Sorry it took so long to update. I hope you like the chapter. Enjoy!

Annabeth

It didn't make sense. Aria had been missing for the past six months how did she not know that. We were still no closer to finding her anyway. I cursed in ancient Greek. Percy sent me a warning look from across the ping-pong table.

I came back into reality. Chiron was talking about our missing camper, Aria.

"Chiron." I interrupted. "We received an Iris- message from Aria earlier this evening."

There was an awkward moment of silence.

Chiron leaned forward. "Annabeth, please explain."

I nodded and opened my mouth.

xxx

Aria

"It's Christmas!" I stood there my mouth flapping open and closed like a fish.

Desjardins was still glaring at me from the 'You're as bad as the gods!' comment but nodded stiffly.

"It took six months to get to London!" I muttered under my breath. "C.C sucks at transport!"

The Kane siblings were still staring at me. Probably wondering what was going through my head.

I shook my head clearing my thoughts and turned to Zia. "I'll meet you tomorrow at the training area."

Then I turned and fled down the Hall of Ages.

xxx

(Way too many character shifts but this is the last one.)

Carter

The explosion from the museum still rung in my ears. The girl, Aria wasn't helping me understand what was going on any better. Still I wasn't sure how I felt about her leaving. It made me feel hopelessly outnumbered, I wasn't sure how but, Aria, just seemed powerful.

Then there was what she'd said. It took six months to get to London! C.C sucks at transport! Then she'd muttered a curse that sounded strangely Un-Egyptian.

"Master, please. Give me a chance with them." Zia pleaded.

"You forget your place," Desjardins snapped. "These two are guilty and must be destroyed."

My throat started closing up. I looked at Sadie. If we had to make a run for it down that long hall, I didn't like our chances...

The old man finally looked up. He smiled at Zia with true affection. For a second I wondered if she were his great-great-great-granddaughter or something. He spoke in Greek, and Zia bowed deeply.

Desjardins looked ready to explode. He swept his robes away from his feet and marched behind the throne.

"The Chief Lector will allow Zia to test you," he growled. "Meanwhile, I will seek out the truth—or the lies—in your story. You will be punished for the lies."

I turned to Iskandar and copied Zia's bow. Sadie did the same.

"Thank you, master," I said.

The old man studied me for a long time. Again I felt as if he were trying to burn into my soul—not in an angry way. More out of concern. Then he mumbled something, and I understood two words: Nectanebo and ba.

He opened his hand and a flood of glowing hieroglyphs poured out, swarming around the dais. There was a blinding flash of light, and when I could see again, the dais was empty. The two men were gone.

Zia turned toward us, her expression grim. "I will show you to your quarters. In the morning, your testing begins. We will see what magic you know, and how you know it."

I wasn't sure what she meant by that, but I exchanged an uneasy look with Sadie.

"Sounds fun," Sadie ventured. "And if we fail this test?"

Zia regarded her coldly. "This is not the sort of test you fail, Sadie Kane. You pass or you die."

Zia sighed and face-palmed herself. "Come on you two you need sleep.'

As she led us down the Hall of Ages we ran into Aria muttering to herself. Something about Cyclopes, powdered doughnuts, and a cruise ship.

"Aria Andromeda Kane!" Zia interrupted.

Aria jumped. "Zia don't call me that." She complained. "Please, I've had enough of that name for one lifetime."

I was about to ask what she meant, but Sadie beat me to it.

"What in the name of Gran's awful biscuits are you going on about?"

Aria opened her mouth to respond but seemed to be cut off by a sharp pain in her head. Her eyes widened.

"Zia! I'm a Div-" She was cut off again. "Ow!"

Zia stared at her. "You're not..." She muttered. "Tell me you're not!"

Aria smiled nervously. "Err. I'm not?"

Zia stared at her in terror. "We must tell-"

She was cut off by Aria muttering something and touching her forehead.

Zia crumpled. Aria caught her and picked her up. Then smiled. "Come on I'll show you were you'll be staying tonight."

Sadie glanced at me nervously I shrugged and we started after her

...

After lights out, I tried to sleep. Honest. I even used the stupid magic headrest they gave me instead of a pillow, but it didn't help. As soon as I managed to shut my eyes, my ba decided to take a little trip.

Just like before, I felt myself floating above my body, taking on a winged form. Then the current of the Duat swept me away at blurring speed. When my vision cleared, I found myself in a dark cavern. Uncle Amos was sneaking through it, finding his way with a faint blue light that flickered on the top of his staff. I wanted to call to him, but my voice didn't work. I'm not sure how he could miss me, floating a few feet away in glowing chicken form, but apparently I was invisible to him.

He stepped forward and the ground at his feet suddenly blazed to life with a red hieroglyph. Amos cried out, but his mouth froze half open. Coils of light wrapped around his legs like vines. Soon red tendrils completely entwined him, and Amos stood petrified, his unblinking eyes staring straight ahead.

I tried to fly to him, but I was stuck in place, floating helplessly, so I could only observe.

Laughter echoed through the cavern. A horde of things emerged from the darkness—toad creatures, animal-headed demons, and even stranger monsters half hidden in the gloom. They'd been lying in ambush, I realized—waiting for Amos. In front of them appeared a fiery silhouette—Set, but his form was much clearer now, and this time it wasn't human. His body was emaciated, slimy, and black, and his head was that of a feral beast.

"Bon soir, Amos," Set said. "How nice of you to come. We're going to have so much fun!"

I sat bolt upright in bed, back in my own body, with my heart pounding.

