Who Is She? | Jaz Anderson

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"Ayden!" Jaz greeted when she made her way down the stairs the next evening.

She took a step back at the enthusiasm. She was dressed in a dark gray halter top with a thick red cotton tailcoat over it.

Jaz, on the other hand, was wearing a green blouse-like dress that flowed around her knees.

"Hi," Ayden said timidly.

"Ayden," Sadie acknowledged.

"Sadie." Ayden turned away from her younger sister and to her brother. "Carter."

"Hey 'Den," he greeted. "How are you?"

"Exhausted," she admitted. "I see you've taken my spot."

"You sat at the head of the table?" a male voice asked. Ayden turned her gaze to the dark skinned teenager boy with buzzed hair.

"I used to. I take it I'm not getting it back." She turned on her heel and started fur the other end of the table when Carter stood up abruptly.

"You can have it," he said.

Sadie stared at him. "Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry?" Ayden asked incredulously.

"You can have it. You earned it before Sadie and I came here."

She blinked blankly before turning back around to retake her spot. Sadie grumbled but moved two seats to the left, leaving a spot for Carter in between them.

She leaned down to eat but whispered to Carter, "Thanks."

"I meant what I said," he responded just as lowly. "You deserve it."

"Where were you?" Sadie asked quietly.

"I slept until seven, you weren't gone yet, so I took my time in my closet, not that I needed to go back in, but..." Ayden trailed off, waiting for a laugh. She received one from Jaz. She smirked. "Anyway, once I was finished in the bathroom and the such, it was almost nine-thirty. Carter was still asleep, so I talked to Khufu for a while. Once I was done with that, I ate, went digging through the library, and found this old thing."

She put a scroll on the table. Sadie reach for it, but Carter batted her hand away.

"Good idea, Carter," Ayden hummed. "I heard about all those fire incidents that Sadie was involved in. Let's not try that with this. It's a partially finished copy of the Book of Overcoming Apophis that I wrote, using the retrieval shabti so many years ago. It was part of my studies as an initiate, something that Amos was quickly told to end. It's written in hieroglyphics with cartouches, so none of you should be able to read it, but just in case... I'll hold onto it."

A girl in the corner lifted her hand. "I'm, uh, kind of the librarian here. If you want, I'll protect it with my life. I'm Cleo."

"That's good to know, Cleo. But unless I'm incapacitated for whatever reason, I'll have it. If I can't protect it, it's on you. We cannot lose this copy. It's only partially written, yes, but it's still dangerous to that snake."

But, for all it meant, everyone was still in good spirits, even considering the fact that their late night mission had gone terribly and Ayden had dropped that bomb.

Julien kept bouncing in his seat and grinning for no reason. Cleo and Jaz were whispering together and giggling. Even Felix had recovered from his apparent shock in Dallas. He was making penguins from his mashed potatoes and bringing them to life.

Only Walt looked glum. The big guy had matte his dinner plate except three carrots and a wedge of Jell-O. (Khufu apparently kept insisting Jell-O had major healing properties.) Judging from the tightness around Walt's eyes and the stiffness of his movements, Ayden guessed it wasn't working.