Love & Chaos 2: A New Pharaoh for Egypt

Chapter 4

Annoying Statue Gods

 Zia Rashid.

Carter had left. Alexis was in a coma. The poor girl... Jaz didn't know what to do, and Zia was falling apart. What would become of the 21 Nome? The first demigods who had wreaked havoc upon their home, and more were coming trying to convince them that they were there to save the world... Could it be true? Is this really why they were here?

After Alexis and Felix left with them, Zia knew she had to trust them. Believe in what they said. "The demigods are on our side," Carter told her, again and again. "And Liz wants nothing more than to be your friend." Well, when the demigods came was when they could all be friends, she supposed.

"We have the entire world on our side." When Zia said it, she sounded more confident than she felt. When Liz struck down the statement, she felt even less confident. Talking to Liz in the hallway, being advisory and apologetic all at once, she had a genuine hope it meant they would be friends.

She did feel awful for the way she treated Liz after they first met. While she had been a little in the right - or at least she thought so - with the collective paranoia the magicians had since the last demigods had come, well, she had possibly made an adversary of her leader.

The entire time that Carter was away on the quest, she didn't worry once that Liz would try to seduce him in any way. She never really did think there would be anything between them. Rather, she was afraid the demigods were going to get him killed, and she couldn't face that possibility. Jealousy really had no factor in anything, simply a protective fear.

Sadie and she were in their room on the Argo II, which wasn't the first flying boat she'd been on, but it was the first one not being flown by a griffin. Then there was that massive mechanical beast... Zia stood and walked to the window, looking out to where Festus flew. It was magnificent. Sadie was on her laptop, of course, and Zia just didn't know how to pass the time.

Talking to Carter was an option, of course, but relatively inside of her comfort zone. She wanted to get to know the other questers, like that Annabeth girl.

"Sadie, I'll be going to talk to the Greek girls, try and make friends with them. Care to join me?" she asked her friend.

"Yeah, sure," Sadie agreed, closing her laptop. "They're both pretty cool," she added, noticing Zia's face of concern.

"I was kind of awful to Liz, though. Annabeth seems like a friendly woman, and an intelligent one at that. It would be nice to form friendships with the both of them. You are friends with Liz, correct?" Zia double checked.

"Yes, I did put a bit of effort into that while she was at the Brooklyn House, as did Carter, Walt, Jaz, Noah, Alexis, and Felix..." she teased lightly. "I know you only want to keep everyone safe, but you have to trust these people. We're saving the world together, so no going back now."

Zia laughed, and they left their room and went into the hallway, turning towards Liz and Annabeth's room. Sadie led the way confidently, knocking on the girls' door. "Hey, hey, it's Zia and Sadie."

The door cracked open, and Annabeth looked out at them. "What's up?" she asked.

"Oh, you know, just some bonding time, getting to know these strangers that we'll be with for the next few years, no big deal," Sadie responded.

Annabeth laughed and welcomed them inside. Zia smiled, her short black hair falling into her face as she looked at the demigods.

"Hey," Liz piped, grinning warmly at them. "What do you want to talk about?"