Who Is She? | Jaz Anderson

• eleven •

Ayden returned to Sadie and Zia when Sadie was contacting Isis. The goddess in her head scoffed at the reliance on her sister.

"Oh, I hate it too," Ayden said aloud.

Zia looked at her curiously.

"I have a goddess invading my mind and I'm not that mad about it. The gentlest of the five."

"Woah, woah," Zia yelped. "You have Nephthys in your mind?"

"Yeah. I mean... I'm a water elementalist. It's not that far of a stretch and... after I found out they got you out of your watery prison, Nephthys started speaking in my mind. In California. And now in Brooklyn and everywhere I go."

Ayden ran her fingers through the water as two doorways appeared before them.

"Beat that, Isis," Nephthys said smugly.

Ayden snickered.

Sadie blinked at the words on her head.

"What?" Ayden asked.

"Isis is currently cursing you out — or more likely, her sister." Sadie gave Ayden an accusing look.

"Oh well." Ayden winked and jumped through Nephthys's doorway.

She appeared in the lobby of Sunny Acres, right before Sadie and Zia did, right beside her.

"Huh. Competing sisters," Ayden mused. "Sounds familiar."

Sadie shoved her. "Shut up!"

"No," she teased. Ayden bumped Sadie's hip. "Anyway, any idea —?"

Suddenly a wheelchair burst into flames, collapsing in a pile of charred leather and half-melted steel.

Ayden and Sadie stumbled backward. Behind them, Zia held a ball of white hot fire in her hand. Her eyes were as wild as a cornered animal's.

"Are you mad?" Sadie yelled. "What are you —?"

She lobbed her second fireball at the nurses' station. A vase full of daisies exploded in a shower of flaming petals and pottery shards.

"Zia!" Ayden shouted. She summoned a ball of water and shoved Sadie behind her.

She didn't seem to hear them. She summoned another fireball and took aim at the sofas.

Ayden should have run for cover. She wasn't prepared to die saving badly upholstered furniture. Instead, she lunged at Zia and grabbed her wrist. "Zia, stop it!"

She glared at her with flames in her eyes. Her irises had become disks of orange fire.

That was terrifying, of course, but Ayden stood her ground. Over the past year she'd got rather used to surprises what with Sadie's cat being a goddess, her brother turning into a falcon, and her becoming an Egyptian centurion in a Roman legion despite controlling water.

"Zia," Ayden said firmly. "We can't burn down the nursing home. What's gotten into you?"

A look of confusion passed over her face. She stopped struggling. Her eyes returned to normal.

She stared at the melted wheelchair, then the smoldering remains of the bouquet on the carpet. "Did I —?"

"Decide those daisies needed to die?" Sadie finished. "Yes, you did."

Zia extinguished her fireball, which was lucky, as it was starting to evaporate Ayden's water. "I'm sorry," she muttered. "I — I thought I had it under control..."

"Under control?" Ayden let go of her hand. "You mean to say you've been throwing a lot of fireballs lately?"

She still looked bewildered, her gaze drifting around the lobby. "N-no... maybe. I've been having blackouts. I come to, and I don't remember what I've done."