CHAPTER FOURTEEN
" Hearts to heart and eyes to eyes "

          MARC HELPED LAYLA AND ANTONIA out of the boat. At first glance, the teen thought they were in the wrong place. There was music and other people there, it seemed like a small location for very few and good-finding tourists. But the more she looked passed the people, the more she saw older people who were most likely undercover and on guard.

"This guy's got a lot of friends," comments Marc, taking the words out of her mouth.

"Yeah, and a lot with guns," adds Layla.

As Marc turned to Antonia, he gave her their bags. "You know what you're doing right? I'm not gonna save your ass if you mess up."

"Yeah, yeah." She hides the bags under the stairs dock. "Be out of sight, have everyone evacuated the area as naturally as possible, try and fight Harrow——"

"No. You will not fight Harrow," He scolds, leaning down to her, "You will warn us, you will not engage with him. Do you understand me?"

"His words are funny," Isis chirps, "He thinks you listen to him."

Rolling her eyes at the both of them, Antonia's attention looked to the lake, which had an eery boat that floated and slowly drifted; Marc quickly spotted it also.

"What is it?" Layla asked them, then also seeing the problem. "Harrow's men keeping tabs?"

"I don't know. It could be."

"Well, y'all better hurry up before he shows," Antonia suggested, "Can't have him ruining this shit."

As Layla makes her way over, while Marc holds Antonia's arm, he tells her, "Don't try and do something stupid, or I swear, your ass will be in London. Don't fight, if you fight and can't handle it, you abort. You hear me? You leave and let me handle it."

"Jesus, fine! Stick to the schedule, don't fight, got it, got it."

Marc walks toward Layla, while Antonia leaves to go into a secluded area. Hiding in the shadows of the trees, she transforms into the Sorceress.

Antonia flew high, to the trees to see the division of the actual tourists and Mogart's men. Her hands held the golden wisps and quickly did her magic. She first blinded the guards that were actively in the crowds, to not notice her magic, they wouldn't see the obvious golden wisps in the sky.

She then started with the few families or larger groups, striking the idea to head back before it got too late. Antonia slumped as she had to be patient, while watching for Layla and Marc, who were waiting for Mogart, at a sort of jousting arena.

"It's called El-Mermah," Isis says to her, "a fencing competition."

Antonia peeked her head. "I think I see Mogart." He was a man who got off a horse, put on a red silk-like robe, and walked toward the couple.

The girl turns to the crowds to see that there is still half to go and the groups are very slow taking their leave.

"Marc gave me the worst job on the block," She complained, "How patient does he think I am?"

"Then do something about it?"

"No, I don't wanna ruin the mission. I just like complaining. Besides, I think they are already going to look at the scara-mum."

"Sarcophagus," corrects the goddess, "You need to pay attention to Steven, as much as he is concerning to me, he's intelligent in Egyptian culture and archaeology."

"I'm not entirely lost. I know something."

"Like what?"
"Like you."
Isis tilted her head, she didn't know.

"I know you are married to Osiris, your twin, and you two share a son, Horus. I know that Seth had killed and spread Osiris' body, which was nearly impossible, but you had managed to find every single piece and bring him back to life." The teen rubs the back of her neck. "And I know you are gutted by your family because you were betrayed, despite your sacrifices for them."

"You did some research." The goddess looked down on the people. "Did you know you were the first to be The Sorceress?"

Antonia furrows her brows, as she lets the wisps take control of the solo people, leaving couples untouched.

"No, I thought——"

"They were right though, the gods were supposed to leave man alone. But... as more time passed on, the more I believed that the world needed us. But I could never say that, being abandoned by the gods... I couldn't accept that," She explains, "So, I had to hide it from them."

The girl nods, "I get it. You just wanted to help."

Before Antonia could say anything, Isis had disappeared. It wasn't surprising, the goddess had never necessarily opened up to Antonia about anything. She always understood way, she was a goddess, a god that had lived for a millennium and had done more for Earth than a lot of people. The teen was just glad Isis was comfortable enough to open herself up a little.

Antonia then looked to where Marc and Layla were taken, how maybe he just needed more time with her to be able to click with her.

Antonia released the last bit of magic for the few people left behind, letting her take a breath. Controlling people's minds and actions wasn't hard, just delicate. The trick was to make it their idea, so that suspicions of false play or mind trickery wouldn't surface.

