The wharf bustled, yet a strange calm hung in the air, as if the Duat itself waited, watching their movements.
Tawaret had accompanied the group to the makeshift barge—the Solar Barque having vanished for some reason—and farewells were imminent. Her shabti carried Ra aboard while she spoke with Bes.
"Bes, I'm so sorry," Tawaret said, her voice soft but heavy with worry. "I wish there was more I could do."
Bes, his expression unreadable, reached out, but instead of a simple gesture of comfort, he grasped her hand firmly, a touch that seemed to convey more than words could express.
"It's not your fault," Bes said, then stepped closer to Tawaret, as if to look into her eyes. "It never was your fault."
She sniffled, the internal struggle clear in her gaze.
"Oh, Bes…"
At the moment of highest tension, a voice interrupted, causing everyone to glance towards Ra, who was being settled onto the boat by the shabti.
"Wheeee!" Ra exclaimed, visibly thrilled. "Look at the zebras! Wheeee!"
Bes cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure, while Tawaret released his hand, a mixture of conflicting emotions swirling within her.
"You—you should go. Perhaps Aaru will provide an answer."
"Aaru?" Carter asked, confused.
Tawaret smiled gently, but it was a smile mixed with something profound. "Not who, my dear. Where. It's the Seventh House. Say hello to your father."
The mention of Carter's father lifted his spirits, if only for a moment.
"Dad will be there?" he asked, a silent hope blooming.
"Good luck, Carter and Sadie." Tawaret kissed them both on the cheek, and the sensation was as peculiar as a gentle breeze, yet somehow comforting. Her touch seemed to package the tension of the moment. She gave Bes one last look, and the sadness in her eyes was almost palpable, but then she turned quickly, hurrying down the steps, her shabti following.
Ra, still immersed in his own distractions, observed everything in a manner incomprehensible to the others.
"The weasels are sick," he stated, with a thoughtful expression, interrupting the silent moment with his peculiar thought.
With that, the group boarded the barge, the crew's bright lights moving with precision as the oars touched the mysterious waters of the Duat. The Solar Barque began to pull away from the wharf, taking them deeper into the unknown.
"Eat." Ra began to chew on a piece of rope, seemingly unaware of what he was doing.
"No, you can't eat that, you daft old coot," Sadie said, her patience wearing thin, as she tried to interrupt Ra's strange behavior.
"Um, child?" Bes looked at Sadie, attempting to mediate the situation with a wry smile. "Perhaps you shouldn't call the king of the gods a daft old coot."
Sadie rolled her eyes, but didn't relent in her focus on Ra.
"Well, he is," she retorted, unwavering.
After this small squabble, the three continued their journey on the makeshift barge. They sailed across the Lake of Fire to the narrow banks, and the river of flames flowed back into the water. The lake's glow faded behind them. The river grew faster, and Carter knew they had entered the Fifth House.
He thought about his father, and if he'd actually be able to help them. For the past few months, he'd been strangely silent. Carter shouldn't have been surprised, as he was now Lord of the Underworld. Probably didn't get good cell service down there. Still, the idea of seeing him at the moment of his greatest failure made Carter nervous.
On both banks of the river, ghost villages flickered in the gloom. Lost souls ran to the riverbank to watch them pass. After so many millennia in darkness, they stared in wonder at the sun god. Many tried to cry out in joy, but their mouths made no sound. Others reached out their arms toward Ra. They smiled as they basked in his warm light. Their forms seemed to solidify. Color returned to their faces and their clothes. When they faded behind them in the gloom, Carter was left with the image of their grateful faces and outstretched hands.
Somehow, that made him feel better. At least they'd shown them the sun one last time before Chaos destroyed the world.
He wondered if Amos and his friends were still alive, defending the Brooklyn House against Vladimir Menshikov's strike force and waiting for them to show. He wished he could see Zia again, just to apologize for failing her.
He wondered if Ikki was okay, it had been a while since he had disappeared here in the Duat. But knowing him, he knew he'd be fine.
The Fifth and Sixth Houses passed quickly, though Carter couldn't have said how much time actually elapsed. They saw more ghost villages, beaches made of bone, whole caverns where ba spirits flew around in confusion, bashing against the walls and swirling around the Solar Barque like moths around a porch light. They navigated some scary rapids, though the crew lights made it look easy. A few times dragon-like monsters emerged from the river, but Bes yelled "Boo!" and the monsters whimpered and sank beneath the waters. Ra slept through everything, snoring irregularly on his flaming throne.
