Kane Chronicles: Book 2: The Throne of Fire

The Throne of Fire: Rick Riordan: 2009

Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister Sadie have been in trouble. As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some powers at their command, but the devious gods have not given them much time to master their skills at Brooklyn House, which has become a training ground for young magicians. The other branches of the House of Life are hunting the Kane family down once they left the safety of their branch, the Brooklyn House. And now their most threatening enemy yet—the chaos serpent Apophis is rising. If they do not prevent him from breaking free in a few days' time, the world will come to an end.

The story begins with Carter and Sadie breaking in to the Brooklyn Museum during a wedding to search for a part of the Book of Ra, which will allow them to wake up Ra to help them imprison or kill Apophis, the lord of chaos. Along with them are Khufu the baboon, and their new trainees, Jaz and Walt. Instead, they find a papyrus scroll that is booby trapped with a series of fire traps. As Carter and Walt distract the demons that are a part of the booby trap, Jaz performs a spell that banishes the demons back to the Duat, but Jaz ends up falling into a coma. Before she does, she manages to hand Sadie a wax statue to heal Carter. Sadie escapes from the museum with the scroll before the police arrive. When they arrive back in the mansion, Carter explains to the new trainees that they must find Ra, the sun god, before Apophis wakes in four days and swallows the sun as well as all of existence. They also find out that to do this, they must find the three scrolls that control the embodiments of Ra, one of them being the scroll that Sadie found in the museum. However, new enemies await, such as (Menshikov) who serves Apophis and holds one of the key scrolls in freeing Ra.

Sadie returns to London to celebrate her 12th birthday, but when she arrives, her grandparents have been forced to host Nekhbet, the vulture goddess, and Babi, the baboon god, and hunt down Sadie and her friends, Liz and Emma. While escaping the two gods she has a short conversation with Anubis. There she is given directions as to where she has to go next, a netjeri knife and they head off to their next destination. They are then rescued by the dwarf god Bes, who is able to use his extreme ugliness as a weapon. They meet up with Carter and Walt along the way. When Bes opens a portal, he insists for Walt to get out for reasons Sadie and Carter do not know. They teleport to the Eighteenth Nome, in St. Petersburg, Russia, which is Menshikov's home. They get inside Menshikov's headquarters, and find out that he is summoning Set. They get the scroll but are attacked by Menshikov's two-headed snake (tjesu heru). Sadie manages to destroy the snake, but not before it bites Carter. Set tells them the location of the last scroll and also the location of the real Zia, in exchange for his "secret name". After Sadie agrees to give Set back his secret name, she still remembers his secret name, which is "Evil Day", but doesn't know how to use it. After Sadie heals Carter with the statue by using his secret name, Sadie calls on Walt to help her with the scroll, while Bes and Carter go to find Zia.

Carter and Bes find some men to take them to The Place of Red Sands, Zia's birthplace and where she is hidden. Nephthys, who is using Zia as a host, leaves Zia, but Mehsikov and Micheal Desjardins arrive. Carter finds the weapons of Ra, the crook and flail, and uses it to defeat Menshikov, but Menshikov attempts to curse him while Bes is trapped in a cage. Meanwhile, Sadie and Walt arrive at the Valley of the Golden Mummies, meeting a Roman ghost called Appius Claudius Iratus (Mad Claude), who wants them to get the mummies' spirit to the Afterlife, as the rites were not done properly. When they cannot, Mad Claude gets angry and calls on the other mummies to kill them. Sadie manages to find the last scroll, but they get trapped by mummies. Ptah, a god, sends rats to help them and creates a portal to Carter and Bes. The portal destroys Bes' cage, and he scares them away. It turns out Walt is cursed and will die young, which was why Bes sent him away. Menshikov is preparing an army to attack Brooklyn House, so Walt and Zia go back to protect it, while Sadie, Bes, and Carter go into the Duat to free Ra and defeat Apophis.

In the Egyptian version of the underworld, the Duat, there are 12 Houses, each representing an hour of the night. At the Gates of the Fourth House (Can only be entered before 4 O'clock), they find Khnum, the first part of Ra, who has forgotten what his secret name is. Using the Book of Ra, Sadie reads out his secret name, returning his essence to the scroll. They enter the Fourth House. With the help of Tawaret, who has history with Bes, and it takes them four hours to find Ra, who is senile. Ra acts like a madman, throwing ice cream bananas into the air, and talking about weasels and zebras. Because the Eighth House can only be entered at 8 O'clock, they travel to the Seventh House, where Osiris, who is being hosted by their dad, and the ghost of their mom await them. They invite Khonsu, the moon god, who can add more time into the night, but they have to gamble for it. If they lose a round, their identity (Ren) will be consumed. They will have no memories. They have to win 3 rounds of senet. They win the first round, but lose the second, causing Bes' identity to be lost. They win the last two, and with the extra time, they get into the Gates of the Eighth House and travel towards the Twelfth House. Menshikov is there, possessed by Apophis. They get Ra to merge with his last aspect, Khepri the scarab god, but free Apophis (they must in order to get Khepri). Desjarins witnesses this and helps them banish Apophis, but combusts from using too much magic. He warns them that Apophis will return in time.

They return to Brooklyn House and find out that because of the power of Ra, they were able to hold the enemies and win the fight. However, the gods are not happy with them, especially Horus and Isis, because bringing back Ra has caused Horus to lose his throne. Walt is dying in a year unless they can find a cure, which is lost, because Menshikov was the last person to know it. Bes is sitting in the Fourth House, not having any memories, not knowing who and where he is. Apophis will return, and Ra is in no shape to fight him. The House of Life is still trying to crush them, as they think that Desjardins died by the hands of the Kanes, and Amos is the new Chief Lector. In the end, Sadie is left with nothing but a crush on both a person who is about to die, and a 5000 year old god.