Nico's POV
Amos Kane steered Nico from the area outside the training arena through an adjoining door which led to a large, dimly lit room. He flicked his fingers. Nico and Leila's swords flew out of their scabbards, skidding across the floor. The door swung shut, and Nico heard the faint click of the lock.
"W-what are demigods?" Nico asked in a small voice. Yeah, it was a pretty bad attempt at making Amos free them, but Nico was running out of options.
"Don't play stupid with me, boy." Amos snarled, tightening his hold on Nico's arm. Nico managed to restrain a cry of pain. "That's no khopesh you have. It's Stygian Iron. You actually thought that I wouldn't notice?"
"Let him go." Leila said in a low, menacing voice.
Amos turned on her. "And you! Especially you! How dare you set foot this place!"
"What makes me so different?" Leila said, her hand twitching to her side. Amos's eyes followed the movement nervously.
"You wouldn't dare attack a magician." Amos sneered. "You're unarmed."
"Demigods don't need swords to be deadly." Leila countered.
"So you admit it!" Amos said triumphantly. Nico could have sworn he saw a flash of red in Amos's eyes. "You two have trespassed all magical boundaries! The fragile balance between Egypt and Greece has been destroyed! I will not allow you to touch Sadie and Carter. I have no choice but to -"
"Careful, Amos." Nico said. "Hades wouldn't be too happy to see you killing his only child."
Amos' smirk dropped a little. "No matter. All Nomes are protected from Olympian sight. Hades attacking me would violate all -"
In a heartbeat, Leila yanked up the leg of her jeans and drew her dagger. She tackled Amos to the floor and pushed the tip of her weapon against the back of Amos' neck.
"Go!" she shouted. Nico scrambled backwards and picked his sword off the ground.
"Tas!" Amos roared. A decorative ribbon hanging on the wall sprung to life and wrapped itself around Leila, binding her hands and wrists together.
Nico desperately swung his sword. As it made its arc towards Amos, his eyes met Nico's. Amos's angry expression slipped away, and he suddenly looked tired, resigned, like he wished he would be doing anything other than pushing around a couple of kids.
Pity made Nico turned the angle of his sword at the last second. The flat of the blade caught Amos in the chest and sent him stumbling towards the wall.
"Heqat!" Amos gasped. A rod, similar to the one Sadie was holding earlier, materialized in Amos's hands. He raised it and it began to emit a scarlet light.
The next thing that happened was so weird that Nico actually stopped what he was doing and stared at the thing which Amos had turned into.
He was cloaked in a vaguely human form – part sandstorm, part fire. A giant red warrior came into being with Amos suspended in his chest. Amos, his face beaded with sweat, copied the giant's moves. The giant looked at Nico, leered, and raised his fist.
"No!" Leila yelled. She inched towards her sword, and wriggled it into her hands. She sawed through her bonds and flung them away. "You need us! We're trying to help you!"
"A pointless ploy!" the giant rumbled, waving his staff. "Khefa!"
A wisp of energy formed itself into a shape of a fist, slamming into Leila and sending her flying to the opposite wall. She slid to the ground, blood running from the corner of her mouth.
"You didn't just do that." Nico snarled, all sympathy gone. He spun around to draw extra force in his strike, and struck the giant/Amos, making a long red slash in the magician's arm.
The giant howled in pain. He lifted his rod, and a reddish shield flickered around him. Nico's sword flashed again, but his weapon bounced off the shield. The impact jarred his arm to the elbow. The heat coming off of the shield began to burn into Nico's skin, and he was forced to back away.
Nico didn't know why he suddenly made the connection, but Amos was looking eerily like Leila did when she was being possessed by Kronos. Maybe Amos didn't know what he was doing. Maybe he was being possessed by...an Egyptian god?
His fingers curled around a vase which had fallen, and he hurled it as hard as he could at the shield. It was incinerated on impact.
Amos, behind the flickering image, smiled gruesomely. His lips began to form the words which would surely cause Nico's death, and Nico felt a wave of sickening fear. A column of energy rippled through the shield. Nico deflected the spell with his sword, but most of it ended up blasting into his body, wrapping itself around his torso.
For a few moments, he couldn't see.