Finally, the waters slowed, and the river broadened. The water became as smooth as melted chocolate. The Solar Barque entered a new cavern, and the ceiling glittered above with blue crystals. Swamp grass and palm trees lined the shore. Further inland, rolling green hills were dotted with cozy-looking white brick houses. A flock of geese flew overhead. The air smelled of jasmine and fresh-baked bread.
Carter relaxed completely—the way he felt after a long trip, when he finally got home and collapsed on his bed.
"Aaru," Bes announced. He didn't sound so grumpy now. The lines of worry on his face had disappeared. "The Egyptian afterlife. The Seventh House. I guess you'd call it Paradise."
"Not that I'm complaining," Sadie said. "It's a lot nicer than Sunny Acres, and I finally smell decent food. But does this mean we're dead?"
Bes shook his head. "This was part of Ra's nightly route—his pit stop, I guess you'd say. He would hang out for a while with his host, eat, drink, and rest before the last leg of the journey, which was the most dangerous."
"His host?" Carter asked, but he already had a pretty good idea who Bes meant.
The boat turned toward a dock, where a man and a woman were waiting for them. Dad wore his usual brown suit. His skin glowed with a bluish tint. Mom shimmered in ghostly white, her feet not quite touching the planks.
"Of course," Bes said. "This is the House of Osiris."
"Sadie, Carter." Julius pulled them into a hug like they were still children, but neither of them protested.
He felt solid and human, so much like his old self that it took all Carter's willpower not to burst into tears. His goatee was neatly trimmed. His bald head shimmered. Even his cologne smelled the same: the faint scent of amber.
He held them at arm's length to examine them, his eyes shining. Carter could almost believe he was still a regular mortal, but if he looked closely, he could see another layer of his appearance, like a blurry image, superimposed: a blue-skinned man in white robes and a pharaoh's crown. Around his neck was a djed amulet, the symbol of Osiris.
"Dad," Carter said. "We failed."
"Shh," he said. "None of that. This is a time to rest and renew."
Ruby smiled. "We've been watching your progress. You two have been so brave."
Seeing her was even harder than seeing his father. Carter couldn't hug her, as she had no physical substance, and when she touched his face, it felt like nothing more than a warm breeze. She looked exactly as he remembered—her blond hair loose around her shoulders, her blue eyes full of life—but she was just a spirit now. Her white dress seemed to be woven from mist.
"I'm so proud of both of you," she said. "Come, we've prepared a feast."
Carter was in a daze as they led them ashore. Bes took charge of the sun god, who seemed to be in a good mood after bumping his head on the mast and taking a nap. Ra gave everyone a gap-toothed grin and said, "Oh, excellent. Feast? Zebras?"
Ghostly servants in Ancient Egyptian clothing led them toward an open-air pavilion lined with life-sized statues of the gods. They crossed a bridge over a moat full of albino crocodiles, which made Carter think of Philip of Macedon and what might be happening back at the Brooklyn House.
When Carter stepped inside the pavilion, his jaw dropped.
The feast was spread on a long mahogany table—their old dining room table from the house in Los Angeles. He could even see the notch he'd carved in the wood with his first Swiss Army knife—the one time he remembered Dad actually getting mad at him. The chairs were stainless steel with leather seats, just as he remembered. And when he looked out, the view shimmered again, and beyond—formerly the green hills and sky of the afterlife, now the white walls and glass windows of his old house.
"Oh…" Sadie said softly. Her eyes were fixed on the center of the table. Among the pizza platters, bowls of sugared strawberries, and every other kind of food you could imagine, was a white-and-blue ice cream cake, the same cake they'd blown out on Sadie's sixth birthday.
"I hope you don't mind," Mom said. "I thought it was a shame you never got to taste it. Happy Birthday, Sadie."
"Please, sit down." Dad opened his arms. "Bes, old friend, would you mind settling Lord Ra at the head of the table?"
Carter started to sit in the chair farthest from Ra, as he didn't want him drooling on him while he chewed his food, but his mother said, "Oh, not there, dear. Sit next to me. That chair is for… another guest."
She said those last two words like they left a bad taste in her mouth.
Carter glanced around the table. There were seven chairs and only six of them.
"Who else is coming?"
"Anubis?" Sadie asked hopefully.
Julius chuckled.
"Not Anubis, though I'm sure he'd be here, if he could."
Sadie deflated like someone had let the air out of her.
