01_-_The_Alchemyst

Flamel had read the piece in the Codex about apples. He thought it was
possibly referring to apple seeds, which were indeed poisonous—if you ate
several pounds of them. He hadn’t come across the section about frogs and
princes, though he’d read the Book hundreds of times. There were countless
questions he wanted to ask the Witch, but that wasn’t the reason they were
there. “Dora, will you teach Sophie the principles of Air magic? She needs
to learn enough to at least be able to protect herself from attack.”
Dora shrugged and smiled. “Do I have a choice?”
Flamel had not been expecting that answer. “Of course you have a
choice.”
The Witch of Endor shook her head. “Not this time.” She reached up and
took off her dark glasses. Scatty didn’t move, and only the muscle twitching
in Flamel’s jaw betrayed his surprise. The twins, however, backed away in
horror, their faces registering their shock. The Witch of Endor had no eyes.
There were just hollow empty sockets where eyes should have been, and
nestled in the sockets were perfect ovals of reflective glass. Those mirrors
turned directly to the twins. “I gave up my eyes for the Sight, the ability to
see the patterns of time—time past, present and possible-future. There are
many patterns, many versions of possible-future, though not so many as
people think. In the past few years, the patterns have been coming together,
weaving ever closer. Now there are only a few possible futures. Most of
them are terrifying,” she added grimly. “And they are all linked to you two.”
Her hand moved unswervingly to point to Sophie and Josh. “So what choice
do I have? This is my world too. I was here before the humani, I gave them
fire and language. I’ll not abandon them now. I’ll train the girl, teach her how
to protect herself and instill in her how to control the magic of Air.”
“Thank you,” Sophie said carefully into the long silence that followed.
“Do not thank me. This is not a gift. What I give you is a curse!”