Once I saw Ayan's house, I hated her even more. It was a huge mansion on the other side of the Tuileries, on the Rue Des Pyramides.

"Pyramid's road?" Don scoffed. "Obvious much?"

"Maybe she couldn't find a place on Stupid Witch street." Alyssa suggested.

The house was amazing. The spikes atop its wrought iron fence were gilded. Even in the winter rain, the front garden was bursting with flowers. Five stories of white marble walls and black shuttered windows looked down on us, the whole thing topped off by a roof garden. I'd seen royal palaces smaller than this place.

I pointed to the front door. It had on a golden lion with a little ring in its mouth. The was painted red. "Isn't red the colour of Set?"

Bast scratched her chin as she parked the RV. "Now that you mention it, Carter, it is."

"Well, I fell great. Let's go knock." Aria grumbled.

Bes laughed. "Are you crazy? There's gonna be traps, and guards, and all kinds of alarms rigged. No, no. Go in through the garden door. Most likely, it'll be unlocked, and you can slip in."

"Can't you come?" Sophia asked.

"Alas, no." Bast said. "Gods can't go through nomes or magician houses unless we have permission by the owner. Which, in this case, we don't. You guys can go in."

"But Carter, Sophia, and I are gods. Aren't we not allowed in?" Aria asked.

"That's the beauty of hosts. You're still mostly you, so you're still human. I've taken complete control over this little Tom cat- so. Still a goddess. Clear?"

"No," I said.

"Good. Don and Alyssa can climb up, the rest of you can turn into birds."

Don looked at the building and gulped. "Climb?"

"Oh, come on. What do they teach magicians these days?" Bast pointed to the window sills. "I learned this stuff when I was a mere kitten. Step 1: throw a rope with a sturdy grip or a grappling hook to the roof garden. Scale up like you're climbing a mountain, with the window sills for support."

"Do you have a grappling hook?" Alyssa asked."

Bast rolled her eyes. "Look in your satchel."

Alyssa dug around, and blushed when she came up with 70 feet full of rope. "What about the grips?"

"Honestly, Americans are so dull!" Aria said. She grabbed some clay, moulding it to look like a claw. "Let it dry, and voila!"

    Alyssa summoned some fire, drying the clay, and it felt like concrete. She started to swing it in a circular motion, then stopped. "Won't the mortals freak out and think I'm a burglar or something?"

"They won't! They won't!" Bast got impatient. The grabbed the rope, and threw to the roof top fences, arching before landing perfectly. "You're welcome."

Alyssa climbed over the first window sill, scaling over the house.

    I was waiting. I imagined my arms shrinking, turning to the colour of..........what bird am I? Kite, I guess. It's Isis's sacred bird. The kite I'm talking about as the bird, not the one with the string.I opened my eyes, and I was about the size of a falcon, dark grey with yellow talons. Sophia was a small hummingbird, red breasted with green feathers. Her beak was about as long as a pretzel stick, while her wings were a blur, buzzing so fast. Aria turned into a falcon. She glanced at me and chirped. " Ha ha ha." She was laughing at me.

     Bast grinned at us and licked her lips. "Oh, you three look delicious- I mean, wonderful. Alyssa's already up, and Don's not too far behind. Come on, now. Fly on up."

Bast turned into a a cat, with long pointy ears and leopard fur.

Bes looked at us and explained. "Bast is inside of her host."

I was confused, so I flew up, and nearly hit the window.

Dang, I thought. You're going too fast, Todson. Slow down. Who are you, Shawn Mendez?

     My wings beat down, and I could hear it all. My wings beating sounded like a drum, and my eyesight was even better. I turned to a drain, and saw a cockroach scurrying it. I saw a leaf fall from a tree. I saw a man come from the bank. I flew up, and landed on a carrot patch. Don had just hopped up, Alyssa folding the rope into her bag.

The garden was unreal. In the far side of the garden, flowers were blooming. There were pansies, marigolds, violets, petunias, and every other flower that you probably have never seen in long, thin, wooden boxes on the stone floor, with signs that said their names, and a hand drawn picture of the flower, probably drawn by chalk. Some were French names. I was glad I couldn't read them all. I'd be having a headache. A small, rustic, tin watering can sat in the corner of this, next to a bag of soil, manure, and more flower seeds. The other side had vegetables and fruits in the wood boxes, with the same kind of signs from the flowers. There were tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, potatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and more than I could count. All of this made a little mossy stone walkway to a glass cube with a wooden door. It was painted blue this time, with a golden doorknob. The glass cube had gloves, shovels, and hoes.