"Where is he, then?" she asked.
Julius hesitated just long enough for Carter to sense his discomfort.
"Away. Let's eat, shall we?"
Carter sat and accepted a slice of birthday cake from a ghostly servant. He didn't think he'd be hungry, what with the end of the world and the failed mission, sitting in the Land of the Dead at a dinner table from his past, with the ghost of his mom next to him and his dad the color of a blueberry. But his stomach didn't care. It made it clear that Carter was alive and needed food. The cake was chocolate with vanilla ice cream.
It tasted perfect. Before he knew it, he'd finished his slice and was loading his plate with pepperoni pizza. The statues of the gods stood behind them—Horus, Isis, Thoth, Sobek—all keeping silent while they ate. Outside the pavilion, the lands of Aaru spread as if the cavern were infinite—green hills and meadows, herds of fat cattle, fields of grain, orchards full of date palms. Streams cut through the marshes in a patchwork of islands, like the Nile Delta, with picture-perfect villages for the blessed dead. Sailboats cruised on the river.
"This is how it seems to Ancient Egyptians," Julius said, as if reading Carter's thoughts. "But each soul sees Aaru differently."
"Like our house in Los Angeles?" Carter asked. "Our family gathered around a dinner table? Is this even real?"
Julius's eyes turned sad, the way they used to whenever Carter asked about his mother's death.
"The birthday cake is good, isn't it?" he asked. "My little girl, thirteen years old. I can't even believe—"
Sadie swept her hand across the table. A plate shattered against the black floor.
"What does it matter?" she yelled. "The stupid bleeding sundial—the stupid gates—we failed!"
She hid her face in her arms and began to sob.
"Sadie." Ruby hovered next to her, like a friendly fog bank. "It's all right."
"Moon pie." Ra said helpfully, cake frosting around his mouth. He started to topple out of his chair, and Bes shoved him back into place.
"Sadie's right." Carter said. "Ra's in worse shape than we thought. Even if we could get him back to the mortal world, he'd never be able to defeat Apophis—unless Apophis died laughing."
Julius frowned. "Carter, he's still Ra, pharaoh of the gods. Show some respect."
"Don't like vegetables!" Ra swatted at a glowing light servant that was trying to wipe his mouth.
"Lord Ra." Julius said. "Do you remember me? I'm Osiris. You used to dine here at my table, every night, resting before your journey towards dawn. Do you remember?"
"Want a weasel…" Ra said.
Sadie pounded the table. "What does that even mean?"
Bes grabbed a handful of chocolate-covered things—Carter was afraid they might be locusts—and popped them in his mouth.
"We haven't finished the Book of Ra. We need to find Khepri."
Julius stroked his goatee. "Yes, the scarab god, Ra's form as the rising sun. Perhaps if you found Khepri, Ra could be fully reborn. But you need to get past the gates of the Eighth House."
"Which are closed…" Carter said. "We'd have to, like, reverse time."
Bes stopped eating locusts. He stared as if he'd just had a revelation. He looked at Julius, incredulous.
"Him? You invited him?"
"Who?" Carter asked. "What do you mean?"
Carter stared at his father, but he wouldn't meet his gaze.
"Dad, what is it?" he demanded. "Is there a way through the gates? Can you teleport us to the other side or something?"
"I wish I could, Carter. But the journey must be followed. It's part of Ra's rebirth. I cannot interfere with that. However, you are right: you need extra time. There may be a way, though I would never suggest it if the stakes weren't so high—"
"It's dangerous," his mother warned. "I think it's too dangerous."
"Which is too dangerous?" Sadie asked.
"I suppose I am," said a voice behind him.
Carter turned and found a man standing with his hands resting on the back of his chair. Either he'd approached silently without Carter noticing, or he'd simply materialized out of thin air.
His head was shaved except for a glossy black ponytail at the side of his head, like the young men of Ancient Egypt used to wear. His silver suit looked like it had been tailored in Italy—Carter knew because both Amos and his dad were very particular about suits. The fabric shimmered like some bizarre cross between silk and aluminum foil. His black shirt was collarless, and several pounds of platinum chains hung around his neck. The largest pendant was a silver amulet shaped like a crescent moon.
As his fingers drummed on the back of Carter's chair, his rings and platinum Rolex glittered. If Carter had seen him in the mortal world, he might have pegged him as a young Native American billionaire casino owner. But here in the Duat, with the crescent amulet at his neck…
"Moon pie!" Ra cackled with delight.
