‘It’s gonna be OK, mate,’ Hermes promised him. ‘We’re all gonna find a way. Not even joking.’

‘It’s not fair,’ Elliot raged. ‘It’s . . . it’s just not fair!’

‘It ain’t,’ Hermes choked. ‘It really, really ain’t.’

Zeus had no idea how long they all stayed there, his daughters tearfully holding the young girl who had sacrificed her life to save her friend, and the boy who had lost her trying to save the world. There was so much the King of the Gods loved about mortal life. But in those moments, it seemed unspeakably cruel.

His thoughts were interrupted by a throat-clearing behind him.

‘Your Majesty?’

Zeus turned to find the members of the Zodiac Council standing in a line.

‘What do you want?’ he snapped. This was no time for senseless procedure.

‘I wonder if we might be able to help?’ said Pisces, stepping forward.

‘Help? I seriously doubt that,’ glowered Zeus. ‘Look – look at what you’ve done. If it wasn’t for you, she’d be . . . she’d still be here.’

‘She’s a million times better than all of you put together!’ screamed Aphrodite. ‘She’s just . . . she was just a little girl!’

‘Yeah, no offence or nothing,’ said Hermes, holding the sobbing Elliot close. ‘But just do one, will ya?’

‘Leave us,’ said Athene, reaching for her sword. ‘You’re not welcome here. If you’d only given her kardia back . . .’

The Councillors appeared confused. After a bewildered pause, Aries spoke up softly.

‘I don’t understand . . .’

‘Don’t you?’ screamed the Goddess of Love, running right up to him. ‘Your stupid procedures took her kardia away! If you’d given it back to her—’

‘B-but,’ Aries stammered, ‘we did.’

Zeus was so taken aback by the absurdity of the statement, he forgot for a moment to be angry.

‘I’m sorry?’ he said.

‘We did,’ Taurus agreed. ‘We gave her kardia back.’

The Gods stared at the Zodiac Council in disbelief. Aphrodite’s beautiful face scrunched into a dangerous scowl.

‘Well, a fat lot of use it is to her now!’ she spat. ‘It’s too late!’

‘Yes, it would be now,’ agreed Aquarius. ‘But we returned it to her the moment she fulfilled the terms of her suspension.’

‘Her suspension – what are you blithering on about?’ roared Zeus. Now he remembered how to be angry.

‘Our sentence was very clear,’ said Cancer, consulting her notebook. ‘Virgo’s kardia was to be returned once she satisfied the terms of her probation.’

‘She had to be a hero,’ whispered Athene, a dangerous hope entering her eyes. ‘You mean—’

‘Quite,’ said Pisces. ‘The moment she decided to throw herself in the way of the Chaos Stone to save the world, she proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that she is a true hero.’

‘When did you give her kardia back?’ snapped Aphrodite, looking down at Virgo’s still body. ‘When, exactly, did it return to her?’