[No, Aria! I didn't mean that kind of hoe!]

I changed back into a boy, sitting on the iron fence. Aria smoothly changed into herself, but since she was perched on Don's shoulder, she ended up hugging him, and stepped back awkwardly. Sophia wasn't so lucky. She was hovering over a patch of strawberries, and her body slammed into the wooden box, soil and fruits flying. When she got up, she was caked in soil, with a few strawberries in her hair, and a strawberry gagging her mouth.

She spit out the strawberry. "I knew I shouldn't have have put my hair down today." She pulled out a mini brush, and brushed away the soil in her hair, picking out the strawberries. She put it in a ponytail, then scowled at the fruit juice on her hands.

"You should head back and get cleaned up." Alyssa said.

Sophia glared. "This is my quest, too, you know. I'm not gonna leave just because some soil got in my hair."

Don waved his hand, and the soil left her body, like there was a magnet. It was put back in the wooden boxes like nothing happened, but the strawberries were still on the floor.

"Whatever." Don said. "I put the soil back in the boxes. That should be good enough."

Alyssa turned the knob, and the door swung open. "All of those alarm systems inside the house, and they left the door unlocked."

We walked in, then started to go down the spiral staircase. Once we hit the bottom, I knew that we were in the upstairs floor. There were about six bedroom doors lining on side, and shuttered windows on the other side. The floor was maybe spruce wood, but the bedrooms had fuzzy carpets, all the colour of cream. There were bathrooms and walk-in closets in every bedroom, and another spiral staircase leading to the kitchen. But we weren't interested in any of that. We needed some sort of cache of books.

"They must have some sort of library," I guessed, "Where they keep all of their magician stuff. Maybe it's hidden by magic."

"Oh, I've got that." Aria mumbled a few words, and kohl lined her eyes, but every time she looked at something, the kohl turned a violent shade of cobalt.

"This blessing of Horus thing," She explained, "Will help me see anything covered by magic. I'll find that library in no time." She looked at the staircase, and the kohl turned green. "There's something in this floor, I just can't pinpoint where exactly. The rest of you, keep looking. Maybe it's not covered by magic. Just don't set off any alarms."

There was a wooden coffee table with a glass bowl of keys and other knick knacks. Sophia raised her hands, and a wave of water knock us all over, except for Aria. The water made a shield around her. Once it all died down, we were dripping wet. Aria wiped a stray water droplet off her arm, then turned to us.

"God, you're all wet. We're going to attract attention now."

I coughed up a bucket full of water. "Yup. Attracting attention is worse than getting drowned."

Worse? It was steaming hot water, and Sophia was wrapped in a towel, her hair wet.

"Ah!" She just seemed to realize now that she was half naked, and threw down an amulet. The amulet glowed blue, then sent a gust of air that knocked me into the wall. Sophia was grabbing the towel, so she wouldn't be flashing anything, and the wind died. My body peeled off the wall, and I landed on my face. I got up, and my nose made a squirting sound as blood covered my hands.

      When I looked back at Sophia, her hair was put in a French braid, and her towel swirled into a spiral around her, and it turned into clothes: an army tank top, her satchel polished, vegan leather boots, jeggings, and a leather jacket. Who knew that the wind god had such good taste in fashion?

    I looked down, and I cursed Shu for my clothes. I was wearing all cotton material Reeboks, a green Nike  hoodie, and some grey sweats. "Seriously? Just because I'm black, doesn't mean that I like hoodies. I miss my khakis and button-ups!"

I checked my hoodie pocket, and my satchel was in there, along with a gun. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

I pulled it out, checking the pump action like it was no big deal. Don was wearing a muscle fitted T-shirt  and workout pants. His hair was washed and cut. I ran my hand through my hair, and I could tell it was cut, too. Aria was wearing a purple shirt, army pants, and a leather jacket, with vegan combat boots. Sophia and her could have been twins. Alyssa was wearing jeans and a band shirt, so I wasn't the only freak.

"I'll bet you anything that the bullets are enchanted." Alyssa said, standing up. "Probably made in the dirt, designed to kill monsters and gods. Don't worry, it won't kill mortals or other objects, unless you will it to."