"You're Khonsu," Carter guessed. "The god of the moon."
The man flashed a wolfish grin, eyeing Carter like he was an appetizer.
"At your service," he said. "Care for a game?"
"You will not," Bes growled.
Khonsu spread his arms in a grand gesture. "Bes, old friend! How have you been?"
"No 'old friend' to you, you scoundrel."
"I'm wounded!" Khonsu sat down on Carter's right and leaned toward him conspiratorially. "Poor Bes…He made a wager with me centuries ago, you see. He wanted more time with Bastet. Wagered a few inches of height. I'm afraid he lost."
"That's not what happened!" Bes roared.
"Gentlemen," Osiris said, the stern fatherly tone resonating in Julius Kane's voice. "You are both guests at my table. I will not tolerate any brawling."
"Absolutely, Osiris." Khonsu beamed at him. "Honored to be here. And these are your famous children? Wonderful! Ready for a game, children?"
"Julius, they don't understand the risks," Carter's mother protested. "We can't let them do this."
"Hold on," Sadie said. "Do what, exactly?"
Khonsu snapped his fingers, and all the food on the table vanished, replaced by a gleaming silver Senet board.
"You've never heard of me, Sadie? Isis hasn't told you any stories? Or Nut? Now there was a gambler. The sky goddess kept playing until she'd won five whole days from me. Do you know the odds of winning that much time? Astronomical! Of course, she's covered in stars, so I suppose that is astronomical."
He laughed at his own joke, not seeming to care that no one else did.
"I remember," Carter said. "You played with Nut, and she won enough moonlight to create five extra days, the Demon Days. That allowed her to get around Ra's decree that her five children couldn't be born on any day of the year."
"Nuts," Ra muttered. "Bad nuts."
Khonsu raised an eyebrow. "My, my, Ra's looking poorly, isn't he? But yes, Carter Kane, you are absolutely right. I am the god of the moon, but I also have some influence over time. I can stretch or shorten the lives of mortals. Even the gods can be affected by my powers. The moon is changeable, you see. Its light waxes and wanes."
"You need—what? About three extra hours? I can wangle that out of the moonlight for you, if you and your sister are willing to play for it. I can make it so the gates of the Eighth House haven't closed yet."
Carter felt a chill go down his spine. He didn't understand how Khonsu could do that—go back in time, insert three extra hours into the night—but for the first time since Sunny Acres, he felt a tiny spark of hope.
"If you can help, why don't you just give us the extra time? The fate of the world is at stake."
Khonsu laughed. "That's a good one! Give you time! I mean, really. If I started giving away something so valuable, Ma'at would collapse. Besides, you can't play Senet without a wager. Bes can tell you that."
Bes spat a chocolate-covered locust leg out of his mouth and grumbled, "Don't do it, Carter. You know what they used to say about Khonsu in the old days? Some pyramids have a poem about him carved into the stones. It's called the 'Cannibal Hymn.' For a price, Khonsu would help the pharaoh slay any god who was bothering him. He would devour their souls and gain their strength."
The moon god rolled his eyes. "Ancient history, Bes! I haven't devoured a soul since… what month is this? March? Anyway, I'm completely adapted to this modern world. I'm very civilized now. You should see my penthouse at the Luxor, in Las Vegas. I mean, thank you! America has an excellent civilization!"
He smiled at Carter, his silver eyes glinting like a shark's. "So, what do you say, Carter? Sadie? Play me at Senet. Three pieces for me, three for you. You need three hours of moonlight, so you'll need an additional person to stake the wager. For every piece on your team that manages to move off the board, I'll grant an extra hour. If you win, you get three hours—enough to pass through the gates of the Eighth House."
Carter felt a cold dread creep up his spine. "And if we lose?"
"Oh…you know." Khonsu waved his hand as if that detail were unimportant. "For every piece I move off the board, I take a ren from one of you."
Sadie leaned forward, alert. "You'll take our secret names? Like, we have to share them with you?"
"Share…" Khonsu stroked his ponytail, as if trying to remember the meaning of the word. "No, no share. I will devour your ren, understand?"
"Erase part of our souls," Sadie said, her voice laced with distrust. "The memories, our identity."
The moon god shrugged. "The good part is, you wouldn't die. You'd just—"
"Turn into vegetables," Sadie guessed. "Like Ra, over there."
