01_-_The_Alchemyst

the hood, the doors, clutching every available opening. If one fell off or lost
its grip, dozens more fought for its place. The noise inside the car was
incredible as thousands of birds pecked and tapped at the metal, the glass, the
doors. They tore into the rubber molding around the windows, ripped into the
spare tire on the back of the SUV, tearing it to shreds. There were so many on
the hood, pressed up against the windshield, that Josh couldn’t see where he
was going. He took his foot off the accelerator and the car immediately
started to slow.
“Drive!” Flamel shouted. “If you stop, we are truly lost.”
“But I can’t see!”
Flamel leaned through the seats and stretched out his right hand. Sophie
suddenly saw the small circular tattoo on the underside of his wrist. A cross
ran through the circle, the arms of the cross extending over the edges of the
circle. For a single instant it glowed…and then the Alchemyst snapped his
fingers. A tiny ball of hissing, sizzling flame appeared on his fingertips.
“Close your eyes,” he commanded. Without waiting to see if they obeyed, he
flicked it toward the glass.
Even through their closed lids, the twins could see the searing light that
lit up the interior of the car.
“Now drive,” Nicholas Flamel commanded.
When the twins opened their eyes, most of the crows were gone from
the hood, and those few that remained looked dazed and shocked.
“That’s not going to hold them for long,” Scatty said. She looked up as a
razor-sharp beak punched a hole straight through the metal roof. She snapped
out the nunchaku. She held one stick in her hand, while the other, attached to
the short chain, shot out with explosive force and cracked against the beak
embedded in the roof. There was a startled shriek and the beak—slightly bent
—disappeared.
Sophie turned her head to peer in her side mirror. It was dangling off the
car, barely held on by a shred of metal and some wire. She could see more
birds—thousands of them—flying in to replace those that had been swept