13. Brooklyn House

I woke to the sound of Noah mumbling in his sleep. He was sitting across from me, kicked back in his seat. I looked to my right to see if Lexie was still asleep, but her seat was empty. Panic washed over me. Where was she? Had she been taken again? I bolted up out of my seat and began scanning the passenger car.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and nearly jumped out of my skin. I jerked to the left and saw Lexie standing there, biting her bottom lip, and trying not to laugh at me.

"Jeez, Lexie, don't sneak up on me like that," I gasped. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Since when do you startle so easily?" she asked with a little laugh.

"Since I woke up and you were gone. I was worried you'd been taken again."

I guess she could tell how concerned I'd been about her, because her smile faded and she reached out and gripped my forearm tightly. "I just went to the bathroom. Sorry I scared you."

I ran my hands through my hair to try to shake off the anxiety. "I'm just a little on edge, I guess."

"That's understandable," she said as she stepped by me and took her seat. "We've all been stressed out these last few days."

I plopped down in my seat beside her. "Being a hero sucks sometimes."

"Yeah," she sighed. "It does. Like watching Barka torture you and not being able to do anything about it. That really sucked."

I took in a sharp breath. I didn't even want to think about it. The memory of the pain gave me phantom aches in my chest, back, and head. I rubbed my temples and closed my eyes, trying to think of anything other than that agony I was put through.

"Are you okay?" Lexie asked me.

I rubbed my eyes and turned to her. "I'm fine. Embarrassed more than anything."

"Why are you embarrassed?"

"Laying on the ground, screaming and crying isn't manly or heroic; it's shameful. And I came to rescue you from the Rebellion, but turns out you had to rescue me instead. That's humiliating, Lexie."

"You want to talk about shameful? I left you there in that cemetery at the mercy of Barka. I ran away like a coward instead of fighting for you. I saw what he did to you…" she paused when her voice began to crack. She swallowed down the lump in her throat and continued, "CJ, I am so sorry I left you behind."

"I told you to go. I didn't want them to hurt you, too. You have nothing to apologize for or be ashamed of. You're not a coward, Lexie," I insisted. "And you didn't leave me behind. You came back for me. You saved me. Barka was trying to take the curse of Achilles away from me when you showed up."

"He what?" she gasped. "How?"

I explained everything that happened in the warehouse before she showed up. "You were right," I said. "He didn't want me to join him anymore; he wanted something else. He wanted to be invincible, and he almost got it."

She shook her head and exhaled, "My gods."

"And the crazy thing about it, for a minute there, a part of me wanted him to succeed," I admitted. "A part of me wanted to be free of it all: the curse, the prophecy, the pressure, the hero's life. A part of me wanted to be normal. I'm the coward, Lexie, not you."

"Wanting normalcy doesn't make you a coward, CJ," she said as she took my hand in hers. "And passing it up to do the right thing makes you brave."

I squeezed her hand. It felt really good in mine—like that was where it was meant to be. I just hoped my palm wasn't too disgustingly sweaty. "Speaking of brave," I said. "You kicked ass back in that warehouse. Where'd you get a gun and when did you learn to shoot?"

"Mom taught me to shoot last year. She carries—all the bounty hunters do—and she thought it was time I learned. And as for the gun, I took it off Finn's hands after I bashed him over the head with an empty beer bottle I found in the alley."

"Cousinly love, huh?" I laughed.

She chuckled a little and said, "If that douche didn't look so much like Uncle Jason, I'd never believe they were father and son. They're nothing alike."

"Do you think Jason will ever be able to connect with him?"

She sighed and shook her head. "I doubt it. Finn is set in his ways. Unless something changes drastically, I think he'll always be loyal to the Rebellion…unfortunately."

"If he's even still alive," Noah said. I hadn't even noticed that he'd woken up. "Lily and the Hunters could've killed him…and Barka. Lily certainly wanted to."

Lexie released my sweaty hand, discretely wiped the sweat on her jacket, then pushed her fingers through her hair like I had done a few minutes ago. She did that when she was frustrated. "Noah, how long have you been awake?" she asked.

"Long enough," he grinned then shot me a wink that let me know he'd seen Lexie and me holding hands. I'm not sure why, but I blushed a little.

