Chapter 52

The weight of exhaustion pressed against my chest as I sat slumped in my office chair, staring blankly at the towering stack of reports. The clock on the wall tickled relentlessly, each second a cruel reminder that time wasn’t on my side. Hera’s assault was suffocating, relentless, but it wasn’t just her precision that cut into me—it was the personal venom behind every move. Hera’s voice echoed in my mind from the last time we spoke: *“This isn’t over.”*