Suddenly, the hairs on her arm had goosebumps, there was a calling in her to look around. She turns and sees Arthur Harrow with two men beside him.

"Son of a bitch," She whispers, quickly flying close to the top of the trees, to where Marc and Layla were.

When she got to the two glass pyramids, where Mogart took them, she groaned in seeing that they were already compromised. Two men had guns on Layla, a guy had Marc, while Mogart was speaking.

Thinking fast, she stretched her wisps to spook the horses. Occupied and unoccupied, the horses neighed and stomped their hooves to the grounds, as the few had tried to calm them down. Mogart, Layla, and Marc had their attention on it.

Antonia watched, hidden in the sky, as Arthur made his way to the group. She could feel Isis' raged eyes stare at him and her.

"Attack," She sneers, "Attack him."

"Whatever they've told you. I'm sure I can offer you something much more tangible." Arthur opens his hand to have the Scarab, flying. "Why settle for a clue when you can have the treasure."

"Anton," Layla calls, "Anton, don't listen to this man. He's trying to stop us from reaching——" Mogart tried to interrupt her. "He's gonna kill millions, trust me!"

"Are you seriously talking about trust?" Mogart scoffs.

"Please, there's no need to descend into violent accusations. Each one of you has so much more in common than you know." Harrow turns his attention. "Layla, you keep thinking that distance will prevent the wounds from your father's murder from reopening. But something stands in your way. Your husband doesn't tell you the truth."

Antonia didn't want to believe him. Arthur was a manipulative fraud, that just needed to get under their skin.

"And Marc, you don't tell her because you know that if you do, she'll see you exactly as you see yourself, as unworthy of love."

"Piece of shit," Marc grilled, while trying to not face the pained look on Layla.

The girl watched as Arthur held up his cane that glowed purple, and gasped as the necklace he wore glowed a weird shadow of gold, that shaped like a feather.
She turns to her wings to see one is missing.

The feather he wore, wasn't gold and white like hers. It was tainted and almost forced to shine its power.

"The lore surrounding these relics I offer proof that it's real." The man walks to the sarcophagus, the exact one they needed. "This sarcophagus doesn't belong to anyone."

Suddenly, the lights around them flickered. Antonia looked to see Marc's god, Khonshu, standing on top of a building, looking down at him.
Marc didn't seem pleased by Khonshu's appearance and she didn't blame him; from what the council had gotten out of Marc, she didn't want Marc to be anywhere near Khonshu.

"Anton," Harrow said, "would you like to see for yourself?"

Mogart agrees.

The feather levitated, making the small dashes of wisps engulf the sarcophagus. The whole thing levitated, shaking to either be broken or molded. Arthur changes to his cane, making the purple glow brighter and bolder, while the gold fades to a grey color. The cane conjured the purple magic and blasted the sarcophagus, breaking it into pieces. It was charred unrecognizable, purposely.

"Fuck," Antonia curses.

"That's just a taste of the godly power I offer."

Antonia watched as Harrow left the scene. She wanted to snatch her feather away from him, she wanted to beat him into a pulp. She wanted to make him regret setting them 3 steps back.

"He's gone."

The girl looked to see that Marc was out of sight. Everyone started to panic.

"Where is he?"

Antonia looked up to see Marc in the suit. The main guard went to cover Mogart, leaving two men left initially. He threw his crescent darts at one, while bullets were shot by the other.

Marc jumped from where he stood and took that one out. Layla grabbed the extra gun on the ground and shot the few men that were coming.

Antonia saw the rest of the men were aiming right at them, so she flew down in front of the two and created a shield in front of them. Layla and Marc were shocked, seeing her in the Sorceress's attire and wielding magic.

"This whole time you had that?!" Marc shouts to her.

She shouts back, "How did you think I made the crowds go away?"

"I didn't think you were gonna do it. I need you out of the way!"

Her jaw dropped to his underestimation of her. "Asshole!"

Layla walks up to Marc and Antonia. "Buy me some time."

The two looked at each other, she gestured to him; it was his call.
Marc nods, "I can do that."

The teen smirks. She circled her hands and pushed the shield, the bullets ricocheted back to them. The two headed into the sandy arena.
Marc dealt with his side and Antoni dealt with hers.