"How am I going to tell Uncle Jason that his son may be dead?" Lexie sounded exasperated.

"I don't think he's dead, Lexie," I said. "I know the Hunters are good at what they do, but so is the Rebellion. As slippery as Finn and Barka have been in the past, I'd bet money they got away."

"You're probably right," Lexie nodded. "Those weasel rats probably fled back into their hole."

Since we were all awake now and our stomachs were grumbling, we went to the dining car and ate a late lunch. It was already after two in the afternoon. As I promised, I bought Lexie a steak dinner, and though it wasn't gourmet, she still ate it with gusto. As for me, I tore up two plates of spaghetti, and Noah ate an entire pizza by himself. Needless to say, we were famished.

After we filled our bellies, we went back to our seats and passed out again. When I woke, it was dark outside. Most of the other passengers were sleeping, but I noticed Noah was awake. I glanced over at Lexie to see that she was still asleep.

"What time is it?" I asked Noah as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

He glanced at his watch. "Almost midnight."

"How long have you been up?"

"About an hour. That pizza I ate earlier has been turning cartwheels in my stomach, and the motion of the train isn't helping the matter," he grumbled. "I'm so ready to be back in New York."

"You and me both."

"Hey, don't forget that we gotta take that scroll to Brooklyn when we get there."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten," I assured him. "I've been dreading it, actually. With my luck, I'll probably be attacked by this Khufu person."

"Well, if that happens, I got your back…though I don't know how much help I'll be without a weapon."

"Well, at least you have your powers to fall back on. Oh, by the way, what happened to your katana?" I asked. I'd noticed that Noah wasn't carrying it anymore, but I hadn't mentioned it until now.

"The Rebellion took it when they captured Lily and me," he groaned. Well, someone in the Rebellion got themselves a nice toy. Noah's katanas—and he had several—were wicked handcrafted blades, and he hated losing or damaging one, because they took so long to forge.

"How'd that happen, anyway?" I asked. "How'd they capture you two?"

"They were trailing us, and there were too many for us to shake," he explained. "Running would've just gotten us killed, so we had no choice but to let them take us. That's when Lily put in the call to her Hunters that we were in trouble. The wolves were the first to arrive, and Lily used the handkerchief with your scent on it so the wolves could track you. By the time we found the warehouse, the Hunters had arrived and we set up an ambush."

"I'm surprised they helped in my rescue," I said, and I really was. Hunters coming to the aid of a boy was just unheard of.

"Lily was pretty pissed about what Barka did to you in the cemetery. Not as pissed as Lexie and I were, but she wasn't going to let him get away with what he did. And she wanted revenge for Echo."

"Echo," I sighed. It pained me to watch that wolf die. She was a good wolf and helped us out a lot on the quest. I imagine, to Lily, losing that wolf was like losing a friend. "I didn't even offer Lily my condolences." I felt like crap for not doing that.

"I did," Noah said. "She told me Echo would be back someday."

I closed my eyes. "I hope so."

Over the next two hours and between Noah's many trips to the restroom, he and I talked about what happened to us after Bourbon Street. We discussed the Hunters, the Rebellion, and the need for us to up our game if we wanted to defeat our mortal enemies. We also chatted about normal stuff: skateboards, video games, baseball, girls. It was nice to sit and goof with my best friend.

Around 2 a.m., we'd both fallen asleep again, and I didn't wake until Lexie shook my shoulder. "CJ," she said. "CJ, we're here. We're in the city."

I yawned and opened my eyes to see that we were stopped at Penn Station, and the passengers were disembarking. We grabbed our things, exited the train, and walked through the station to the Seventh Avenue subway line to get a ride to Brooklyn. Keeping my word to Thoth was my first priority now that we were back in New York. I swiped my MetroCard for all three of us, and we hopped on the train to Brooklyn.

"Where exactly is this Brooklyn House?" Lexie asked. On the long Amtrak ride, I'd told her about the scroll Thoth had given me and my task to deliver it to Khufu.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm not exactly sure. I know it's on the east side. Thoth said to look at the eastern skyline, and I'd see it."

Once in Brooklyn, we got off the subway and out onto the streets. The snow I'd driven through on the way down to New Orleans hadn't missed New York. The ground was covered in snow. It was a white Christmas.

