“Brother dear,” I said, “did your soul leave your body while Amos was talking, or did you actually hear him? Egyptian gods real. Red Lord bad. Red Lord’s birthday: very soon, very bad. House of Life: fussy magicians who hate our family because dad was a bit of a rebel, whom you could take a lesson from. Which leaves us—just us—with Dad missing, an evil god about to destroy the world, and an uncle who just jumped off the building—and I can’t actually blame him.” I took a breath. [Yes, Carter, I do have to breathe occasionally.]”

“Sadie got up and kissed Amos on the forehead. “Leave it to us, Uncle. I’ve got a plan.”“That,” I said, “sounds like very bad news.”

“The house of Life doesn’t trust our family, especially after what Dad and Mom did. Amos said we were raised apart for a reason, so we wouldn’t trigger each other’s magic.”“Bloody awful reason to keep us apart,” I muttered.”

“Is Tyson okay?" I asked.The question seemed to take my dad by surprise. He's fine. Doing much better than I expected. Though "peanut butter" is a strange battle cry."You let him fight?"Stop changing the subject! You realize what you are asking me to do? My palace will be destroyed."And Olympus might be saved."Do you have any idea how long I've worked on remodeling this palace? The game room alone took six hundred years."Dad—"Very well! It shall be as you say. But my son, pray this works."I am praying. I'm talking to you, right?"Oh . . . yes. Good point.”

“Poseidon raised his eyebrows as they shook hands. “Blowfish, did you say?”"Ah, no. Blofis, actually.”"Oh, I see,” Poseidon said. “A shame. I quite like blowfish. I am Poseidon.”"Poseidon? That’s an interesting name.”"Yes, I like it. I’ve gone by other names, but I do prefer Poseidon.”"Like the god of the sea.”"Very much like that, yes.”

“Oh...my...god,"Drew whimpered."Who..."Anubis ignored her (bless him for that) and held out his elbow for me - a sweet old-fashioned gesture." May I have this dance?""I suppose," I said,as non committally as I could. I looped my arm through his, and we left the Plastic Bags behind us, all of them muttering,"Oh my god! Oh my god!"No ,actually, I wanted to say. He's my amazingly hot boy god. Find your own.”

“Now, now," Bast said. "It's not so bad.""Right," I said. "We're stuck in Washington, D.C. We have two days to make it to Arizona and stop a god we don't know how to stop. And if we can't, we'll never see our dad or Amos again, and the world might end.""That's the spirit!" Bast said brightly. "Now, let's have a picnic.”