‘And . . . that’s it,’ shrugged Thanatos. ‘The moment her soul returns to the Earth, she will re-form as the same person she was when she left it. Just how she was.’

‘You swear it?’

Thanatos paused, a smile frozen on his lips.

‘You really are very suspicious for one so young,’ the Daemon said.

‘I’ve not met many people I can trust,’ Elliot replied.

Thanatos threw his head back and roared with laughter.

‘Ain’t that the truth?’ he said eventually. ‘I mean, just look at it. Everyone you’ve ever known has let you down. Your teachers. Your neighbour. The Gods. Your father . . .’

Elliot strengthened the dam within. He wasn’t going to let Thanatos get to him. Not now. He just needed to get out of here. Once he had Mum back, none of those other people mattered.

‘You really have been most unlucky,’ Thanatos sighed. His eyes narrowed and honed in on Elliot’s. ‘Tell me – what’s your father like?’

‘He’s a loser,’ Elliot spat. ‘I wouldn’t waste my breath.’

‘We’re nearly ready,’ smiled Nyx, fluttering down from the office above, Hermes’s bag slung across her shoulder. ‘Everything is in place. And that’s no way to talk about your father, young man.’

‘That’s my bag,’ said Elliot. ‘Give it back.’

‘Yes, it does seem rather harsh,’ Thanatos drawled as Nyx landed beside him. ‘After all, you don’t even know the man . . .’

‘I know enough,’ said Elliot, a fierce rage burning in the pit of his guts.

Thanatos and Nyx exchanged a look that Elliot couldn’t understand, but knew he didn’t like.

‘Ah – parents,’ Thanatos sighed again. ‘So complex. I know that Mother and I have had our moments over the millennia.’

Nyx smiled with unbridled evil. What was she so pleased about?

‘I’ll be honest, most parents you can’t trust as far as you can spit them,’ said Thanatos. ‘You should know.’

‘Shut up,’ Elliot glowered, his fists clenching by his side.

‘Oh, forgive me. I don’t mean your sainted mother,’ Thanatos said quickly. ‘By all accounts, she was one of the good ones. Your father, though – he sounds like trouble. What was it he said to you?’

Elliot shut his eyes and pushed down the memory of his father’s cruel rejection at the door of Home Farm, the house he had sold from beneath Elliot’s and Josie’s feet to the wicked Patricia Porshley-Plum.

I just don’t want him.

The words echoed around his tired mind, as they had since the moment he heard them. The dam strained.

‘I can’t remember,’ Elliot replied darkly. ‘Just give me my mum.’

‘Oh, come on now, it sounded just awful,’ said Thanatos. ‘Mother – perhaps you can help us out?’

‘But of course,’ said Nyx, the evil smile fixed on her lips. She wrapped her black wings around her body and was immediately enveloped by a thick plume of black smoke.