The R.V jumped onto the road, skidding onto the pavement. Somehow, the R.V was still driving along the roads, turning left and right, and I realized they must have enchanted it. Aria flopped onto the bed, and started to cry. She buried her face in her hands, ashamed.

"Oh my God," She said. "I'm an idiot. If I hadn't squashed that bat on the wall, the mansion wouldn't have-" Her sentence was cut short as more tears were running down her face. Don sat beside her, patting her back.

"It's gonna be fine. Their souls are immortal. It's just that their hosts might have died. They would be banished to the Duat by now."

This comment did not help Aria. "It's gonna be fine? IT'S GONNA BE FINE? We just lost our friends. We just lost our chaperones on this quest. We just-" She cried, her eyes bloodshot by now.

"Well, at least the car can drive itself." Alyssa pointed out. "We just need to find Camelback Mountain, and you can defeat Set."

"You're not coming?" I asked.

Alyssa shook her head. "Mortals weren't part of the story. We will just have to wait patiently outside."

"Yes, and Set's minions will just play some checkers with you until the battle is over." Carter grumbled. "Magicians have to fight them, or they'll be all over us in the pyramid."

"I think the R.V knows the way to Camelback Mountain. Today is December 30, a little after lunch, I presume. If it's about" - she tipped her hand like it was a scale- "1 pm, we have about 16 hours, since sunrise is 5 am."

"Great." I said. "16 hours is plenty of time-"

"However, since we are halfway to Tempe, it would take us a great deal of time to get there. If my calculations are correct, we should have about 5 hours to defeat the Red Lord. So, we might as well get some sleep before we most likely die."

~*~*~*

I tumbled from my bunk bed, crashing my elbow on the floor. I checked it, and it was bruised. Perfect.

I scrambled up, and saw that I wasn't the only one woken up from an afternoon nap. The clock near the wall read that it was about 12 am in the morning, midnight. Everyone had gotten up, and grabbed their satchels. I did the same as I switched on the lights.

Carter was staring out the window. Since it was so late, no cars were on the road. "Guys, we have problems. Ayan's team found us."

I cursed. "That little-"

"Cursing will not help us battle them." Alyssa shot a glare in my direction. "They are trying to slow us down. Carter, what are they doing?"

He squinted through the curtain. "Ayan's casting a storm spell over the R.V, and burning our tires with fire."

"See?" Alyssa said. "She knows that you are hosts, and she doesn't want to pick a fight with a god. She would much rather slow you down than fight you."

"Chicken." Aria said. She took a step to the window, glaring. "She's practically asking for scorched eyebrows."

"Aria," Carter warned, "Calm down. The war god's taking over your personality."

"Not true." She pressed her lips together nervously, then her expression hardened. "Well? Let's fight them."

She smashed the window, and thrust out her khopesh. "Ayan! You're dead."

Ayan was cruising on a motorcycle, a middle school age boy and college age boy at her sides. She let loose a horrible laugh that made my insides want to crawl out. "Oh, I don't think so, Faust."

She pointed her wand at the wheels, and it burst into flames. The storm over us was brewing, thunder booming from the clouds. A flash of lightning shot from one, and made a hole in the centre of the R.V.

"You know," Ayan mused. "It would be a shame if someone, oh, I don't know, made your R.V catch fire." She clicked her tongue in mock sympathy. "Oh, so very sad."

Her eyes turned to the colour of burning amber, and a spark started at the back of the R.V. It started to spread across, eating the couch and the rest of the vehicle.

Now, only a few months later do I realize that I could have fought the fire with Nepthys's water powers, but, and I'm not happy to admit this, I panicked.

I clutched my satchel. "Run! We need to get out of here!"

I zipped to the front of the R.V, opening the front door, and I stood on the......... foot rest thing to help you get on.
"Whatever you're doing," I said, "It's not going to work. We will defeat Set, and you won't slow us down."

Ayan sneered. She made another flame and threw it at our bus. To my left, was Ayan and the cold, hard pavement, but it was the only way out. I jumped from the R.V, and landed on Ayan's motorcycle. Everyone else managed to fall on the road, but I sat on the leather seat, clutching Ayan. She wheeled around on me, and scowled. Her wand caught fire, and I fell off, horrified.

My butt hit the pavement, and the R.V kept on burning, like some sort of bonfire, until it fell on the sand sideways. Ayan and her crew zoomed through the road, leaving us in the dust.

"You know what was funny?" Alyssa said after a while. "Fire and storms are chaos magic."