Chapter 8:

When Sadie arrived home she quickly ran inside, wanting to change and to also try avoiding Basts's millions of questions. As she was about to enter her room she saw Carter approaching her with a wild look in his eyes. "Oh no, did you eat too many prunes again, you know they give you the runs," Sadie said laughing at him.

Carter ignored her, "Why didn't you pick up the phone? I called you like 100 times!"

Sadie took out her phone from her purse and looked at the 104 missed calls, "Woah, were you that scared for me? You know Lex wouldn't hurt me." Sadie said confused at her brother's actions.

"No, It's not that. Though if he did hurt you I'd kill him, It's Zia!" Carter said as he pulled at his hair nervously.

"What's wrong? Did she ask you to marry her in her letter?"

"No, she's in trouble. Well I think she's in trouble. Lex must not have read the letter because he was supposed to have given it to me months ago. Zia said she was going to try and find another way besides summoning Ra to fix the mess, she was going to get the help of the Greek Gods. She wanted me to meet her here in New York months ago!" Carter shouted out.

Carter was terrified, he hadn't had the chance to read the letter until the morning due to him helping Sadie and the lack of privacy since Bast arrived. Now he was in full panic mode as he realized something might be terribly wrong with her.

"We have to talk to the Greek gods somehow!" Carter said, "With or without Amos's permission."

Sadie finally recognized the seriousness of the situation and worried for Zia. "But Lex says they're dangerous! We'll be killed instantly, and besides, how do you think we would go about that? Walk right into the Empire State building asking the front desk man what floor Olympus is on?"

"If they're that dangerous than they could've already hurt her! Which means we have to find some way to figure out what they did do to her," Carter said with desperation in his voice, "I don't know about you but I'm going to do whatever it takes to help her."

Sadie nodded, "I'll help don't worry. We're a team remember?" Carter smiled, at least he could always count on his sister. They spent the rest of the weekend planning, since they were going to go after Zia they might as well try and prepare to destroy Apophis too. They both agreed that they couldn't rush into the situation and allotted themselves a week of preparation.

Their plan was to first seek advice from Anubis and their father. They needed to know more about the Greek gods and how to contact them. After they confronted Anubis for help they would go to the Greeks to figure out what happened to Zia. Finally they would get Zia.

By Monday they were mentally preparing themselves for their long journey come Saturday.

After Bast dropped them off to school they began walking up the front steps. Sadie saw Lex sitting farther up on the stairs and felt heat spreading to her face as she remembered their kiss from the last time she'd seen him. Carter laughed at the display of affection between the two.

"I forgot to ask after everything else that was going on, but how was your date?" Carter asked his little sister.

"It was great," She said blushing slightly at her brother, "See you later!" Sadie quickly ran to where Lex was sitting. He jumped down from the ledge and gave her a hug around her waist and leaned down planting his lips onto hers. They stood there embraced for a while before a teacher came and broke them apart.

"So how was your Sunday?" Lex asked as they walked inside.

Sadie perked up as she remembered she was going to tell him of the update, his kisses were like a drug that made her forget everything. "I just remembered that I have so much to tell you. Can you be a little late for History?" She asked him.

Lex agreed and they snuck into a vacant janitor's closet. It was packed with a lot of items so they had to stand close to each other in the tiny room. Sadie then quickly began describing how Zia had gone to the Greeks for help and how she and Carter were going to the Land of the Dead to get help from Anubis and her father. He was concerned when she told him about their plan to confront the gods.

"I really don't think that's a good idea, they're dangerous," Lex said concerned.

Sadie sighed, of course it wasn't a good idea. It was practically suicide, but this was probably the only way to find Zia. And besides maybe they could use some help from the Greeks to fight Apophis, "It's a stupid idea, but it's the only one we have. Do you have a better suggestion?" Sadie asked sharply.

Lex sighed and shook his head, "I'm just worried," he said. Sadie felt bad about snapping at him, he was just trying to be a protective boyfriend. Sadie wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her tippy-toes to kiss him. He smiled and leaned into the kiss. They were probably making out for a good 5 minutes before she realized they still had class.

"Like I said before in my apartment that day, I'm willing to follow you anywhere," Lex said to Sadie as they were walking to their class, "I'm not sure about Leo, but I'll go."

"I'm glad to have you on the team then," Sadie said smiling at him. Sadie walked inside and frowned when she realized they were almost 20 minutes late for class. If she had known that she would've stayed in the Janitor's closet the rest of the period.

"Sorry we're late," Lex said to their teacher. Sadie was going to quickly sit at a desk but everyone had turned their desks into little groups.

Their teacher scowled at them. "20 minutes late, I would ask what you two were doing but I don't think I want to know," Mr. Laritate said making both of them blush because now there was actual truth to his fear. "We're in groups today. On Friday you will present your section of life in Ancient Greece."

Mr. Laritate looked around the room and stopped his gaze at Leo, who had been glaring at Sadie the moment she entered the room. "Lex, you can join your sister. They need another person for their group. Sadie you can join Nico. I was going to have him work by himself but he could use a partner."

Sadie tensed, this was going to be awkward. Lex tried to protest to the teacher to let them switch groups but Mr. Laritate was still mad at them.

Nico looked up at her from the floor as she approached the small area he was seated in the back of the class. He was cutting out pictures and pasting them to a white poster board. He looked a bit disheveled, his long hair was a bit wild and dark circles were under his eyes. "Hey," Sadie said as he returned to cutting out pictures.

Sadie read the title on the poster board, "Greek gods, well that's another bizarre coincidence of the day."

Nico furrowed his eyebrows in eyebrow in confusion but continued on his work. "So," Sadie said trying to ease the awkwardness of the situation, "What do you want me to do?"

