“No, my Queen.” For she was not his love. Zeus truly loved no one but himself. Hera, his queen, wife, and sister did not love him either, not like she once had. But she loved the power he wielded and afforded her and so it was a marriage of benefit for both. For a king must have a queen for his legacy and a queen must have her power.

“A pity,” Hera muttered, though she could say no more than that. The Moirai answered to no one, least of all the gods. Theirs was a role unto themselves, even if their actions had been the initial cause of this hearing.

“Athena, present yourcase.”

“My Lady.” Athena stepped forward off her throne and turned, taking a bow courteous enough to show her respect to Hera but not so deep as to say they were not family. It was a subtle political manipulation, as Athena was not Hera’s daughter, but the public acknowledgement that she considered her so should swing her some favour. If there was one thing everyone knew Athena was good at, it was reading political situations with care.

Hera smiled.

“Pray tell, what was the Goddess of Wisdom’s logic in sending a priestess to Earth to roam amongst the humans when it had been expressly forbidden byme?”

“I hoped to save my father fromheartache.”

“Oh?”

“Humans are a dying breed. Their lack of faith in anything other than themselves has brought them to the edge of collapse. I didn’t wish to see something that we all so carefully curated beingdestroyed.”

“A dutiful daughter.”

The coldness in Hera’s tone was not to be missed. Humans had brought more pain − or more accurately wounded pride − to Hera than anything else.

“Granted, they are nothing more than pawns, my Lady. But surely it is better that our amusements are put on them rather than squabble amongst ourselves again?” Athena asked.

After the weaver, the one who had challenged Athena, had so cunningly displayed how the gods used and discarded others, there had almost been a mutiny. Tithes and sacrifices had dropped and Olympus had been on the brink of war, for bartering was how they got things done around here. The humans had also been a convenient way of allowing the gods to have their fun without ruining their society ... and Hera did like the life of luxury that power afforded her. No one had suspected her imposed hiatus on them to last forever.

“And what of you two?” Hera asked, looking between Aphrodite and Artemis, her delicate hands curled over her throne and her thin forearms, where you could practically see bone, coiled and ready to strike.

Aphrodite spoke first.

“The beloved priestess has suffered more than we would have wished. We would not have done so if we did not think it was trulynecessary.”

“And it was necessary to not ask for my permission, wasit?”

“We wished to disrupt life here as little as possible and vanquish unseen foes with as little detection as possible, my Lady,” Artemis intervened.

Hera paused for a moment, taking one of her hands and playing it along the gold bangles that decorated her wrists. A nervous gesture for someone not truly comfortable with power that was not her own or a calculated way to make them suffer in silence, it was not clear.

“And you, what say youPrometheus?”

One of the Gorgons pulled the Titan by the thick chain around his neck to his feet and kicked him in the back to push him forward. Prometheus bowed his head as he dropped to one knee. Hera smiled, clearly pleased with the depth as a mark of his respect. Then he raised his head and made eye contact with his one good eye. Defiant asever.

“My Lady, King, it needs not be said how I feel about the mortals.”

Hera’s laugh was like a tinkle that froze blood. “No, I supposenot.”

“While I was privy to the goddesses’ plans, my intention had been to find the priestess and return her to you before any unnecessary damage had been done.”

“But you didn’t, did you?” Hera purred. “Why Dionysus here claims that he caught you drinking with the priestess but a fortnightago.”

The god in question shot a coy smile at Prometheus once Hera wasn’t looking.

“You will have to forgive me, my Lady. I made an error ofjudgement.”

A stunned silence broke out across theauditorium.

“You, the bearer of foresight, made an error of judgement?” Hera asked incredulously.

“How?” she demanded when Prometheus held hissilence.