Horus

The snow in the National Mall has melted in a perfected square, the exact size of Set's pyramid. Around the edges, a dozen magicians still lay passed out. Seems like other mortals in the area have also been affected. An early-morning jogger is slumped on the sidewalk. On nearby streets, cars idle while the drivers take naps over the steering wheels.

Police sirens wail in the distance. As if that isn't enough, mom has teleported us into the president's back yard. I'm not eager to witness the heavily armed company that will soon be coming our way.

Sadie tugs on Carter's arm and points towards the center of the melted square. Amos and Zia lay crumpled in the grass. Sadie gets there before us and kneels next to her uncle.

Amos groans. "What..." His eyes cloud over with terror. "Set...he...he..."

"Rest." Sadie puts her hand on Amos's forehead. "Quiet," she whispers. "Hah-ri."

Faint hieroglyphs glow over Amos's face as he drifts off to the realms of sleep again.

I've seen thousands fall apart in the hands of my uncle, their lives slipping carelessly between his fingers as if nothing more than sand. I wish I could have faith that Kane will recover. But faith... is such an intricate thing. I've always envied mortals for their faith, their belief - whether that's in something higher or just simply in a better future. As a deity, you have no one to pass the heaviness on, no one to blame when things begin to suck.

The sibling's attention is now on Zia. Her skin is dry and brittle. In the grass around her, hieroglyphs are fading – the remains of a protective circle. The poor girl has used up every last bit of her remaining energy to shield herself and Amos when the pyramid imploded. Carter comes closer to cradle her head. Her skin radiates heat as it burns from the inside out.

"It's going to be okay," Carter whispers, his voice daring to break at any moment. Those are the six words every soldiers utters at some point in time. It's common sense on the battlefield that if you hear them, you're a goner. "Zia, it's all over, we're okay, you are okay. We'll go back to Brooklyn. We will be okay."

"Set?" she asks weakly. "Is he gone?"

"Yes." Carter glances at Sadie, silently urging her to keep quite about the details. "Everything's fine, thanks to you. The secret name worked."

Zia nods, satisfied. Her eyes begin to close.

"Hey." Carter's voice quavers. He can't loose someone else, not when his world itself has been slipping farther and farther away ever since we came back. "Stay awake. You're not going to leave me alone with Sadie, are you? She's bad company."

Zia tries to smile, but the effort makes her wince.

"I was...never here, Carter. Just a message, a placeholder."

"Come on. No. That's no way to talk."

"Find her, will you?" Zia says. A tear traces its way down her nose. "She'd...like that...a date at the mall."

Her eyes slowly drift away to stare blankly into the sky.

"Zia!" Carter clutches her hand so hard, I'n afraid it might break. "Stop that. You can't...You can't just..."

Please not her, too. Not now. I lost my mom, I lost my dad, I may loose my uncle. I lost a home before even getting to call it my own. I lost Bast. The world is constantly turning upside down. Now the world may be ending! We have to defeat the fucking serpent of chaos.

I'm afraid. I'm always afraid. And now I have Sadie to be afraid for, too. This whole week, Zia was the one thing keeping me together. She believed in me, made me feel like I can do this somehow. Like maybe we can survive. Like I'm capable of having friends. Like it's possible to someday be happy, truly happy - the way my parents were.

How can we possibly go on working with Set after this! So many people have been taken away from me, all because of his stupid plans! All because of all those gods, too selfish to care about how their games impact our lives!

I don't try to argue. I don't try to comfort him, either. The boy has gone through enough, he deserve to mourn while he can.

Carter shuts his eyes tight and lowers his head. When his forehead touches her stone-cold arm, all the anger evaporates. He's right. So many lives have been tainted by Set's ways. So many innocent people who won't ever get to the sun's light again.

Zia. Zia. Please come back. Please, don't leave me alone. Please. Please. Z-

"Carter," Sadie whispers. We hadn't even noticed her kneeling next to us.

"What?" Carter whispers back.

He looks up just as a small blue light drifts out of Zia's mouth and flies into the sky. The sight of Zia leaves us both shocked for a moment. And then all the puzzle piece fit so perfectly, as if Ma'at herself had put them in place. Cracks web Zia's entire skin, the clay in some places close to breaking off.

Carter backs away and stares at his sister in shock."What—what did you do?"

"Nothing," Sadie says. "She's a shabti. She said she wasn't really here. She was just a placeholder."

And just like that, I feel the spark of hope igniting Carter's very being. He may and never find her. Zia can die without ever uttering his name. But right now, that doesn't matter. Because, sometimes, you care about people in extraordinary ways. I grew up watching my mom go through the same painful cycle of pain and loss, just to come out of it next to my father once more. And didn't Julius Kane just do the same? Loose the love of his life to death, just to become it's king. If there is something I've learned from Hathor, it's that love is a battlefield like no other. An emotional minefield that spares no souls, no matter innocent or not. A war of hearts, if you will.

"Iskandar was protecting her," Sadie says. "When the spirit of Nephthys joined with the real Zia in London, Iskandar knew she was in danger. Iskandar hid her away and replaced her with a shabti. Remember what Thoth said: 'Shabti make excellent stunt doubles?' That's what she was. And Nephthys told me she was sheltered somewhere, inside a sleeping host."

"But where—"

"I don't know."

Okay.

Carter touches Zia's face and it crumbles to dust. For a moment his heart tenses, as if unsure how to react.

It's okay. I'll find her. It's okay.

With a sigh, he carefully picks up her wand.

"That blue light," he begins to ramble, looking at the piece of ivory. "I saw Zia release one in the First Nome, too. Just like the shabti in Memphis—they sent their thoughts back to Thoth. So Zia must've been in contact with her shabti. That's what the light was. They must've been, like, sharing memories, right? She must know what the shabti's been through. If the real Zia is alive somewhere, she might be locked up or in some kind of magic sleep or— We have to find her!"

Maybe-

A familiar voice snaps Carter out of his thoughts.

"What have you done?!"