‘I’ll fight you, all right,’ said Zeus, mounting Pegasus. ‘But not like a man. Like the King of the Gods! AAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!’

And with his trusty steed taking off high into the air, Zeus flew at the Titans, armed only with his thunderbolts and the hope that everything they were doing would buy Elliot enough time to defeat Thanatos down in Tartarus.

17. Beware Gods Bearing Gifts

17. Beware Gods Bearing Gifts

Nyx wasn’t accustomed to waiting. She stalked back and forth on the balcony like a nervous cat, looking across Tartarus for any signs of trouble. With Thanatos on his way to the Earth’s core with the Chaos Stone, and only a small guard of Daemons with her in Tartarus, she felt curiously vulnerable. She wasn’t accustomed to that, either.

Victory had been snatched from her family once and she wasn’t about to see it happen again. Trickery had won the day for the Gods 2,000 years ago. It wasn’t going to happen again today.

A knock on the door disturbed her restless pacing.

‘Enter!’ she commanded.

The door slowly edged open to reveal two Daemons.

‘Er . . . excuse me, your, er, mighty Mum-ness,’ Epiphron, the Daemon of Carefulness, stuttered.

‘She’s called Nyx, you idiot,’ snapped Corus, the Daemon of Disdain.

‘Are you sure?’ Epiphron whispered. ‘I don’t want to get it wrong.’

‘What is it?’ Nyx demanded impatiently. ‘And it had better be worth my time, or I’ll frazzle you both for something to do.’

‘Not to worry,’ said Epiphron, backing out of the room.

‘You are such a loser,’ sighed Corus. ‘Ma’am, we’ve had a . . . delivery.’

‘Is that all?’ said Nyx. ‘Deal with it yourselves, I’m busy.’

‘We would,’ said Epiphron cautiously, ‘but this is addressed to you and your son. We thought that it would be rude to open it.’

‘Yeah, he thought it would be soooooo much better to come here and disturb you. The idiot,’ said Corus, rolling his eyes.

‘Who’s it from?’ said Nyx.

‘Don’t know,’ said Epiphron. ‘I didn’t like to look.’

‘Well, bring it here, then,’ snapped Nyx.

‘Er . . . no can do, boss,’ chimed Corus. ‘It’s kinda . . . big. It’s outside the main gates. You’re going to need to take a look.’

Nyx felt her nerves flutter. A big delivery to the gates of Tartarus? This sounded suspicious.

‘So be it,’ she said. ‘Take me to this . . . delivery.’

‘OK – but mind your step,’ said Epiphron. ‘The path is a little uneven and I’d hate you to turn your ankle.’