She pushed them back and tried keeping them at a distance from her. Using the sand, she blinded a few with the sand, keeping them occupied and/or knocking them out entirely.

She knew Marc was killing them, he just needed them gone. Given the majority getting back up and trying to take her down again, she started getting tired of fighting them again.

She never had to fight like this. The Sorceress usually fought with people that were either drunk or just assholes. These guys were different. They were trained, this was their job, they needed to fight.

Antonia knew her hands needed to get dirty.

Her wisps attacked one, and closing her eyes, she jerked her arm back, making the wisp rip out his arm.

She winced, that wasn't how she wanted them to go. "Quick and painless, quick and painless."

But as she had to take that guy out of his misery, she saw Marc's attire shift to the suit that was a sharp whiter version — Steven's version.

"Steven!"

"All right, time out!" Steven yells, throwing a time-out gesture. "That's it, time-out! Guys, let's all calm down, yeah? We're all worked up. Let's all just, chill the F out and talk for a second."

His rambling became his defeat. A Mermah spear was stabbed to his back. More men started to come, riding on horses with their spears and weapons.

"Steven!" Antonia runs, using her wings to fly in the air and avoiding the horses.

As another one impaled him through the stomach, Antonia's wisps took it out and chucked it to the one that impaled him, sending him right off his horse and dying on the sand.

Antonia began to take her spears from out of their hands and throw them back. They died one by one, like moths to a candle. She didn't care where they were stabbed through, the head, stomach, throat. She just needed them gone, she didn't think a lot of it.

Suddenly, Antonia shrieks, something attacked her back and wings. She looked to see two men wielding an updated morning star. They pulled her down to drag her out of the sky, and she had to take it out and throw it down to them.

Antonia was then caught in a metal iron net. It wrapped around her as she fell down, her face eating sand.

Unknown to her, Marc was already getting taken down by being impaled by many, many spears, while the suit was keeping him alive. Antonia watched as Marc tried and fight with the men, his back facing her.

Antonia used her wisps to get herself out but she was stabbed through her arm and pulled it out, refraining her from doing so. She was circled by two men who carried these spears.

She used her wings to cover herself as as cupped her hands and had to charge the energy. Antonia bit her bottom lip as she endured their stabs, as they twisted their spears in, making it as painful for her as possible.

Antonia screams, letting tears stream down her cheek. The three men were blown into the air from the power, the net was gone and her wings were shown.

Her body wings remained intact, while the small hole on her hand bled. She looked to see the only thing left of the men were ash and bone, and one spear left.

Antonia watched what she had missed. Marc and Mogart (on a horse and holding a spear) were staring down, with Layla in the middle. Marc looked over seeing Antonia take off.

The two men started their race. As Mogart and Marc were a second away from grabbing her, Marc saw only but a blur of white swoop between them. The Avatar quickly threw his crescent darts at Mogart, leaving him dead on his horse.

Layla groans as Antonia lets her go.
"Jesus, you're like an angel, literally," Layla comments, helping the teen up.

Antonia tames her wings with a smirk. "They're real. You can feel, it's like clouds."

"Are you two okay?" Marc asked, but his heart stopped as his attention went to Antonia.

He gripped her hand and saw the open wound. "Fuck, Anni." Marc held her jaw and inspected her face. Nothing too major, a busted lip, and small bruises.

"Anni?" She mutters to herself, as her brows curled, her mind seemed familiar to the name.

"We gotta go. You're hurt——"

"No, no." She showed him her hand, seeing the golden wisps, slowly start to heal her entirely. "Check my back, a spiky ball hit me."

Layla winced in seeing her back and merging feathers having bleeding holes starting to heal. Marc started fists, with his nails digging into his skin, to try and not shout out of frustration.

"I don't know about you, they hurt like a mother fucker, but I should be good in no time."

Marc inhaled. "I will talk with you later." He turns to his wife. "Do you have it?"

"Yeah," She answers, "We need a car."

"Come on." Antonia jumps. "I can show y'all my powers!"

As they all walked away, the girl looked behind and saw Khonshu. He looked at them, but for a second, she knew he was staring right back at her.
Antonia just shook it off and had her wings shadow off the god.

She didn't know why but... Khonshu seemed like bad news.