"Don't want vegetables," Ra grumbled, annoyed. He tried to chew on Bes's shirt, but the dwarf god scooted hastily away.
Bes clenched his fists and glared at Khonsu. "Three hours," he muttered. "Staked against three souls."
Carter saw the hesitation in his mother's eyes as she looked at him and Sadie. "Carter, Sadie, you don't have to do this," his mother said. "We don't expect you to take this risk."
He'd seen her so many times in pictures and in his memories, but for the first time, he was truly struck by how much she looked like Sadie—or how much Sadie was starting to look like her. They both had the same fiery determination in their eyes. They both tilted their chins up when they were expecting a fight. And they both weren't very good at hiding their feelings. From his mother's trembling voice, Carter realized she understood what needed to happen. She was giving them a choice, but deep down she knew they didn't have one.
He looked at Sadie, and silently they came to an agreement.
"Mom, it's okay," Carter said. "You gave your life to close Apophis's prison. How can we give up now?"
Khonsu rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Ah, yes, Apophis's prison! Your friend Menshikov is there now, unleashing the Serpent's chains. I've got so many wagers going on what will happen! Will you get there in time to stop him? Will you bring Ra back to the world? Will you defeat Menshikov? I'm giving one-hundred-to-one odds on that!"
Carter's mother turned desperately to Julius. "Julius, tell them! It's too dangerous."
His father was still holding a plate with a half-eaten piece of birthday cake. He stared at the melting ice cream like it was the saddest thing in the world.
"Carter and Sadie," he said finally, "I brought Khonsu here so you would have the choice. But whatever you do, I will always be proud of both of you. If the world ends tonight, that won't change."
He met Carter's gaze, and Carter could see how much it hurt him to think about losing them. Last Christmas, at the British Museum, Julius had sacrificed his life to free Osiris and restore balance to the Duat. He'd left Carter and Sadie alone, and Carter had resented him for a long time for it. But now, he understood what it was like to be in his position. Julius was willing to give up everything, even his life, for a greater purpose.
"I understand, Dad," Carter said. "We're Kanes. We don't run from tough choices."
Julius didn't reply, just nodded slowly. His eyes burned with fierce pride.
"For once," Sadie said, "Carter's right. Khonsu, let's play your stupid game."
"Excellent!" Khonsu exclaimed. "That's two souls. Two hours to win. Ah, but you'll need three hours to pass through the gates on time, won't you? Hmm. I'm afraid you can't use Ra. He's not in his right mind. Your mother is already deceased. Your father is the judge of the dead, so he's disqualified from wagering his soul…"
Suddenly, the air in the room shimmered.
Then, he appeared.
No sound. No warning.
Ikki simply *was* there, beside Ra.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Carter went rigid, his eyes wide. Sadie froze, a strange coldness settling in her stomach. The boy they knew was still there, but something about him had changed.
Drastically.
He'd aged in a way that defied logic, as if years had passed in an instant. He now looked like a young adult, but it wasn't just that. His face was too perfect, his features balanced with impossible precision. There was something about him that their minds refused to process correctly.
Sadie felt her heart skip a beat.
Oh, no.
She opened her mouth to speak, and… nothing came out.
Their mother, who had been consumed with worry moments before, blinked slowly, visibly stunned. Her eyes lingered a second too long on him, as if her mind was trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
Even goddess or not, she couldn't ignore him.
Khonsu, who never stopped talking, went silent. Bes grimaced, scratching his beard as if something was bothering him. Julius frowned, confused, like he was looking at something that shouldn't exist.
Sadie shook her head, forcing herself out of the trance. It didn't help.
Ikki sighed. He realized in that instant—this wasn't normal. No matter how much he tried to conceal it, his appearance was now a force of its own. He quickly adjusted everyone's perception in the room, attempting to normalize his presence. It worked, but only to a certain extent. People wouldn't become immediately obsessed with him, but the attraction was inevitable.
Time would only make it worse.
The tension thickened.
Khonsu was the first to speak, tilting his head amusedly. "Ah. Now this is interesting."
Sadie blinked a few times, finally finding her voice. "Ikki? Is that really you?"
He gave a small smile. "Who else would it be?"
Carter crossed his arms, trying to ignore the unease he felt. "Right. Can we talk about the fact that you just appeared out of nowhere or about… that?" He made a vague gesture in Ikki's direction.
Sadie rolled her eyes. "Obviously 'that' is the important part here, Pharaoh Head!"
Ikki sighed again. This was going to be tiring.