‘Great,’ said Virgo, ‘now I need to – wait a minute, you’re actually going to go? Now? No votes? No PowerPoints? No pie charts?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ huffed Pisces. ‘None of those things would be appropriate right now!’

‘Absolutely,’ Aries agreed.

‘At last – so off you go, then,’ said Virgo, reaching for the button.

‘We’re out of here,’ Capricorn confirmed, stopping her hand. ‘Just as soon as we’ve found a flip chart. An effective exit strategy isn’t going to draw itself—’

‘Go – now!’ shouted Virgo, jabbing the lift button, sending her colleagues hurtling up towards Elysium above.

‘Can you take me to Elliot?’ she asked Quentin.

‘Plop!’ said Quentin grandly, with a small salute.

And so Virgo took off through the sweltering heat of Tartarus with the gorgons. Elliot needed her. The Gods needed her. The Earth needed her. It was time for Virgo to save the day.

Again.

3. Family Matters

3. Family Matters

The sound of Zeus’s fingers drumming on the long, empty table reverberated around the Great Hall on Mount Olympus like raindrops on a stormy night. He’d never been very good at waiting. And right now, he didn’t have time. He watched his two daughters pace and his son flutter around the vast space. Hephaestus, the God of the Forge, was sharpening his axe on a stone, the sound disturbing the nervous air. Enough was enough.

‘I don’t understand!’ the King of the Gods erupted. ‘Where the bally heck are they all? It’s been days!’

‘Only two. And they’ll come,’ said Athene, looking far from certain. ‘They must have seen the beacon.’

‘Why don’t we just go and get them?’ huffed Aphrodite, stamping her foot on the dusty marble floor.

‘Sis, babe, totally chillax,’ said Hermes, doing press-ups in mid-air. ‘They know the drill. In the meantime, some of us have, like, totes got enough to worry about. Like what six weeks lying around unconscious has done to my abs. Hashtag – flabs.’

‘They’ll be ’ere,’ said Hephaestus, running the stone along the length of his bronze axe. ‘Hold yer nerve.’

‘Holding his own nerve never was his forte,’ a cut-glass voice pronounced. ‘Getting on other people’s? Far more his style.’

Zeus felt the age-old rage that only one being in all the realms could inspire.

‘WHAT IN THE BLAZES OF TARTARUS IS SHE DOING HERE?’ he bellowed. ‘WE WANT TO WIN A WAR! NOT START ONE!’

Hephaestus shrugged nonchalantly.

‘You told me to find ’em all,’ he muttered. ‘So I did.’

‘And not a moment too soon,’ said Hera, Queen of the Gods, striding up the hall towards her ex-husband. ‘How could you let it come to this? Entrusting a mortal child with the Chaos Stones? Have you quite taken leave of your senses?’

‘He married you, didn’t he?’ pouted Aphrodite.

Zeus smiled appreciatively at his daughter as Hera turned her cool gaze on her stepchildren.