Chapter 6:
Sadie rushed to her next class eager to see Nico. After changing into her gym uniform Sadie hurried to where her class was meeting. She looked around for any sign of Nico but didn't see him.
"Excuse me Ms. Collins but do you know where Nico is?" Sadie asked her buff teacher. Ms. Collins shrugged and continued to take attendance.
Sadie was worried, panicked almost. She began to wonder if maybe the Furies Lex had talked about had something to do with Nico. At the moment she just wanted to rush out the building and search for him in every dark alley, but even she knew that was reckless even for her normal self. She instead walked through gym class worrying about Nico the whole time.
Lex was sitting in the back again at English and Sadie sat down next to him. "You look gloomy," He said sympathetically.
Sadie buried her head in her arms, "I think something happened to Nico, he wasn't in gym class."
Lex patted her on the back comfortingly, "I think I know what he is."
Sadie's head jumped up, "What is he?" She was eager to know what he thought of the whole situation and maybe he knew where he was.
Lex looked at the teacher apologetically for Sadie's outburst and whispered, "I'll tell you at my house." Sadie glared at him but reluctantly stayed quiet throughout the class. Afterwards they both split up to go to their lockers. Sadie then realized she had to tell Carter what was going on.
Sadie ran over to Carter's locker, he was with some dorky looking Senior. Sadie grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the guy. Quickly she explained everything that had happened at lunch, including the thing about Nico.
Carter absorbed it all. "I'm going with you to Lex's house, it's too dangerous for you to go alone. We still don't know much about him and his sister, and something is definitely up with them," He said without a hint of budging his stance. Sadie agreed and after Carter told his friend goodbye they left to find Lex.
They found Lex arguing with Leo in Ancient Greek on the front steps of the school. Leo noticed them first and gave Sadie a dark glare. When Lex noticed them he gave Carter an odd look wondering why he was there.
"Sadie told me everything and I'm not letting her go with you alone," Carter explained.
Leo's glare then became directed at Carter and spoke to her brother in Greek, "See, now you've added even more trouble."
Lex glared at his sister and looked at Carter, "I understand and I'd do the same if I were in your position. You're welcome to come. Follow us." And they set off down the street. Lex and Leo lived about 6 blocks away from the school and with the congestion on the sidewalk it took them a good 25 minutes to reach their place.
The twins lived in a nice but small looking apartment complex. There were gates on the outside the property, and a huge garden full of exotic looking plants that led up to the door of the building. Lex took out his key and let them inside. The Kanes followed the twins as they led them up the stairs that connected to the main hallway. They walked up a flight of stairs before they reached their door.
"Sorry if the place is a bit messy, we're still unpacking," Lex explained as he opened the door with his keys. Then he muttered something that Carter and Sadie couldn't hear and a silver hieroglyphic appeared in the air. It disappeared too fast for Sadie to read it. Their apartment was messy. Boxes were strewn all over the floor and weird objects that both Carter and Sadie had no clue were. Lex led them into the kitchen which was the only place that seemed to not be completely packed with stuff.
The Kanes sat down around a small round table as Lex started preparing tea for all of them. Leo remained standing and was glaring at all three of them before she excused herself from the room. "Sorry about her, she hates moving," Lex said sighing as he got them all mugs and placed them on the table, "I guess I should start explaining."
Carter and Sadie nodded. Lex filled their mugs with green tea and sat down. He took a sip before he began talking, "First of all I should probably confess that I've known about you two all along."
Sadie gasped, "How?"
Lex smiled at her and continued, "I saw you years ago, you were in the first nome. I remembered both of you, when I saw you enter the room that other day in history class I knew exactly who you were. Sadie Kane, the fugitive with her brother Carter Kane. The House of Life really hates you two."
Sadie was confused, "So our friendship was just so you could use me? Keep watch over us? Are you going to turn us in?" She was glaring at him now, feeling betrayed.
Lex was taken aback, "No! I promise you Sadie it's not like that at all. I guess I should start from the beginning. As I told you before Sadie, my real name is Alexander-Helios Jazeera. Leo's name is Cleopatra-Selene Jazeera. I don't know if you've heard about such things but we are reincarnations."
Carter grinned, "I knew it," he said poking Sadie on her side.
Lex continued, "We were both discovered to be reincarnates after our father took us to the council of the House of Life. Our parents were members and were assigned positions in Alexandria. They were suspicious of us at our birth because of how different we looked from them. We had brown hair and blue eyes, they all had dark skin and dark features.
Our mother feared of us possibly being reincarnates right away. She didn't want to take us to the House of Life at all for fear they might kill us. Our father disagreed, he took us in the middle of the night without our mother's knowledge."
Lex's face looked sad as he continued, "He took us to the council, all the members were there except Iskander. They all recognized who we were. They wanted us killed, destroyed before we could grow up. My father tried to dissuade them, he wanted us to grow up in the House and be trained, he promised we would only be loyal to the House.
By then our mother had arrived, she was furious at our father and anguished when the council told her we were to be killed. She begged them to spare us, she even offered her own life as payment."
