But her father and sister were already hurtling towards the Messenger God, who laid Virgo gently down on the grass.

‘Elliot – thank the Gods!’ Athene cried, gathering him into her arms.

‘Virgo!’ cried Elliot, scrambling out of her embrace. ‘She’s . . . she’s . . . You have to save her!’

Zeus and his daughters sank down beside the pale Virgo, checking for any signs of mortal life. But Virgo had no pulse. She wasn’t breathing. She was . . .

‘What happened?’ cried Zeus, as Aphrodite tipped out a bag full of potions on the grass.

‘I don’t know!’ cried Elliot. ‘One minute she was unconscious on the ground, the next she . . . she threw herself between me and the blast from the Chaos Stone.’

‘She did what?’ Athene cried. ‘She took the full force of it?’

‘Yes,’ said Elliot, choking on tears. ‘She saved me.’

Zeus exchanged a look with his daughters. The Chaos Stone wielded the force of all four natural elements. It possessed devastating power. No one could survive that. Especially not a young mortal. It was a horrible but simple truth: there was nothing they could do. Virgo had gone.

He knelt to the floor and put his hand on Virgo’s lifeless head.

‘What . . . what are you doing?’ Elliot screamed. ‘You have to do something! You have to save her!’

‘Elliot . . .’ Zeus began, reaching for his hand. How many more impossible losses was this one child going to have to bear?

‘Aphrodite, I’ll do the compressions, you do the breathing,’ said Elliot, shaking his hand free of Zeus’s and pumping on Virgo’s chest. ‘One, two, three, four . . .’

But Aphrodite simply cradled Virgo’s head in her lap and sobbed softly.

‘No!’ Elliot cried, searching desperately for someone to help him. ‘No, not her – you have to do something!’

‘Mate,’ said Hermes softly, gently placing his hand on Elliot’s shoulder. ‘We gotta let her go.’

‘They said that about you!’ spat Elliot, frantically pumping Virgo’s chest. ‘They wanted to kill you. My mum, she stopped them – and now look! You’re back! We just need to find a way to save Virgo!’

‘E,’ said Hermes, taking Elliot’s hands gently in his own. ‘I was still alive. I am immortal. V ain’t. It is the worst anti-bosh I have ever known and then some. I love that babe. We all do. But, mate – she’s gone.’

Elliot searched for some sign of hope in Hermes’s warm, caring eyes. But to Zeus the answer was clear. Virgo had saved Elliot. She had saved the world. But none of their powers could now save her. In all his infinite lives, the King of the Gods had never felt so powerless.

He watched this poor mortal child finally give in to the burden of grief that had weighed him down: tears flooded Elliot’s face and tortured sobs shook his body as Hermes held him tight.