out a breath. The rain changed direction-moved almost diagonally, right in her face. She had no choice; she raised her arm to block the onslaught, to keep from drowning while standing up…

I snapped my lips shut. The wind stopped, but the rain continued. Alcippe placed her arm over her head, like a visor blocking the moisture. Heat and hate poured from her eyes.

I realized then I could kill her. I had her off guard, had the upper hand. The thought was tempting. I even pulled in a second breath, but as I did, my gaze drifted upward, to Harmony’s window, to those stupid bottles of nail polish lining her sill.

I’d left the Amazons to make my daughter a better life, to make her a better person. If I killed Alcippe like this, what would that prove? What would it change? Alcippe would be gone, but she’d also be a martyr-brought down by evil me. She might die, but her message, “The Amazons can’t change,” would live on, even grow.

I couldn’t kill Alcippe. Not like this. I had to discredit her-show the rest of them the old ways weren’t the only ways. And there was only one way to do that.

I closed my eyes and found the switch, or faucet, whatever it was that controlled the power I held but didn’t understand. The rain stopped suddenly, as if we’d just stepped under an overhang-no gradual lessening or softening, just gone.

The Amazons scrambled in the mud, sliding and gripping each other to help themselves stand. I crossed my arms over my chest and waited. They’d remember me soon enough.

Alcippe recovered first, of course. She slogged forward, her dress sagging, revealing withered cleavage. Her sleeves clung to her arms, and her skirt wrapped around her ankles. Finally, she gave up trying to get to me and shoved her hands out, ready to call on a little magic of her own.

A wolf, translucent but deadly, appeared from nowhere. His feet splayed, his head lowered, and his ears back, he snarled at Alcippe. I blinked, not sure what I was seeing was real-but it was. When I opened my eyes, the wolf still stood there, his lips raised, revealing his gums and teeth, the ruff on his neck standing at attention.

Alcippe’s gaze shot to me, then just as quickly behind me.

Bubbe and Mother, both surprisingly dry, stepped forward, one on each side of me.

“You can’t protect her.” Alcippe flicked her attention from the wolf to my grandmother and back.

“That was not my plan.” Bubbe twitched two fingers and the wolf sat. “Melanippe can care for herself. Better than I knew.”

The sky was clear now, but the air cold. Goose bumps formed on my flesh, but by sheer force of will I stopped myself from shivering. I glanced at my grandmother, tried to read what she was thinking, but everything about her looked relaxed, unworried.

“She attacked us. Me, a high priestess.” Alcippe’s voice was strong, but her gaze darted to the wolf again and again.

I’d never seen this particular piece of magic held this long and visible to all. I’d seen the serpent, but only after immersing myself in the spell. I glanced at the other Amazons. All of them stood rigid, their stares locked on the wolf.

They all saw him. He was real.

“Call off your telios,” Alcippe ordered.

Bubbe tilted her head back and forth, studying the animal. “He’s causing no harm.” She raised her chin, her voice grew stronger. “Yet.”

Alcippe’s eyes drew together; her hands balled at her sides. “What do you want?”

“Melanippe?” Bubbe turned to me, her voice back to her normal tone, but sweeter-much sweeter. “What is it you want?”

I licked my lips, weighed my options. What did I want?

“The truth. I want the truth.”

Surprise flitted across my grandmother’s face, but was quickly gone-replaced by a smile. She looked back at Alcippe. “Not too much to ask.”

“The rite of truth,” I added.

Every eye turned to me.

It was bold, but the only choice I had-and I had nothing to hide, nothing to fear. Not anymore. Beside me, Mother stiffened. My grandmother was more subtle, but I could feel a shift in the energy surrounding her.

But when she spoke, she was calm, resolved. “The rite of truth.”

Alcippe hesitated, as I knew she would. By agreeing, she risked her life. Whoever won the battle also won the right to demand one truth of their choice. If the loser spoke a lie or refused to answer, Artemis would forfeit her life-and worse, to Alcippe anyway, that Amazon would die an outcast.

It was the worst fate she could face-and everything I wanted. The smile on my lips came from deep inside.

Alcippe saw it, recognized it. Her eyes narrowed, and her fingers straightened. She’d made the choice. She was going to accept. I widened my smile, concentrated on her lips, waited for them to open.

“I accept the challenge.” The right words, but from the wrong direction. I spun, stared at my grandmother.

“You can’t,” I responded.

“I did. I asked what you wanted. You said, and I accepted.” She held up her hand, waved, and the wolf was gone. “But inside.” She moved forward, her steps even, almost floating.