Lex paused and Sadie could see how hard it was for him to talk about this, she held his hand trying to comfort him. Lex smiled at her sadly as he continued, "My mother wasn't going to let them kill us without a fight. The council members tried to move her out of the way but she kept trying to hold us to protect us from them. Then one of the members, Desjardins, threw a killing spell. She died immediately."
Sadie held his hand tighter as he told them this. "That's when Iskander arrived. He tried to get everyone to act peacefully. I guess Iskander took pity on us at the sight of us crying under our dead mother's body and our father sitting their helpless. He apologized to our father for the council's actions and decided to keep watch over us.
We lived there since. We trained there for years until Iskander died. You see Desjardins still believed we were dangerous. By then we had known and accepted that we were reincarnates of the original Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, we even took their names. He disliked us because of our Greek and Roman ancestry. He believed we were enemies to the House and to Egypt."
Carter nodded he knew exactly where Lex was coming from.
"After Desjardins became Head Lector Leo and I fled, we knew after you two we would be his next targets. We managed to escape to Alexandria where our father lived. Since then we've been moving around nonstop. We can never stay too long, the House has many ears."
"Is that why Leo doesn't trust us?" Sadie asked Lex.
Lex nodded, "She thinks you're working with the House now. We heard Desjardins let you go. I'll admit I was a little hesitant too, that's why I didn't tell you everything right away."
Sadie understood and felt bad for thinking he was using her earlier, he was simply afraid for his life. "How do you know we aren't working with the House?" Sadie asked.
Lex smiled at her, his face holding no trace of the earlier sadness. "I trust you," he said simply, "Leo thinks I'm being foolish, but I really do trust you. You have a good ba, I can tell."
"Well you can trust us, I promise I won't tell anyone about you," Sadie said. She would keep this promise if she had to take it to her grave.
"I also promise," Carter added.
Lex smiled at the two of them, "Oh yea! I forgot I have something for you Carter. It's from Zia," Lex stood up from his chair and moved through the clutter to a room in the back.
Carter perked up in his seat in surprise.
Lex came back after a minute with an envelope in his hand, "I've had this for a while. I saw Zia a few months ago after she found out I was going to New York. She wanted me to drop this off at your Uncle's house. But it was too dangerous to go there, but at least now I can give it to you."
Carter's eyes were as big as saucers as he took the letter and stuffed it in his pocket, he would wait to read it in privacy (away from his sister) later in his room.
"Thanks man," Carter said with a giant grin on his face.
Sadie laughed at her brother, she could tell him and Zia were going to be a couple someday. He had been crushing on her the past two years nonstop.
Sadie suddenly remembered Nico, "I almost forgot, you were going to tell me about Nico!"
Lex's expression darkened at the mention of Nico. "I think he's a demigod," Lex said waiting for the two sibling's reactions.
Sadie's mind went blank, a demiwhat?
"What's a demigod?" asked an also confused Carter.
"You two do know there are also Greek gods, right?" Sadie and Carter nodded. "Well the Greek gods are different than the Egyptian gods in that they don't need to use a host. While they can take animal form like the Egyptians, they mainly chose to use their human forms."
Sadie nodded as she took in the information but she was wondering how Lex knew all of this and she and Carter knew nothing, "Where did you learn all of this? Why was it hidden from us?"
"They told us when we were training mostly, we learned a lot about the Romans and Greeks," Lex explained.
"So Nico is part Greek god…" Sadie said trying to absorb the information.
Lex nodded "I can't be completely sure but I'm fairly certain he is. I'm also not fully sure who his godly parent is. After lunch today I'm guessing either Hectate or Hades."
Sadie only briefly learned about the Greek gods, she would've learned more about them had she stayed in England for her next year in school. "Who are they?" She asked confused.
Carter sighed making Sadie want to punch him, "You really don't know anything do you –OW!" Carter shouted as Sadie wacked him on his arm. Lex laughed at the two siblings.
"It's okay if you don't know Sadie," Lex said as he tried to stop Sadie from hitting her brother any further. "Hectate is the goddess of magic and Hades is the ruler of the Greek Underworld. Hades is the brother of Zeus, Poseidon and Hera. Zeus is the ruler of the gods and they live in Olympus which is located somewhere in the Empire state building."
"Woah, you mean I could walk to Olympus from here?" asked an excited Sadie. That was why Bast had generally warned them to stay out of Manhattan – the Greeks were just around the corner practically.
Lex scowled, "Unless you want to get blasted into bits I wouldn't do that. Greeks aren't to be trusted. I've seen some of them, on my travels and I've heard about them from others. Did you know that just last year all of New York was being threatened by some lunatic demigod? They are traitors and liars, those Gracus scum can't be trusted." Sadie knew Lex had animosity toward the Greeks, but he seemed to hate them. Personally, Sadie didn't know too much about them to make a generalized statement – plus, Nico seemed nice."
"So Hectate or Hades? I'm going to say he's Hades's kid," Sadie said trying to change the subjects. Lex's eyes lost their dangerous tint and he took a deep breath.
"Why do you say that?" questioned a now calm Lex.
