Set

Strong winds shake our boat violently. Thousands of voices whisper in Amos's ears. We shoot out of Duat at lightning speed and the boat comes to a stop in Rio Grande.

"And remember," I tell Amos as he's fixing his hat. "Don't fuck it up."

Amos looks around. Sadie and Carter should be somewhere around. And they should be in need of a rescue.

"NO!" Carter's yell makes Amos's blood freeze.

Somewhere in the reeds.

Amos reaches in his coat's pocket and brings out a white figure. It's a crocodile, no bigger than his hand. He leaves it in the water.

"N'dah!"

The figurine grows into a full-sized white crocodile. Philip of Macedonia turns his pink eyes to Amos, who nods to the nearby reeds. The crocodile lunges and we follow him out of the boat, careful not to step in the river. At least we can both agree on hating wet socks.

When we near the reeds, a familiar baboon catches Amos's attention. Khufu sees us and starts jumping and pointing to something on the ground. Amos pushes some reeds out of our path with his staff.

Sadie!

Isis's annoying host looks dead. Her face is an unhealthy yellow color. Her caramel hair is covered in blood. Her breathing is so faint that Amos has to double check if it's even there.

"My poor little girl." He whispers.

Where… Amos reaches into his bag, brings out a piece of linen and hands it to Khufu. The baboon presses the cloth against Sadie's forehead.

Behind us, the river begins to bubble. Amos turns around. A green explosion lights the entire length of the Rio Grande, and a small black-and-gold creature shoots out of the river. It falls at Carter's feet. The creature doesn't move. As for Carter? The boy's seen better days. What a pity this will be his last.

Carter whispers something, picks up the creature and turns around. The creature turns out to be a wet half-death cat. Bast?

"Come on, we have to—" Carter's eyes fix on Philip.

He freezes, staring with wide eyes at the crocodile. In his shock, Carter doesn't notice the two other crocodiles, Sobek's minions, creeping behind him. Before Amos can warn the boy, Philip lunges straight over Crater and slams into the two crocodiles.

"Agh!" Khufu says. Amos looks back at him. Sadie's bleeding has slowed enough for the injury to be visible. Amos frowns while examining it.

"Philip?" Carter asks in amazement.

"Yes." Amos answers.

He stands up, brushing off his suit. "Philip will keep Sobek's minions busy, but not for long. Follow me now, and we have a slim chance of surviving!"

We decide to camp in White Sands, New Mexico. Carter pulls a blanket out of Duat for Sadie to be laid on. He even watches over her as Amos sets up a fire. How brotherly of him. This entire family of theirs is oozing with love for each other. It's disgusting. I can't wait to watch them all die.

Amos has different plans, it seems. His will to save his family is dancing on the line between desperation and stupidity. Whatever. The moment he says something I don't agree with it's game over for the poor man. How long would it take him to go insane once I take over, once he's trapped inside his own head? How strong would he act then?

Sadie wakes up a couple of hours later. At first she frowns at Khufu, who is stirring some disgustingly smelly healing potion. Then her eyes focus on her uncle.

"Amos?" she asks.

He lays a cool cloth on her forehead. "Rest, child. You had quite a concussion."

"How did you—"

"Get away from Set?" One wrong word, Amos. Just one wrong word. "I was a fool to go looking for him, Sadie. I had no idea how powerful he'd become. His spirit is tied to the red pyramid."

"So...he doesn't have a human host?"

Amos hesitates, so I shake his head. He can't even protest the words coming out of his mouth.

"He doesn't need one as long as he has the pyramid. As it gets closer to completion, he gets stronger and stronger. I sneaked into his lair under the mountain and walked right into a trap. I'm ashamed to say he took me without a fight."

I gesture at our suit, showing off how perfectly fine it is. Thank Ra Amos had a second pair in that color back in Brooklyn. The old coat is my pet's new favourite toy, his hat has been claimed by Monthu and his left shoe is either with Anat or Astarte.

