01_-_The_Alchemyst

“And Flamel knew this could happen?” Josh asked, feeling a great surge
of anger begin in the pit of his stomach. He felt sick. The Alchemyst had
known the Awakening could, in all likelihood, send him and Sophie into a
coma, and yet had still been prepared to let them go through with it. The rage
burned within him, fueled in equal parts by fear and a terrible sense of
betrayal. He’d thought Flamel was his friend. He’d been wrong.
“Of course,” Hekate said. “He told you there were dangers, didn’t he?”
“He didn’t tell us everything,” Josh snapped.
“Nicholas Flamel never tells anyone everything.” One side of Hekate’s
face was touched with the silver light radiating from Sophie, the other was
sheathed in black shadow. Suddenly, Hekate’s nostrils flared and her eyes
widened. She looked up at the ceiling of roots. “No,” she gasped. “No!”
Sophie’s eyes snapped open and then she opened her mouth and
screamed. “Fire!”
“They’re burning the World Tree!” Hekate howled, her face contorted
into a savage mask. Shoving Josh to one side, she darted out into the
corridor, leaving him alone with the person who had once been his twin. He
stared at the girl floating in the air before him, unsure what to do, afraid to
even touch her. All he knew was that for the first time in their lives, they
were different in ways he could not even begin to comprehend.