The Serpent's Shadow

In the six months since the end of The Throne of Fire, Apophis has destroyed all but one copy of a special version of The Book of Overcoming Apophis, written by a long-dead magician named Setne. As the novel opens, Carter and Sadie attend a party at the magician stronghold in Dallas, Texas, to warn the leader that Apophis will attack that night. Sadie and Carter offer to bring the scroll back to their stronghold in Brooklyn to protect it. Aside from the siblings, their team of magicians includes Walt Stone (a descendant of King Tut, who is slowly dying from the curse that poisons his blood whenever he uses magic), a baboon named Khufu, and two younger children (Alyssa and Felix).

The leader of the Dallas magicians is skeptical but brings the children to the scroll in the King Tut exhibit of his museum. On the way, Sadie is visited by a strange face that pops out of a wall. The face warns her she’ll never understand the scroll and gives her until sunset the following day to seek his help before disappearing. Sure enough, Sadie struggles to understand the scroll and urges the group to take it away quickly.