"Not a scratch." I continue. "Just—bam. I was frozen like a statue. Set stood me outside his pyramid like a trophy and let his demons laugh and mock me as they passed by."

"Did you see Dad?" Sadie asks.

The mix of emotions in her eyes is so strong, it feels like she's physically pulling Amos's soul out of my grasp. He lets all of his emotions wash over me, the sadness, the hope, the anger.

His shoulders slump. "I heard the demons talking." He says. "The coffin is inside the pyramid. They're planning to use Osiris's power to augment the storm. When Set unleashes it at sunrise—and it will be quite an explosion—Osiris and your father will be obliterated. Osiris will be exiled so deep into the Duat he may never rise again."

"But you got away," she says hopefully. "So there must be weaknesses in his defenses or—"

Stick to our story.

"The magic that froze me eventually began to weaken. I concentrated my energy and worked my way out of the binding. It took many hours, but finally I broke free. I sneaked out at midday, when the demons were sleeping. It was much too easy."

"It doesn't sound easy," Sadie says.

Every part of Amos is screaming on the inside, begging to tell them the truth. Instead, he shakes his head.

"Set allowed me to escape. I don't know why, but I shouldn't be alive. It's a trick of some sort. I'm afraid..." One wrong word. "At any rate, my first thought was to find you, so I summoned my boat."

He gestures behind us. Sadie lifts her head and looks around at the desert. Her eyes stop on Amos's boat. It's beached at the top of a nearby dune, canted at a precarious angle as if it has been thrown there.

"There's a supply locker aboard," Amos offers, "if you'd like fresh clothes."

"But where are we?"

"White Sands," Carter tells her. "In New Mexico. It's a government range for testing missiles. Amos said no one would look for us here, so we gave you some time to heal. It's about seven in the evening, still the twenty-eighth. Twelve hours or so until Set...you know."

"But..." Sadie stares at her brother confused, waiting for answers.

"We were attacked." Carter strokes Muffin's head. He looks down at the cat and then up at his sister. "Sadie, I've got some bad news."

He briefs her on what's happened. Sadie closes her eyes. She is completely still for a moment, the quite before the storm. Then she starts to weep. It hurts Amos to see his niece hurt. Call me evil, but I'm enjoying it. Let her hurt. Let Isis understand what it feels like to lose everything you love, to see it slipping between your fingers and be able to do nothing about it. Let her suffer. The day Isis wakes up alone, surround by nothing but sand, and realizes she has nothing left, not even her son or her sister or her followers – than I'll be the happiest god alive.

But, of course, this girl is not alone. She still has love. She still has everything. Carter goes over to his sister and hands her Muffin, who purrs in Sadie's arms.

She looks up at Amos.

"She'll come back, won't she?" Sadie asks through tears. "I mean she's immortal, isn't she?"

Amos tugs at the rim of his hat. "Sadie...I just don't know. It seems she sacrificed herself to defeat Sobek. Bast forced him back to the Duat at the expense of her own life force. She even spared Muffin, her host, probably with the last shred of her power. If that's true, it would be very difficult for Bast to come back. Perhaps some day, in a few hundred years—"

"No, not a few hundred years! I can't—" Her voice brakes.

All because of me. My souls itself smiles. What a nice day.

Carter puts his hand on Sadie's shoulder.

"Rest now," Amos says. "We can spare another hour, but then we'll have to get moving."

Khufu offers Sadie a bowl of his concoction. The chunky liquid smells like it's died long ago. Sadie glances at Amos and he nods encouragingly. She sips from the bowl and yawns.

"Fine," she whispers, laying back down on the blanket. "You win, I'll rest."

Sadie's asleep within seconds. Carter folds the free part of the blanket and covers a peacefully sleeping Sadie with it.

"Don't let the bedbugs bite." he whispers.

"I'm not sure which reminds me more of Julius." He thinks.

There's that disgusting feeling again. Love. When will people learn it never leads to anything good?