Amos had been captured. I knew it for certain. And even worse...Set had known somehow that Amos was coming. I thought back to something Bast had said, about how the serpopards had broken in to the mansion. She'd said the defenses had been sabotaged, and only a magician of the House could've done it. A horrible suspicion started building inside me.

I stared into the dark for a long time, listening to the little kid next to me mumbling spells in his sleep. When I couldn't stand it any longer, I opened the door with a push of my mind, the way I'd done at Amos's mansion, and I sneaked out.

I was wandering through the empty marketplace, thinking about Dad and Amos, replaying the events over and over, trying to figure out what I could've done differently to save them, when I spotted Zia.

She was hurrying across the courtyard as if she were being chased, but what really caught my attention was the shimmering black cloud around her, as if someone had wrapped her in a glittery shadow. She came to a section of blank wall and waved her hand. Suddenly a doorway appeared. Zia glanced nervously behind her and ducked inside.

Of course I followed.

I moved quietly up to the doorway. I could hear Zia's voice inside, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. Then the doorway began to solidify, turning back into a wall, and I made a split-second decision. I jumped through.

Inside, Zia was alone with her back to me. She was kneeling at a stone altar, chanting something under her breath. The walls were decorated with Ancient Egyptian drawings and modern photographs.

The glittery shadow no longer surrounded Zia, but something even stranger was happening. I'd been planning to tell Zia about my nightmare, but that went completely out of my thoughts when I saw what she was doing. She cupped her palms, the way you might hold a bird, and a glowing blue sphere appeared, about the size of a golf ball. Still chanting, she raised her hands. The sphere flew up, straight through the ceiling, and vanished.

Some instinct told me this was not something I was supposed to see.

I thought about backing out of the room. Only problem: the door was gone. No other exits. It was only a matter of time before—Uh-oh.

Maybe I'd made a noise. Maybe her magical senses had kicked in. But faster than I could react, Zia pulled her wand and turned on me, flames flickering down the edge of the boomerang.

"Hi," I said nervously.

Her expression turned from anger to surprise, then back to anger. "Carter, what are you doing here?"

"Just walking around. I saw you in the courtyard, so—"

"What do you mean you saw me?"

"Well...you were running, and you had this black shimmery stuff around you, and—"

"You saw that? Impossible."

"Why? What was it?"

She dropped her wand and the fire died. "I don't appreciate being followed, Carter."

"Sorry. I thought you might be in trouble."

She started to say something, but apparently changed her mind. "In trouble...that's true enough."

She sat down heavily and sighed. In the candlelight, her amber eyes looked dark and sad.

She stared at the photos behind the altar, and I realized she was in some of them. There she was as a little girl, standing barefoot outside a mud-brick house, squinting resentfully at the camera as if she didn't want her picture taken. Next to that, a wider shot showed a whole village on the Nile—the kind of place my dad took me to sometimes, where nothing had changed much in the last two thousand years. A crowd of villagers grinned and waved at the camera as if they were celebrating, and above them little Zia rode on the shoulders of a man who must've been her father. Another photo was a family shot: Zia holding hands with her mother and father. They could've been any fellahin family anywhere in Egypt, but her dad had especially kindly, twinkling eyes—I thought he must have a good sense of humor. Her mom's face was unveiled, and she laughed as if her husband had just cracked a joke.

"Your folks look cool," I said. "Is that home?"

Zia seemed like she wanted to get angry, but she kept her emotions under control. Or maybe she just didn't have the energy. "It was my home. The village no longer exists."

I waited, not sure I dared to ask. We locked eyes, and I could tell she was deciding how much to tell me.

"My father was a farmer," she said, "but he also worked for archaeologists. In his spare time he'd scour the desert for artifacts and new sites where they might want to dig."

I nodded. What Zia described was pretty common. Egyptians have been making extra money that way for centuries.

"One night when I was eight, my father found a statue," she said. "Small but very rare: a statue of a monster, carved from red stone. It had been buried in a pit with a lot of other statues that were all smashed. But somehow this one survived. He brought it home. He didn't know...He didn't realize magicians imprison monsters and spirits inside such statues, and break them to destroy their essence. My father brought the unbroken statue into our village, and...and accidentally unleashed..."

Her voice faltered. She stared at the picture of her father smiling and holding her hand.

"Zia, I'm sorry."

She knit her eyebrows. "Iskandar found me. He and the other magicians destroyed the monster...but not in time. They found me curled in a fire pit under some reeds where my mother had hidden me. I was the only survivor."

I tried to imagine how Zia would've looked when Iskandar found her—a little girl who'd lost everything, alone in the ruins of her village. It was hard to picture her that way.

xxx

Aria

I wanted to get some rest. I had a feeling the Kanes thought I was insane. My brain had other ideas. Pfft! Sleep! Sleep is for Mortals!

I groaned and stood up I unbolted my door and stepped into the courtyard. Just in time to see Carter slip into a room. Then the door sealed. I sighed and grabbed a flashlight from my bag and a crystal.

I found a dark corner and decided to ask something. I tossed a drachma into the light and whispered, "Show me my father. Wherever he is."

The light shimmered and the image of Julius Kane appeared. I suddenly lost the ability to speak.

Julius turned and saw the image. A look of confusion crossed his face followed by a look of terror, then anger.

"Aria-"

I cut him off when I got the ability to use my voice. "You're my father!"

He blinked and his expression softened. "Yes." He answered softly. "Yes I am without a doubt, your father."

Well guys here's a longer chapter I hope it makes up for the long time it took. Later!