01_-_The_Alchemyst

Morrigan’s spies to find them?”
“Not long,” she said, munching on the apple skin. “A couple of hours
maybe. The rats or birds would track you, then Dee would hunt you down.”
“Once you have been touched by magic, you are forever changed.”
Flamel moved his right hand in front of him, leaving the faintest hint of pale
green smoke dangling in the air. “You leave a trail.” He huffed a breath at the
green smoke and it curled away and disappeared.
“Are you saying we smell?” Josh demanded.
Flamel nodded. “You smell of wild magic. You caught a whiff of it
earlier today when Hekate touched you both. What did you smell then?”
“Oranges,” Josh said.
“Vanilla ice cream,” Sophie replied.
“And earlier still, when Dee and I fought: what did you smell then?”
“Mint and rotten eggs,” Josh said immediately.
“Every magician has his or her own distinctive odor; rather like a
magical fingerprint. You must learn to heed your senses. Humans use but a
tiny percentage of theirs. They barely look, they rarely listen, they never
smell, and they think that they can only experience feelings through their skin.
But they talk, oh, do they talk. That makes up for the lack of use of their other
senses. When you return to your own world, you will be able to recognize
people who have some taint of magical energy.” He cut out a neat cube of
apple and popped it into his mouth. “You may notice a peculiar scent, you
might even taste it or see it as a shimmer around their bodies.”
“How long will the feeling last?” Sophie asked, curious. She reached
out and took a cherry. It was the size of a small tomato. “Will it fade?”
Flamel shook his head. “It will never fade. On the contrary, it will get
stronger. You have to realize that nothing will ever be the same for either of
you from this day forth.”
Josh bit into an apple with a satisfying crunch. Juice ran onto his chin.
“You make that sound like a bad thing,” he said with a grin, wiping his mouth