01_-_The_Alchemyst

Sophie woke up while Scatty and Flamel were in the diner ordering
breakfast to go. One moment she was asleep, the next she sat bolt upright in
the backseat. Josh jumped and was unable to prevent a little startled cry from
escaping his lips.
He swiveled around in the driver’s seat, kneeling up to lean over the
back. “Sophie?” he asked cautiously. He was terrified that something strange
and ancient would look through his sister’s eyes again.
“You don’t want to know what I was dreaming about,” Sophie said,
stretching her arms wide and arching her back. Her neck cracked as she
rotated it. “Ow. I ache everywhere.”
“How do you feel?” Well, it sounded like his sister.
“Like I’m coming down with flu.” She looked around. “Where are we?
Whose car is this?”
Josh grinned, teeth white in the shadows. “We stole it from Dee. We’re
somewhere on the road out of Mill Valley, heading back into San Francisco, I
think.”
“What happened…what happened back there?” Sophie asked.
Josh’s smile broadened into a wide grin. “You saved us, with your
newly Awakened powers. You were incredible: you had a silver whip energy
thing, and every time it touched one of the cats or birds, it changed them back
into their real forms.” He trailed off as she started to shake her head. “You
don’t remember anything?”
“A little. I could hear Perenelle talking to me, telling me what to do. I
could actually feel her pouring her aura into me,” she said in awe. “I could
hear her. I could even see her, sort of.” She suddenly drew in a deep,
shuddering breath. “Then they came for her. That’s all I can remember.”
“Who did?”
“The faceless men. Lots of faceless men. I watched them drag her
away.”
“What do you mean, faceless men?”