She pulled the trigger, and shot the coffee table. The bullet bounded without a scratch and shot straight through the wall. Aria turned to the hole, and the kohl on her eyes flashed purple. She placed a hand on the wall, and it slid to the right to reveal a huge library.

The library had a much taller ceiling than the rest of the house. The ceiling was painted blue, and the centre with the outline of a woman, stars dotting her body. I recognized her as Nut, the sky goddess. The floor was marble, but painted green, and facing Nut, was the trace of a man, rivers and valleys snaking across his body. I knew he was Geb, Nut's husband and the god of the earth. Shelves upon shelves were stacked with books, and just to the right, terrace over looked it all with a gold railing. There was a staircase to the left and right. I couldn't see the shelves, so I stepped in.

"Carter!" Sophia warned.

I looked around, and the entire room seemed to covered in a purple aura, and then I saw my clothes. I yelped. I was shirtless, but I hadn't exactly hit puberty yet, so it exposed my bony chest. A thick, gold collar was weighing down my neck, and I was wearing a wrinkled, purple, linen kilt. Purple, the colour of Isis, was most likely a sign I was a host. I was bearfoot, but grass seemed to be tickling my feet. Grass? I looked down, and Geb's body spread through the entire room, smiling up at me. Nut was smirking from above, too, but the terrace was different. The marble walls without shelves and floor was a swirl of blue, with white clouds and a man's outline. He was frowning up at Nut, and at Geb, as if he couldn't decide which one he was angrier with. He had a thick, Santa beard that seemed to be made of air and clouds. I realized that this was Shu, the god of the wind and Nut's father, whom was ordered by Ra to separate the two for eternity. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and I regretted it. My fingertips were smeared in kohl, and I could only pray to Thoth that Aria wouldn't say I was wearing eyeliner.

"The Duat," Alyssa explained. "This library. Imagine the Duat with many different layers like an ocean. This library is just beneath the mortal world, which shows us how magical everything really is. If you enter the Duat through a mortal's house, it will look exactly the same. But a magician's house"- Alyssa gestured to the library- "is even more special. Mortals, who are alive, can only enter the first 50 layers of the Duat, which includes the Hall of Judgement, the land of the dead, The first Cataracts, et cetera. But if we were to enter beyond that, we would burn to a crisp.

"I can imagine that Ayan is French, and her mother's side has been living here for generations, because this must have taken a very long time indeed, to enchant the room to be hidden, and to cast a thin layer of the Duat, not to mention building this hidden from the mortal eye." She finished.

"Thanks for the information." Aria said. She stepped inside, and her eyes lined with kohl. She held the Egyptian crook and flail, the symbol for the Pharaohs. She wore a golden silk gown and the same golden collar I wore. Her feet were clad with Birkenstocks, but they looked much more comfortable than real Birkenstocks. The straps seemed to be made of linen, and the cork-like sole looked like a brown pillow. Her arms had golden bracelets all over, and golden rings on almost every finger.

She fiddled with the necklace. "This feels like one of those X-ray aprons you wear at the dentist's office." She looked at the Shepard's crook. "Isn't this the prop they used for the Christmas play last week?"

I sighed. Aria Faust, the host of the king of the gods, didn't even know what a Crook was.

[You are not getting the microphone. It's my turn, Aria.]

"The crook represents a Shepard," I explained. "A king leads his people like a Shepard leads his flock of sheep."

"Then what does the flail do?"

"It's a barbed weapon."

"Sweet." She whipped the fringe around, but accidentally touched it, and felt no harm.

"The king can't be harmed by his own weapon." I said as everyone else stepped in.  The girls seemed to be wearing the same kind of gown, except Sophia's was pale blue, the colour of the Nile, and Alyssa's was white. Don had on a white kilt, and I felt slightly jealous that it showed off his four pack of abs. Everyone wore the same heavy necklace.

[Aria, shut up. No one wants to hear about how you could feel Don's muscles through his shirt while you were kissing. That's gross.]

"How come Alyssa and Don have white clothes?" Sophia asked.

"The colour white has purity in it. It means that your clothes didn't have colour or stains because you didn't need to work to get things done. It means that you were rich. But the gods wear colour because........well, they're gods." I said.

"I'm sure the Book of Overcoming Set is in here. Let's spread out. We'll cover more ground that way." Alyssa made her way to a shelf, then stopped, glaring at us. "And don't set off any alarms."