Pain arched his back. He vaguely felt himself falling, and his head cracking against the floor. For a few seconds, he lay there on the ground, dazed. He gripped the ground and attempted to haul himself up, but halfway there, he tottered and his weight fell on his forearms. Blinding pain - far more than he'd expected - rippled through his body with every movement. For a second, it even hurt to breathe.
"Nico!" Leila screamed.
"You -" Nico croaked, looking into Amos's strangely lit face. "What are you doing?"
Amos raised his wand again, and Nico barely managed to roll out of the way. A black scar marked the spot where Nico had been moments ago.
"This isn't the way." Amos said, but it didn't seem like he was talking to Nico. "They're only children!"
Abruptly, Amos's voice shifted to a deeper, sharper voice. "They are descendants of the Olympians. You yourself said that we must remain separate. If you want to retain my goodwill, Amos, you will have them incinerated before dawn!"
"It will only cause a war!"
"Ah...Amos. You never let me have any fun."
Amos struggled to respond. Even through the agony, Nico felt a tangible shift of power in the air. The hieroglyphs originally surrounding Amos turned from blood red to bright blue.
Amos crumpled to the floor. The huge avatar which had originally surrounded him dimmed and disappeared. His rod clattered away from him, and Nico was just able to snag it before Amos could get it again. Leila wiped the blood off her face, retrieved her sword, and pointed it directly at the magician.
Amos lifted his head weakly. "I didn't do this. I swear to Ra, I didn't…go, before it's too late -"
"Enough with the games!" Leila growled. She threw aside her sword, thrust out her hands and clenched her fists.
"Leila, don't do –"
Nico's warning was cut off midsentence. Time stopped. Nico froze in an uncomfortable position, his head halfway up and his legs splayed on the ground. Amos went rigid, his hands moving at the speed of a statue.
Golden tendrils curled around Nico's feet, and the temperature in the room began to drop - colder and colder with each passing heartbeat. Gods, he hated it when Leila had to do this, making him, along with the enemy, completely defenseless…
Leila got into Amos' face, her eyes that disconcerting shade of gold. "Stop this." she hissed. "You need our help. You can't stop the alliance without demigods backing you up. So I'd appreciate it if you'd stop hurting me and my friend. Got it?"
Amos managed to jerk his head forward - which is a hard thing to do when you're frozen in time and nose to nose with a seething daughter of Poseidon.
Leila's fists clenched tighter, turning her knuckles white. Nico could tell she was fighting the urge to punch the guy in the face. Smoke was beginning to rise from her arms, but Leila didn't seem to notice. Nico tried to fight the spell. If she kept this up any longer, she'd burn up – why didn't she ever listen? Why did she always have to put herself in danger?
He was relieved to see her fists uncurl, and her irises darkening to its normal green color. She extended her fingers, releasing her time-grip from Nico and Amos. Nico's jaw unclenched, and his limbs relaxed. Amos collapsed again, massaging his heaving chest.
Nico blinked the dark spots out of his vision and watched him carefully, his sword at the ready. He wasn't stupid enough to trust him again.
When Amos finally recovered, he stumbled to his feet and looked at Nico and Leila apologetically. "Children, I am very sorry. You must understand," he said, in a troubled voice, "that wasn't me who just attacked you. I host Set, the god of evil, and –"
"Yeah, like I'm actually going to trust you now that I know you're hosting the god of evil. Thanks." Nico said sarcastically.
"He's telling the truth." Leila said through gritted teeth.
Amos looked strained. "You do not know under what circumstances I have had to host him, and you are not used to the ways of the Egyptian gods. They are unpredictable, and your arrival has caused me to lose what little control I have over Set. Sadie and Carter will explain."
"Yeah, well, I'm not staying here anymore as long as you're in the house." Leila scowled.
"You should not be here at all." Amos answered. "Your secret will be out soon enough. Demigods are not very good at hiding their identities."
Nico and Leila exchanged exasperated looks. Was this guy asking them to leave or stay?
"I never refused your help." Amos said, like he was reading their minds or something. "I only said that it was dangerous."
"You said that earlier. And then you turned into a crazy red giant." Leila pointed out.
Amos looked at her shrewdly. "And what do you call what you just did, young lady? Demigods are extraordinary, but they cannot control Time."
Leila glared at him. "That's none of your business."
