"Hey sorry to bug you. I haven’t been able to get a hold of Taylor again. She’s meant to be departing Mexico on Thursday. Can you see if you can get her to send me her flight number? K thanks."

  Ever sighed. Logan had left the voicemail yesterday. With everything that had been happening, he found that he had less and less mental bandwidth to deal with anything that didn’t relate to Zoe.

  “Watch out Mimi, or I might run over your little feet!” Zoe warned.

  Ever slipped his phone back into pocket while looking up. The three of them were in the courtyard that Ever had been in when he reaped Tucker a few weeks ago. Zoe was in a wheelchair, doing her best to learn how to manoeuvre in it. It wasn’t that she wasn’t able to walk, but being bedridden had robbed her legs of a lot of their strength.

  ^This chair looks fun!^ Mimi barked, circling the wheelchair and sniffing the spoked wheels. ^Can I have a go?^

  “I don’t know,” Zoe said with a smile before looking up. “Ever, what do you think?”

  “Mimi,” Ever said, walking across to them, “you need hands to be able to use a wheelchair.”

  ^Don’t be silly,^ Mimi whined, ^I wanted to sit in it, that’s all.^

  “OK, let me get off it first.” Zoe wheeled herself down the path. Ever rushed over as she tentatively got up, hands hovering around her as she shifted herself out of the wheelchair.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Is this stone bench too hard?” Ever asked.

  “No.” Zoe planted her palms either side of her body, straightening her arms. “It’s nice to actually sit on something cold and hard. I think I was starting to get bed sores.”

  ^Whoa!^ Mimi said, standing atop the seat of the wheelchair. ^It’s so high up here!^

  Zoe and Ever smiled at the dog, letting themselves indulge in her innocent sense of wonder just for a moment.

  “So.” Zoe put a hand on his knee. She would have been sitting on the seat for only a minute or two, but already Ever could feel the coldness of her hand through his pants. He looked at her, but she was looking ahead, lost in thought.

  “Do you think I should do it?” She asked. “Become a goddess?”

  “I want you to live,” Ever replied.

  “It wouldn’t be so bad if I died.” Zoe looked at him. “I'd just float around and wait until your apprenticeship is over, then we could go back to the Underworld together."

  Ever couldn't help but grin at the suggestion, but he grew somber once more. “Why don’t you want to become a goddess?”

  Zoe sighed. “At first I was like ‘holy shit, this is like being a main character in some mythological fantasy story.' Then Nyx started saying how I’m some sort of key chess piece in this big game that the Primordials are playing. I don’t know what I dislike more, the responsibility of bringing in Spring or having my autonomy taken away from me.”

  They sat in silence, weighing up Zoe’s grievances. Mimi had curled up on the wheelchair and closed her eyes.

  “The last thing I remember Nyx saying before I started seizing was that I could keep helping animals,” Zoe said. “I still don’t know what being a goddess entails, but that's what I love doing. And if I could do it forever and from anywhere in the world…”

  She looked at Ever, eyes alight.

  “I think I’m ready.”