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Sadie let loose a guttural cry. She advanced, but Annabeth caught her arm.
‘Fight smart,’ Annabeth said. ‘Not angry.’
‘Point taken,’ Sadie said, though her arms still trembled with rage. ‘But I’ll do both.’
She unfurled the Book of Thoth.
Setne just laughed. ‘Sadie dear, I know how to defeat every spell in that book.’
‘You won’t win,’ Sadie insisted. ‘You won’t take anything else from anyone!’
She began to chant. Annabeth raised her borrowed khopesh, ready to defend her.
‘Ah, well.’ Setne sighed. ‘I suppose you’ll want this back, then.’
Setne’s body began to glow. Thanks to Nekhbet, I realized what was going to happen a split second before
it did, which saved our lives.
Carter was just struggling to his feet when I shouted, ‘GET DOWN!’
He dropped like a sack of rocks.
A ring of fire exploded outward from Setne.
I discarded my sword and lunged in front of the girls, spreading my arms goalie-style. A shell of purple light surrounded me, and the flames rolled harmlessly over translucent wings that now extended on either side of me. With my new accessories I was able to shield Sadie and Annabeth from the worst of the blast.
I lowered my arms. The giant wings retracted. My feet, floating just off the ground, were now encased in large ghostly legs with three long toes and the talons of a bird.
When I realized I was hovering at the centre of a giant glowing purple vulture, my first thought was: Carter will never stop teasing me about this.
My second thought was: Oh, gods. Carter.
Sadie must have seen him at the same time I did. She screamed.
The fire had blackened the entire field, instantly turning wet mud into cracked clay. The Mist and magic lights had burned away. My new sword was a steaming line of bronze slag on the ground. Carter lay right where he’d dropped, wreathed in smoke, his hair charred, his face red with blisters.
I feared the worst. Then his fingers twitched. He croaked out a sound, like ‘Gug’, and I could breathe again.
‘Thank the gods,’ Annabeth said.
Setne brushed some ash off his purple trench coat. ‘Well, you can thank the gods if you want, but they won’t be around much longer. Another few minutes and the magic I’ve started will be irreversible. Now, Percy, please drop that silly avatar before I take it away from you. And, Sadie, I suggest you give me the Book of Thoth before you hurt yourself. There’s no spell you could read that would harm me.’
Sadie stepped forward. Her orange-highlighted hair whipped around her face. Her eyes turned steely, making her look even more like a young Annabeth.
‘No spell I could read,’ Sadie agreed. ‘But I have friends.’
She handed the Book of Thoth to Annabeth, who blinked in surprise. ‘Um … Sadie?’
Setne chuckled. ‘What’s she going to do? She may be smart, but she can’t read Old Egyptian.’
Sadie gripped Annabeth’s forearm. ‘Miss Chase,’ she said formally, ‘I have one word for you.’ She leaned in and whispered something in Annabeth’s ear.
Annabeth’s face transformed. Only once before had I seen her with such an expression of pure wonder: when she beheld the gods’ palaces on Mount Olympus.
Sadie turned to me. ‘Percy … Annabeth has work to do. I need to tend to my brother. Why don’t you keep our friend Setne entertained?’
Annabeth opened the scroll. She began to read aloud in Ancient Egyptian. Glowing hieroglyphs floated off the papyrus. They swirled in the air around her, mixing with Greek words as if Annabeth was adding her own commentary to the spell.
