After the long time to England, Percy set up on searching for his uncle Julius and cousin Carter. He knew there was something more to his step dad's family and had always felt a little suspicious but had never enquired about it. Now though, after whatever Gabe said, he somehow connected this secrecy to something about some godly business.

Soon, he did reach the hotel where his uncle was staying over at, though it was a bit of a long search before he found it. He went up to the reception to enquire about the registrations made by his uncle and got to know that they had just checked in.

He quickly went to catch up with them after thanking the receptionist. To tell that Julius and Carter were surprised to see him there would be an understatement. "Hello Percy. What are you doing here? Are Sally and Gabe with you?" Julius asked.

Percy just looked down, the pain too fresh to recount it as of yet so he just handed Julius the letter as he greeted Carter. Julius just opened the letter, confused about Percy's reaction. The letter shocked him a lot.

Dear brother,

If you ever receive this letter, then it means that I died. Take care of Percy along with Carter and Sadie as the future depends on them. Percy goes to a summer camp for dyslexic and ADHD children. Let him go whenever he want and don't follow him. He will be safe there. He has been going there for about 2 years now. Don't ask him anything about it now. He will say what it is when the time is right.

He also has the blood of the Pharaohs from his mother's side (my wife Sally might also have died, and she did not know about her heritage). I know about your mission and wish you good luck about it. Percy doesn't know about his magician heritage. He is a part of two worlds and is very powerful. He will tell his other heritage when the time is right."

Farewell brother,

Gabriel Kane

P.S. Convey the same to Amos too.

Julius was silently grieving inside while he gave a sympathetic glance to Percy. "What were his last words Percy?" Julius asked. "Go ahead with your plan, whatever it is. I totally support you." Percy conveyed quietly.

"Alright then Percy and Carter, you both will share a room today alright? Tomorrow, we will be going to meet Sadie. I know both of you are tired but Percy... can you stay behind? I want to talk to you. Carter, you head up to the room. Percy will join you soon" Julius said and motioned Percy to follow him to his room.

"I am sorry for your loss Percy. It is really sad that they had to die in the unfortunate accident. Gabe said that he had wanted to explain something to you right?" Julius asked and Percy nodded. "He has asked me to explain it to you." Julius said. "What is it about?" Percy asked.

"Before I go into that Percy, I need to tell you explain some things about our family. More specifically your mom's heritage. Your mom was actually your Aunt Ruby's sister." Julius said. "Ok... wait what! Aunt Ruby is my mom's sister? When did that happen? And why is her last name Jackson?" he asked, looking shocked.

"Well, that is the truth which even your mother didn't know. She was set up for adoption the day she was born as... since they didn't want your mother to know about her heritage and she was adopted by the Jacksons." Julius explained.

"And... what is this heritage that was to be kept a secret may I ask?" Percy asked curiously. "No more hiding secrets now. You are an Egyptian magician Percy. One that has the blood of the pharaohs too." Julius said slowly.

"And what is this blood of pharaohs uncle?" "The blood of the pharaohs means that you are a descendant of the olden days Pharaoh. They had the power to channel the powers of a god which is known as the path of gods." explained carefully.

"So, the path of the gods is like some god donating you power or the gods possessing you for their need uh?" he asked. "Why is this necessary right now?" Percy queried.

"Ok Percy. Just brace yourself for what you are about to hear. This is somehow related to how your aunt died. She never died from an accident. You remember reading those your Egyptian mythology books I gave you? The ones you loved to read about, right?" Julius asked.

Percy nodded. "Do you remember the god of Chaos?" Julius questioned. "That one is a snake named Apophis, right? What does he have to do with this?" Percy asked.

"Well actually, everything is related to this. You see, according to the stories you read maybe you might have heard some goddess was to fight him until he was defeated right?" I asked and he nodded.

"So, your aunt was like a seer and could see small bits of the future, resulting in her seeing the upcoming destruction. And the first step to stop this was to release that goddess from her duty. And so, we went to release the goddess, which we succeeded but at the loss of your aunt, who died as she spent all her strength to close the prison he was trapped in."

"So... Who was the goddess that was locked up? And what happened to that path of the gods thing?" he asked

"The goddess that was locked up was Bast." "Bast as in... the cat goddess?" Percy queried and Julius nodded in affirmative.

