THE CHARIOT STRUGGLED AGAINST THE ELEMENTAL battering. Rain, driven horizontal by the winds, blinded me, and I was drenched and bruised. I couldn’t see to steer, so I just gripped the frame for dear life as we smashed against gust after gust.

I smelled the raw ozone in the electricity-charged air around me. As we sprinted into the clouds themselves, the odor grew stronger.

The sky was lit up by gigantic sheets of brilliant lightning. Thunder erupted around us, and shock waves of sound sent us spinning. The two lamassus strained for all they were worth to keep us moving forward, but I knew they were tiring.

Where was the hospital? I couldn’t see it below. There were no streetlights to navigate by. The only feature was the dark green block of Washington Square Park, sporadically lit by lightning flashes.

Masses seethed along the streets below—the countless poxies on a rampage of mindless destruction, driven beyond insanity by Nergal’s diseases. Even if I could reach the hospital, would I be too late? What if Mama and Baba were poxies now?

I couldn’t think like that. The two people I loved most in the world were down there somewhere. Not to mention my friends, teachers, neighbors, customers…

The tub contained every single one of my hopes, everyone’s hopes. I picked it up from between my feet and hugged it tightly to my chest.

Sargon growled, but he sounded weak. Then his ears twitched nervously. I heard a distant roaring.…

A golden thunderbolt burst out of the clouds.

I got a glimpse of wings, of shining armor, and a crown as the thunderbolt crashed into the chariot, dragging us down hundreds of feet, the lamassus beating their paws uselessly in the air, unable to resist the impact that hurled us toward the ground.

We tumbled, me dangling from the chariot front with one hand, the other still clutching the tub as we spun over ourselves. I just managed to get one foot hooked on the spoke of a wheel as we performed a series of world-class corkscrews. When we finally leveled out, I struggled back into the carriage and re-looped both reins around one forearm. We pushed through another great wall of wind, into a cloud, and then out the other side…

To find Nergal waiting.

He circled us, soaring on two pairs of wings that shimmered with the colors of the rainbow. His skin, unmarked and smooth, radiated golden light, and his black hair flowed from under a helmet crowned with three pairs of horns. He carried a spear of gold and silver, long enough to skewer a bus sideways.

I fell to my knees, my head still spinning from our aerial acrobatics. Every muscle, every bone, ached. Was he making me feel this way, or had I just gone beyond utter exhaustion? “So…new makeover?”

Yup, my mouth muscles were still working even when everything else was on shutdown.

He orbited the chariot, gliding smoothly over the buffeting winds, spear raised. “Why do you still fight, mortal?”

“I was wondering the same thing.” I stood up, but I had to lean my elbows on the chariot rim. Wow, he actually glowed—I had to squint to gaze at him. “But we don’t have to. I’m happy to accept your surrender anytime.”

“This attempt at wit…has it ever worked for you?”

“There’s always a first time.” I glanced around. I was just above the spires of the taller buildings on the Upper East Side, nowhere near the hospital. I shielded my eyes as I turned to Nergal. “Now I have a question for you.”

“Yes?”

“Why are you doing this? You got what you wanted.”

Nergal gazed down at the city. “Because it is beautiful.”

“Uh, yeah. I mean, it used to be.…”

“There is nothing more captivating than chaos,” Nergal continued.

“You’re destroying us because you’re bored?”

He laughed. “That is the way of gods.”

“Not the one I believe in.” I tightened my hold on the reins. The lamassus tensed, sensing my mood. They, too, wanted to fight.

Nergal drifted over his city, gazing down proudly at it. “It is rife with plagues, sicknesses no medicine can cure. Your people will tear themselves apart with tooth and nail. I promise you a bloodbath from which the city will never recover. And then it will spread across the land, and beyond.”

“What about Gilgamesh? And Belet? You haven’t defeated either of them.” At least I hoped not.

He peered toward Central Park. “Gilgamesh will see reason eventually.”

“Belet won’t. She’ll fight you for the rest of her life.”

“The life of a mortal is short.”

“You’d be surprised. I’m still here, aren’t I?”

“I will remedy that here and now.” He lowered his spear, pointing it straight at my chest.

I pulled hard to the right, forcing a sudden lurch as Nergal shot past me, his spear tip shredding the side of the chariot. He roared louder than the thunder and arced high and back toward us.

Straight ahead, lightning flashed within an enormous storm cloud. Black and swollen with rain, enough water to wash the city clean.

That was it.

Gilgamesh had talked about using the water supply to spread the cure. As the raindrops pelted my face, I realized I had a better, faster alternative.

I needed to get higher. “Come on, guys.” The lamassus didn’t need to be told twice, and as we got closer to the cloud, their bodies began to glow with a soft blue aura.

I looked over my shoulder.

Nergal thrust his spear at me, and I twisted right before it went through my shoulder blades. Instead, it splintered the front of the carriage. I jerked the reins left. Nergal beat all four of his wings to change direction. I only had seconds before he would be upon me again, and the chariot wouldn’t be able to take another hit like that.

“Come on!” I flicked the reins, and the two weary, battered lamassus gave everything they still had.

The chariot bounced violently as Nergal landed on the rim in front of me.

One hand on the reins, the other clutching the tub, I stepped backward and ducked as he jabbed forward with the spear, but not quick enough to avoid it ripping through my shoulder. He glared at me with wild delight. “Now we’ll test the limits of your immortality, boy!”

His next stab went into my upper thigh, and I buckled. How could you escape a god standing only a few feet away? The winds that had been assaulting us suddenly disappeared. The pandemonium of thunder and lightning vanished behind us as, for just a few seconds, we were bathed in the cold, clean light of the full moon. But the enormous storm cloud was still in my sights, just a few yards ahead.

Nergal smiled as he steadied his grip on his weapon. He could finish me easily but was having too much fun and wanted to play his cruel little games even now. Then he noticed the tub in my hand, and his smile faded. “What’s that? A magic potion?”

Uh-oh.

“This?” I said. “It’s my lunch. A boy’s gotta eat when he’s saving the world. Would you like some?”

He didn’t fall for my bluff. I guess he was smarter than Humbaba. Instead, he pointed the spear tip straight at my heart. “Why do you insist on interfering? Your people hate you now.”

“That was your doing. You changed everyone into monsters.”

Nergal shook his head. “I changed the outside, but what was within—that was always there. Deep in their hearts, human beings are monsters. You will save nothing. Hand over the potion to me, and…I will cure your parents. You have the word of a god.”

“And I should trust you because…?”

He tightened his grip, and the metal spear shrieked. “Because you have no choice.”

I grinned. “Yeah, I think I do.”

I jumped out of the chariot. Directly into the thunderhead.

And pulled off the tub lid as I tumbled.

Glowing droplets of eau de toilette streamed out behind me, instantly vaporizing into a silver mist that caught the eddies and spread, seeding the cloud.

Then I closed my eyes and let the storm carry me.