01_-_The_Alchemyst

process. She discovered that she knew things—incredible things. She had
memories of impossible times and extraordinary places. But mixed with
these memories and emotions were her own thoughts. Already she was
beginning to find it hard to tell them apart.
Then the smoke began to curl and hiss and steam.
Dora suddenly turned to look for Scatty. “Come and give me a hug,
child. I will not see you again.”
“Gran?”
Dora wrapped her arms around Scathach’s shoulders and put her mouth
close to her ear.
Her voice dropped to little more than a whisper. “I have given this girl
a rare and terrible power. Make sure this power is used for good.”
Scathach nodded, not entirely sure what the old woman was suggesting.
“And call your mother. She worries about you.”
“I will, Gran.”
The mummylike cocoon suddenly dissolved into steam and mist as
Sophie’s aura flared brilliant silver. She stretched out her arms, fingers
splayed wide, and the merest whisper of a wind rattled through the shop.
“Careful. If you break anything, you pay for it,” the Witch warned.
Then, suddenly, Scathach, Dora and Sophie turned to look out into the
darkening afternoon. An instant later Nicholas Flamel smelled the
unmistakable rotten-egg odor of sulfur. “Dee!”
“Josh!” Sophie’s eyes snapped open. “Josh is out there!”