Amos raised his eyebrows. "But isn't it? You host a god too, in a way. You accuse me of losing control over Set, yet you struggle to restrain the powers of your Greek god of Time."
"Leave her alone." Nico snapped. "Unless you really want us to go."
Amos spread his hands. "Stay, if you wish. I will do the best I can to keep Set at bay."
"You'd better." Leila muttered.
With a last withering look, she stalked out of the wrecked room.
Nico had no choice but to follow her out. The training room was now empty, save for a few hieroglyphics floating feebly through the air.
They descended the staircase, with Leila muttering angrily under her breath. When they reached the bottom, Nico caught his breath at the room which awaited them. It was huge: the ceiling climbed four stories high and was held up with stone pillars engraved with – surprise surprise – hieroglyphs. Ancient Egyptian weapons adorned the walls and a plasma-screen TV was sitting on top of a mantelpiece of a fireplace big enough to park a car in. Alyssa and Sadie were squabbling over which channel to put on, and the other trainees were kicking back: eating, talking, or playing.
They were about to sneak out and save themselves some conversations, until Carter caught Nico's eye. He came up to them, grinning.
"Like it?" he asked, motioning to the room.
"Um, yeah! It's amazing!" Leila said quickly, her gaze darting anxiously from Nico's face to the staircase. Nico nodded in agreement.
Carter beamed. He studied their battle-worn faces more carefully, and frowned.
Uh oh.
"What happened to your cheek?" he asked, reaching out to touch a particularly nasty bruise on Leila's face. She slapped his hand away and said smoothly, "I slipped on the stairs."
Carter narrowed his eyes. "You slipped." he repeated.
Leila pursed her lips and nodded. Nico shook out his sleeve to cover a fresh scar on his right knuckle. Carter's gaze flashed down, catching the movement.
"You slipped too?" Carter said, disbelieving.
"I fell from your sister's ceiling, remember?" Nico lied.
Carter's eyebrows knit together. "Yeah, but you looked fine afterward."
"You must not have looked hard enough." he responded lightly. "Anyway, we're really tired. It's been a long day and…I think I'll head to bed now."
"Okay." Carter said, not looking very convinced. "I'll show you where your rooms are."
They climbed the stairs which wound up to the third floor. Carter snapped his fingers, and two doors creaked open by themselves.
"Those two are ready." Carter said. "See you two tomorrow."
"Thanks." Leila went to the one on the left and closed the door behind her.
Nico was just about to hurry into his until he felt Carter's hand on his shoulder.
"Wait a moment, Nico." he said firmly.
Nico turned around reluctantly.
"When Sadie and I fixed the house, I put an anti-slipping spell on the stairs, after a few pranks and unfortunate incidents." Carter said coolly. "And we're magicians. We don't get injuries like that from falling down staircases. So just let me know when you're ready to tell me the truth."
Carter turned on his heel and disappeared into his room.
"Oh, gods." Nico muttered to himself. "We're in trouble."
Sadie's POV
Carter was in a horrid mood. And when Sadie says that, she means it. He came storming into her room after dinner, all in a rage because Leila and Nico had done something or the other to make him upset. Something ridiculous - a staircase or whatever it was.
Sadie couldn't understand it. She thought she was the one who was having the problems with the newcomers, and Carter was the overly happy, enthusiastic one. Now, it seemed that the situation was reversed.
"Will you ever shut up?" Sadie finally said desperately after a rant that went completely over her head.
"No!" he said angrily. "They just come out of nowhere and expect us to take them in –"
"Which we did." Sadie said helpfully.
"And train them –"
"Because that's generally what we do."
"And they just lie to me about how they get these injuries. I mean, I know Leila didn't fall down the stairs, if she can beat me at a sword fight, I'm pretty sure –"
"Just let it go." Sadie said wearily. "It was just one tiny little bruise, I'm sure it was –"
"It was red and turning purple when I looked at it!" Carter exploded. "And they're not even properly telling us where they're from!"
"Carter, if it's really bothering you that much, why don't you just go ask?"
"I did! I still don't know a thing about them!"
"Oh, for God's sake! You're a magician, Carter!"
"So?"
"Invisibility spell, yes? When in doubt, I always recommend spying."
**A/N: Like this chapter? Hate it? What do you want to happen next? Let me know by reviewing!