"He smells of dirt and the earth," Sadie said smiling to herself as she remembered his fragrance.
"Eww," Carter muttered.
Sadie glared at him, "Not like that, he smells good. I like it." Sadie saw Lex frown a bit, she figured it would be best to probably not mention Nico for a while. They sat there in an awkward silence for a while before Carter spoke.
"I forgot to ask this earlier but how do you know Zia?" Carter asked Lex as he finished his cup of tea.
Lex looked a little uncomfortable, "We kind of grew up together."
Carter was interested in anything Zia and wanted to know more about her as much as he could even if he had to use someone else to find out, "So you guys were good friends?" he asked.
Lex blushed and studied his hands, "Kind of, we dated for a while. Though it was nothing serious, just hanging out really, I was only 13!"
Good thing Carter had already finished his tea because he would've spat all over the table, "You two dated?" Even Sadie was interested, she couldn't picture Zia and Lex together. Heck, she couldn't picture Zia and anyone together. Zia seemed like she would beat anyone up for looking at her too long.
Lex smiled at Carter to ease the tension as he noticed Carter glaring daggers at him, "It was nothing serious I promise. She likes you a lot I can tell. She kept asking me to give you the letter and spoke only good things about you."
Carter blushed and his thoughts of murdering Lex were replaced by happiness, "Really?" He asked smiling.
Lex grinned at him and patted him on his shoulder, "Really, she's got the hots for you. You need to get her when you see her next time mate. She's only getting more beautiful with each passing day, you don't know who will try and take her."
Carter's happiness turned to sadness, he really missed Zia. He hoped that he could see her again soon. He was even more determined now than before to see her. "Do you know about the situation in Egypt," Carter asked Lex.
"Yes, I'm very worried about Egypt. I've been getting updates from Zia sometimes but I haven't heard from her in a while, I'm getting worried," Lex's face was full of sorrow and Sadie wondered if he suspected something had happened to her too, "I know Zia is tough, but she's going to need help. The House of Life needs help, but there's no way I could go back now. They'd just kill us."
Carter nodded in understanding, Sadie patted him on the back to get him to cheer up. She felt bad for her lovesick brother.
"I still think we should do something," Sadie suddenly felt a surge of inspiration, "I saw you fight Lex, you are amazing. You should've seen him Carter, he took down these Furies in less than a minute." Lex blushed at her praise and Sadie continued, "With us four being skilled fighters, and with all of the recruits, we could easily put up a challenge against the House of Life. They have a strength in numbers, but we have a strength in power."
The others looked at her doubtfully. And Sadie sighed in frustration – she was used to Carter not taking her seriously or ignoring her suggestions but she didn't want Lex to. "We can't just wait for Apophis to resume control."
Lex was the first to speak, "Well, I'm tired of running so I'm in."
Carter sighed heavily, "I want to go more than anyone, but it's too risky. I feel like we're walking into a trap, like Desjardin knows what we want to do and is just waiting for us. It's hard to explain…" Sadie wondered if Carter had been on any recent travels with his ba, but she would question him later.
They sat in silence letting their worries and suspicions sink in. After a few minutes Leo returned to the room. "Father's going to be home soon," She told Lex still glaring at the three of them.
Lex sat up alarmed, "Oh crap, I forgot. You guys have to leave. I know I said I trust you and everything, but my father is another story."
Sadie and Carter quickly got up from their spots at the table as they were being hushed from the room by a frantic Lex. As Carter was walking out the front gate of the apartment complex Lex grabbed Sadie's hand holding her in place. Sadie looked up at his face, his hair was covering his blue eyes. She guessed he liked it that way. She didn't know how, she hated when her hair got in her eyes.
"About today, we didn't really get to spend time together alone. So I was kind of wondering if you wanted to meet up tomorrow?" Lex asked Sadie nervously.
Sadie honestly wasn't sure, everything was happening so suddenly and with Nico possibly in danger she was pretty sure she was going to spend the whole weekend worrying on the couch chewing gum and watching karate flicks. But, she didn't want to stress herself out too much, if there's one thing she learned in the past two years it's to take the good times when they come.
Sadie nodded to him and smiled as his face brightened. "Great it's a date!" Lex said pumping his fist in the air. "Wait, I mean just hanging out because we're just friends. I promised we'd just be friends," He said weakly.
Sadie sighed, "It's a date." She laughed as his face turned a funny shade of pink. Then she quickly ran to catch up with her brother.
AN:/
Also to the Nicadie fans I'll explain why I'm not rushing it. I think the best romances take time to happen. Like Percy and Annabeth, I think they have a way better story than Jason and Piper because Riordan took the time to make them grow with one another's personalities. So for that reason I'm not going to rush Nicadie too much, but there will be some in the coming chapters. I promise : - )
Summary of Lex and Leo's background story: Basically they were trained and raised by the House of Life under Iskander's orders, after their mother was "accidentally" killed by Desjardins who thought they were dangerous. After Iskander died they knew Desjardins would kill them so they ran away to their father. Now they live on the run with their father from the House of Life.