"Mr. Laritate assigned for me to make a poster board about the Greek gods. Then I was supposed to present my favorite god to the class." Nico said as he focused his attention on his gluing, "I guess you can do whatever you want since I'm just about finished."

"Which god did you chose?" Sadie asked curiously.

Nico looked her in the eyes, his brown eyes just as warm as ever. "I chose Hades, though I don't really consider him my favorite."

"Why did you choose him then?"

Nico shrugged and smiled, "I would be more afraid of him than the others if I didn't choose to present about him."

Sadie laughed, something was bugging her though. Not one for being subtlety she blurted, "So are you a demigod?"

Nico froze and his head rose slowly like the creepy girl from the movie, The Ring. "What did you say?" Nico asked ominously, his dark eyes were narrowed onto hers.

Sadie discovered Nico's creepy side that day. "I asked if you are a demigod?" She said apprehensively. The situation was reminding her of a scary movie involving a person finding out a dark secret and then getting their throat slashed in the middle of the night – perhaps Lex wasn't wrong to be wary of Greeks. She'd definitely be locking her doors when she'd go to bed that night.

Nico nervously looked around and glared suspiciously at her, "How do you know about demigods?"

Sadie smiled slightly, "I knew it!" She couldn't contain her excitement and stuck her tongue out at him and did a small crab-like dance on the floor where she was crouching.

"Shhh!" He hissed at her, he was still looking at her oddly.

Sadie quieted down and moved closer to where Nico was kneeling. "So your dad is Hades then? I guess that describes your gothic tone and pale face and dirt smell."

Nico nodded but then frowned, "Do I really smell like dirt?" He started sniffing himself again and Sadie laughed.

"Yup! But I told you it's a nice smell," Sadie said making Nico blush. Sadie realized they were sitting pretty close to each other and backed away. She had done it again, she was flirting with him without even realizing it. Sadie stayed silent and looked over to where Lex was sitting. He was sitting with his back to her, engrossed in his work.

"So, how do you know about me?" Nico asked again.

Sadie sighed and told him about how she and Lex saw him disappear into a shadow. Then she tried to explain that she was a magician.

"Wait! A magician? Like Harry Potter?" Nico's eyes were wide as he asked her.

Sadie frowned, "No, not like Harry Potter." She twirled a piece of hair before explaining, "Do you know anything about Ancient Egypt?"

Nico nodded, "Wait! You're Egyptian? I only discovered that there were Egyptian monsters over the weekend. But the gods didn't tell us much besides that. So you're half Egyptian god?" Nico asked confused.

"No, not at all," Sadie said. Sadie quickly explained the best she could about the House of Life and the secret society that existed all over the world that no one knew existed. Nico absorbed all the information. His face became serious as Sadie told him about Zia, Apophis, and the sudden influx of Greek monsters attacking Egyptians.

"That's happening to us too. I mean, there are lots of Egyptian monsters attacking us. They keep penetrating our camp's barriers. I was up all night trying to fight them off, but it's hard to even get close to them and when I do our weapons are terrible against them." Nico said a pain in his eyes, "We keep losing more camp members every day."

Sadie didn't know what camp he was talking about she felt her heart breaking for him. He looked so vulnerable. And she knew what it was like to lose the people she loved. "We can help," Sadie said as an idea popped up in her brain. "We need your help and in exchange we can fight those monsters."

"Who is we?" Nico asked, "I thought you said the House of Life was almost in ruins."

"So far it's just Carter and Lex, Leo maybe," Sadie explained, "And then there are our recruits, a little over 12 now. We may not seem like a lot but we are really strong, we've been training them in hope they would help us defeat Apophis."

"Wait, Lex and Leo are magicians?" Nico asked glancing over at where they were sitting.

"Yea, kind of," Sadie said remembering her earlier promise of secrecy, "They can tell you about themselves if they want. They're a bit secretive."

Nico nodded, "Well I'll help." Nico looked at Sadie with a determined look in his eyes, "I don't know if I can help much but I'll try. We can also go to my camp and talk to Chiron, he's sort of our guidance counselor. There aren't too many campers left, most left for Greece yesterday morning. The few of us remaining are just trying to hold up the barriers. And Chiron might know something about Zia. It's a bit risky to go straight to Olympus, the gods don't even like their own children that much."

Suddenly the bell rang. Nico and Sadie began to pick up the scrap pieces of paper and markers. "We should discuss this at lunch with the others. There's still a lot more you should know," Sadie said to Nico after they were finished.

Nico nodded, "See you then." Nico then left in a hurry out of the room.

Sadie was waiting on Lex while he and his group were cleaning up there mess. "How was it?" Lex asked as they left out of the room, "Did he give you a hard time?"

"Nope. I confirmed he's a demigod though. He's the son of Hades, I knew it! I should've bet you $10 for that," Sadie pondered smiling at Lex.

"That's interesting," Lex said. Sadie could tell he was thinking about something else.

"I told him about the situation in Egypt too, about Zia, Apophis and about the House of Life. I didn't tell him about you and Leo though. That's up to you if you want to, I did promise," Sadie told him.

"Thanks," Lex said giving her a quick kiss on her cheek.

They both sat in the back of art class and talked about Nico as the class filled in. After art was over Sadie made her way to math class. Nico was already in the back, she sat next to him. They didn't say much in fear they would be overheard but together they made their way to the lunchroom. They sat down at the table with Carter, Lex and Leo.

AN:/

And yes, Sadie is dating Lex now. But I find from writing this story that her and Nico have more chemistry. At least it's easier for me to write them together, so we'll see how things work out in the future...