"Good question about the path of the gods. As for the path of gods, let's just say that something happened years ago, resulting in the path to be destroyed or there was a rule not to follow the path. But now, the House of Life unfortunately doesn't recognise that the path of the gods is necessary."

"Great. Refusing to acknowledge the need of help at the time of need, just like the gods." Percy muttered. "What is the House of life?" he asked.

"In short, it is the main centre of magicians, who keep a check all the activities done by other Nomes. And now since Apophis is rising, the path of the gods is more important, but they don't seem to take any actions!" I say frustrated.

"Great. I had only Greek problems before and now Egyptians too? My life is peaceful" Percy muttered quietly. "So... anything else I need to know about?" Percy asked. "Well... We are advised not to visit the west much. Come and meet me here tomorrow morning. I will explain more then." Julius said and Percy left the room.

He then headed towards the room Carter and himself shared and opened to see Carter out like light and someone sitting on his bed, who was very familiar. "Um... Nico, what are you doing here?" Percy asked as he approached Nico.

"I was just passing by when you entered the hotel so I came here to talk to you" Nico said. "Well then, I guess both of us are starving so... why not grab something from the diner? Don't worry about the money, your father took care of that." Percy said as he pulled out the credit card.

They soon reached the dining area and ordered their food before settling down to talk. "What happened Neeks?" I asked, "And how the hell did you come here so quickly?" Percy asked curiously as they had parted only a day before.

"I had learnt about shadow travelling at camp, which is mostly common for all Hades' children. As to why I came here... I can't... can't forget... what happened..." he trailed off and started sobbing. I immediately understood and hugged him as he cried on my shoulder.

"Ok Nico. Calm down. Your sister will not want to see you in this state, right? She is always over here" Percy said, pointing at his heart, as he was sobbing. "She was the only one I had." he sobbed out.

Percy just looked into his eyes and said "Trust me Nico. I know about it. After all my mortal parents had died just yesterday." The moment had to be ruined by the waiter, who had come back with their orders, Nico's being Chinese noodles while Percy had a pizza.

"Anything else you would want sir?" the waiter asked. Percy looked at Nico and repeated the question to which replied "A Choco vanilla ice-cream" his mouth filled with the noodles.

Percy then ordered a Choco vanilla ice cream and a blueberry ice-cream. After the waiter left, Nico asked "How did your parents die?" and all he said was "Monster attack. What is with your Chinese obsession now?"

"Getting struck in China for a day does that to you the first time I shadow travelled anyways. Then I felt your presence here and came here. What about you?" he asked.

"Well, I came to live with my cousin and uncle as my parents had died. We are here to meet my cousin sister, who is living with her grandparents." Percy said, and he nodded.

We sat chatting for about half an hour along with finishing our dessert until Nico said he was feeling sleepy and fell asleep head resting on Percy's shoulder. Percy smiled sadly at him. The poor boy had his mother killed and then he is sent to a casino which slows down time and comes out after about 70 years only to see his only family member die.

He picked him up, bridal style and payed the bill and carried him to the room at which they were currently staying. Nico snuggled into Percy's chest and as he carried him up, he vowed to be the family Nico would never have.

Percy set him down on his bed and settled down in the couch, quickly falling asleep after the long day. The next morning, Carter woke up in the morning, gasping and sweating from the dream which he had just had.

He looked around for someone but seeing no one there, he thought that Percy had already gone downstairs and went to the bathroom to shower, only to find Percy coming out from a shower (thankfully dressed up fully).

"Hi Percy! Ready to meet Sadie?" Carter asked excitedly. "Of course I am ready to meet her Carter. Get dressed. I will be with your dad downstairs." he said and just went out of the room, heading straight towards Julius' room.

Percy knocked at the door, immediately answered by Julius with a quick come in. "Whatever you are planning to do uncle J, please do it carefully. I had a dream last night and if whatever happened in it was true, then... I would suggest that you leave some sort of a will or something like that." Percy warned and walked out, Julius nodding in acceptance.

Soon, they were all ready to visit Sadie and prepared to leave. As they stepped out, Percy couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad was about to happen, something that could change his life for the better or the worse.

A/N: Second chapter of the book fellas! Hope you all liked it! All comments and criticisms accepted and appreciated. It is obvious on what is going to happen in the next chapter to you all... so no spoilers. But maybe you could leave a comment on who do you want me to pair Percy and Nico with?

Thank you all for reading!

Rasi10 signing off

Published on 10 August 2018