The Demigod Revolution

XXVII : Old Friend

"Why do you have this?" Percy asked.

"I told you." Scarlet crossed her arms. "I stole it."

"Yeah, but why?" Percy said. "Did Iris tell you about it?"

"Actually, no," Scarlet said. "The goddess is not here right now, not that it would matter. The one who told me about the book was -"

"Me." A voice said behind him. Percy whirled around to see a familiar but unfamiliar face. She had fair skin and deep blue eyes. Her hair was colored in light caramel. Percy could swear that he'd seen her before, but he couldn't place a finger on where.

The girl held her hands out as if expecting a big 'welcome back', but Percy had trouble remembering who she was. "I feel like I've seen you before." Percy said.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Governor's Island. We took care of Setne, the guy with the Elvis getup."

Percy's eyes widened in realization. "Sadie?!" Percy exclaimed happily as he rushed over to hug her. "Thank god you're alive!"

"Yep, hopefully I'll survive this hug. You're crushing me." Sadie croaked.

"Sorry!" Percy pulled away instantly. "But . . . Carter said you were missing. He hadn't seen you in years."

"Yeah, I'm gonna get an earful from him after this." Sadie said. "I've been working while you guys fight in the frontlines."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked. "Why did you give Scarlet the Book of Thoth? Where have you been? Why aren't you hosting Isis anymore?"

"One at a time, sheesh." Sadie frowned.

Sadie explained her side of the story. When she and Carter separated, she returned to the Brooklyn House to grab the Book of Thoth. But before she could do that, Crusaders were already swarming the area and they got the book in their hands.

So Sadie had to get creative. She couldn't go inside herself, so she asked Scarlet for help. A far cousin of her mom from England. Sadie asked Scarlet to host Isis and the rest is history.

"It took a while before Scarlet could get accustomed to hosting Isis." Sadie said. "Then it took even more time to have Scarlet climb high enough in the food chain for the Crusaders to trust her. But unfortunately . . ."

"Shura," Percy said and the two girls nodded.

"Shura had a hold of me," Scarlet admitted. "After we got the book, I was supposed to leave the Crusaders. But Shura . . ." Scarlet shuddered. "There's something about him. It's like he's holding me hostage without me realizing it."

It was weird when Percy heard of what Shura could do. Making people follow him just through charisma? Seems far-fetched. But knowing that Shura and Chaos were working together, that didn't seem like much of a stretch anymore.

"So now, we have the Book of Thoth." Percy said. "Now what?"

"Now, we keep it safe." Sadie said. "That's where you come in."

Percy scowled. "You want me to keep it safe?" Percy asked. "You know he's looking for this, right? He thinks I have it."

"I know." Sadie said. "We're gonna use it as bait."

"This?" Percy held up the Book of Thoth. "You want to use this book that contains all the knowledge in the universe as bait for Shura?"

Sadie shook her head. "Not Shura. The other one. The thing that's working with him."

"Oh, so you knew," Percy said.

"I've had my suspicions," Sadie said. "It started when Scarlet started to feel something was wrong with Shura."