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‘Lover, you say?’ said Discordia. ‘Remember those, sister?’

‘Do not remind me,’ she said.

‘If you had the chance to be with the one you loved, would you let some mortal idiot take it away?’ said Claudia. ‘Or would you kill him, claim victory and win back your mate?’

‘I would boil his eyeballs,’ said Invidia, forming a fist with her taloned hand. ‘I would rip off his toenails and make paste of his intestines.’

Claudia blinked.

‘Sure. Why not? If you care so strongly about vengeance, you must care about injustice, too. They are two sides of the same coin. An injustice was done to me, and I need your assistance.’

‘Come on, Vidi,’ urged Discordia. ‘Let us have a little fun. It sounds like it will be a most entertaining mess.’

‘You must send for Minerva, right away,’ begged Claudia.

‘Oh. We can’t do that,’ said Invidia. ‘Even if we wanted to.’

‘Why not?’

‘For one thing, she doesn’t like us, and for another, we don’t like her. For another still, she does not come here.’

‘Does not or cannot?’

‘I don’t know. Either way, she doesn’t show her face.’

‘What about Bellona’s dead? Could they take her a message?’

‘They are here on a one-way ticket, like the rest. Not much help when it comes to delivering messages.’

‘Maybe Mercury the messenger could help her,’ said Discordia.

‘No. I cannot trust any of the gods,’ said Claudia.

‘You might need to change your mind on that. Because if you want to return, you’ll have to speak to Pluto.’

‘Pluto?’

‘Plouton. Dis Pater. King of the underworld, ruler of the dead.’

‘I know who he is, it was more of an exclamation,’ said Claudia. ‘He is Jupiter’s brother. I can hardly count on him for help.’

‘Well, nothing happens here without him approving it,’ said Discordia. ‘Each day, the underworld guards take the most interesting and important of the dead to the palace for Pluto and Proserpina to assess.’

‘Some of them are sent on to the Isles of the Blessed, some are imprisoned in Tartarus, some are punished, forced to toil eternally.’

‘I cannot go to him when I am working against Jupiter,’ said Claudia. ‘No. Pluto isn’t an option either.’

‘There are only three ways to escape the underworld,’ said Invidia. ‘The first is to present yourself to him, Dis Pater. Perhaps he would grant you a return. But it is rare. Death makes no mistakes, and if Pluto consults with the Fates and decides your time is through… that’s it.’

She made the throat-slitting motion again.

‘And the second way?’ asked Claudia.

‘Each day, souls arrive via the River Styx. You might be able to convince the ferryman to take you back.’

‘Does he do that often?’

‘No, but you could try it. It hasn’t worked on any of the billion other times he has been asked, but you could be the first,’ said Discordia.