I do not own The Kane Chronicles. Rick Riordan does.
"NO!" Carter shouted. A human-shaped lump slid slowly down Apophis' throat.
"Carter, if we have any chance of saving Zia, we need to cast the execration spell NOW." I ordered. Carter seriously needed to get his act together. We both put our hands on the statue and started reciting the spell. Apophis glared at us and lunged. Luckily Bast and Bes had reached us and defended us. He recoiled from their attacks. We finished the spell, yet Apophis only seemed angrier.
"Fools! If you cast me into the Duat, the gods will recede as well! Chaos and order are linked together! I use my last breath to cur-" He was cut short, quite literally, by his head being exploded off. Good old Ra to the rescue! Zia was catapulted out of Apophis' body onto the sand in front of us. I knelt down beside her, trying to shake her awake. Ra was saying something about "Yes, my enemy was correct; the gods of Egypt must..." but I wasn't paying attention. Zia groaned and tried to say something I couldn't make out. Then I noticed that Carter wasn't with me. He should've been the first to get to Zia. Zia opened her eyes and shook her head. She probably had a massive headache. Then her eyes widened and she pointed at Carter.
"Is he..." she began, but couldn't finish. I glanced back, surprised. His face, which should've been filled with concern about Zia, was blank. His eyes, normally so alert, were staring at the horizon. And as Zia and I watched, he buckled to his knees and fell face-first into the sand.
"Carter...?" I began and choked back a sob.
Zia and I both rushed over an turned him over. He wasn't breathing. His pulse had stopped. He was dead.
Walt and Jaz rushed over.
"Sadie! Zia! Amos had a huge wound. It had a really quick acting venom and we couldn't do anything about..." She trailed off as she saw Carter. "Oh...Is he..." She asked. Zia and I could only nod.
And as we watched, he started breathing again. The color slowly flowed back into his cheeks. I glanced at Walt/Anubis.
"I thought you'd get what's happening, Sadie. After all, that happened to you once." Carter shakily sat up. Zia immediately hugged him and cried. He was confused, but happy.
"I thought you were dead!" she said.
"Well, it was weird. My heart wasn't beating, but then after I talked to Anubis, I kind of came back. The same thing happened to Sadie, but..." He rambled on about what had happened while Walt tried to get his attention.
"Carter. Carter. Carter!" He finally got Carter's attention. "I'm glad you're back, but..." Carter's expression turned wary. "Amos has died. He got wounded from his fight with Jacobi and it got poisoned." Carter looked shocked, then fell back onto his knees and cried. I hadn't payed attention to when they had said it earlier, but now the it really hit home; Amos was dead. Now the Brooklyn house had no adult (Bast had to leave with the other gods), and the House of Life would need a new Chief Lector. My eyes teared up. But, I guess we would've had to restart sometime. Might as well do it now.