We took a cab to the east side of Brooklyn where we found a tall parking structure where we could get a good look at the skyline. We rode the elevator to the top floor and scanned east Brooklyn.

"I don't see anything out of the ordinary," Noah said as he looked out at Brooklyn.

"Thoth said we'd have to concentrate really hard," I said. "I bet it's hidden by a veil like the Mist."

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath of crisp air, and looked back out at the skyline. And there it was. I blinked. It wasn't there a minute ago. I looked again, and it was still there—a mansion sitting atop a five-story warehouse. It was built from enormous limestone blocks and had a terrace that wrapped around it. The windows were lined with shining gold designs, which from this distance, I couldn't really tell what they were, but I'd bet they were hieroglyphs.

"There," I pointed at the limestone house. "It's a mansion. Do you see it?" I asked Noah and Lexie.

They both squinted in the direction I was pointing. Lexie shook her head. "No, I don't see anything that looks like a mansion."

"Yeah, CJ, I don't see it either," Noah said.

"Concentrate," I told them. "Now look again."

They looked hard toward the mansion, but I could tell they couldn't see it. "I got nothing, CJ," Lexie said.

Seriously? "How can you not see it? You have more godly blood than I do. This should be a piece of cake for you." I walked up behind her and pointed at the mansion where she could look straight down my arm and use it as a guide. I rested my chin on her shoulder and said, "Look where I'm pointing and imagine a huge limestone mansion with gold trimmed windows and a wrap-around terrace."

She tilted her head and concentrated on where I was pointing. She jumped suddenly. Her shoulder popped my chin hard enough it would've broken a normal person's teeth. "I see it!" she gasped.

"About time," I teased, and she gave me the stink-eye.

"Well, I still don't see it," Noah grumbled.

"Let's get closer, and maybe you'll be able to see it," Lexie said to Noah.

We rode the elevator down to the street and took a cab to the block where we'd seen the mansion. As we walked down the street, Noah kept looking up at the rootops, trying to see the mansion, and finally, when we were right on top of the warehouse, he saw it.

"How did I not see it before?" he wondered. "It's so obvious."

When we got to the warehouse, we found a fire escape that we could climb to get to the roof where the mansion sat.

"Stay alert, guys," Lexie said as she started up the fire escape. "We don't know what we're walking into."

We got no surprises as we went up the fire escape, and all was quiet on the roof, too. We cautiously walked to the entrance of the mansion, which was a block of wood with no handles or knobs.

"Uh, do we knock?" Noah asked about the solid wood door.

I pulled the scroll from my pack and raised my hand to knock. "I guess that's the only option," I said, then knocked on the door.

I pulled my pen from my pocket, but didn't transform it into my sword. I didn't want to be mistaken as a threat, but I did want my weapon handy. A moment passed with no answer, and I was about to knock again when an opening appeared in the solid block of wood. Standing in the opening was a teenage guy. He looked about my age, had dark skin and hair, and was wearing white cotton pajamas.

He smiled. "Merry Christmas," he said cheerily.

"Uh, Merry Christmas," I replied. I wasn't expecting such a pleasant reception. "I'm Chase Jackson. Thoth asked me to deliver this scroll to Khufu."

"Oh," he said then glanced over his shoulder and called Khufu to the door. He turned back to me and offered his hand. "Seth Kane," he introduced himself, and I shook his hand. "Which nome are you guys from?" he asked us.

"Nome?" I asked. "I don't follow."

His brow furrowed. "You're not magicians?" he asked. "Not of Egyptian blood?"

Magicians? What was this guy talking about? "Um, no," I said. "We're Greek."

"Oh," he nodded. "I see. Different pantheon."

Just then, a baboon came to the door, barked, then took the scroll out of my hand and disappeared back into the house.

"That was Khufu. He says thanks for the scroll," Seth said. "Anything else?"

I shook my head. "No, that was it."

"Okay, well, you guys have a good Christmas. Excuse me," he said then the opening in the door closed.

"Wow, that was easy," Noah said with surprise.

I shrugged. "Not everyone is a hostile enemy. I think we forget that sometimes."

"Come on," Lexie said and waved us over to the fire escape. "Let's get back to Manhattan."