The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

Sophie’s hand, showering her in golden flecks that pinged off her armor.
    “How many steps to the top?” Josh asked.
    “A lot,” Tsagaglalal said grimly. “Too many. We’re never going to make it.”
    “And why do we have to get to the top?” Sophie demanded. She risked a quick glance down and immediately wished she hadn’t. There were hundreds of creatures—maybe even a thousand—flowing up the stairs after them. She saw movement from the corner of her eye and guessed that there were more running up the other sides. The beasts would come at them from all directions and they would be overwhelmed.
    “Power,” Tsagaglalal said simply. She waited for the twins to catch up. “This pyramid is more than just a building. Think of it as a huge battery. It was built using very special materials to very precise specifications and mathematical angles. At one time, a handful of Great Elders controlled the entire world from the top of this pyramid. They created the first Shadowrealms. When a rogue planet threatened to crash into this one, they used the power of this place to capture it and put it into orbit as the moon. But over time those skills have been forgotten, and the Great Elders are no more—dead, Changed or gone to Shadowrealms of their own creation. Yet the power remains: from the top of this pyramid you can control the entire world.”
    “Slow down,” Josh gasped. He was breathing hard, and his heart was thumping solidly against his chest, hammering against the armor.
    “Josh,” Sophie said. “We don’t have time. They’re close.”
    “Keep going,” he panted. “I’ll hold them.” He lifted his hand and his aura started to rise in gold smoke.
    “No!” Tsagaglalal cried. “You shouldn’t waste it. You will need every ounce of strength for . . . for later.”
    “But if we don’t use our auras, we’re never going to get to later,” Josh said urgently.
    The earth shook again, tremors rattling up through every step. Two of the huge bull creatures screamed and bellowed as they lost their footing and fell, tumbling down the steps, crashing into a dozen others and dragging them down with them.
    “How about if only one of us uses their aura?” he asked.
    Tsagaglalal watched the rapidly approaching anpu. There were thousands of the beasts now moving up the pyramid. “You, Josh. Only you. Sophie, you keep your strength.”
    Sophie opened her mouth to protest, but Tsagaglalal shook her head and waved her index finger at her, and the girl broke out into a huge grin. “In ten thousand years you’ll still be shaking your finger like that.”
    Josh turned and sat on the steps, placing his gloved hands on his kneecaps.
    “Josh, I really don’t think this is the time—” Sophie began.
    Josh whistled. Five notes ringing out pure and clear in the air. All the anpu pricked up their ears.
    “Josh?” Sophie asked.
    “You know your trigger tattoo?” he called back to her.
    She nodded. A thick black band encircled her right wrist like a bracelet. On the underside was a perfect gold circle with a red dot in the center. Whenever she needed to call up the Magic of Fire, she simply pressed the dot.
    “I’ve got a trigger whistle.” He whistled the five notes again.
    “That’s the tune from . . .” It was so familiar, yet she struggled to remember the name of the movie.
    “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,”
he said, whistling it again. “Virginia Dare taught me the Magic of Air when we were on Alcatraz.” He stopped and frowned. “Was that today—or was it yesterday?”
    A snarling cat-headed creature launched itself up the last ten steps toward Josh. Tsagaglalal’s kopesh sliced through the air, close enough to cut off its whiskers. It tried to twist midleap but hit the steps and started to slide down.
    “Josh, if you’re going to do something . . .,” Sophie urged.
    “Sit beside me,” he said. “You too, Aunt Agnes . . . Tsagaglalal.”
    “This is hardly the time for sitting,” Tsagaglalal protested.
    “Trust me,” he said with a wicked grin.
    Sophie sat on the step to Josh’s right, while Tsagaglalal settled nervously to his left. “Even the beasts look surprised,” Tsagaglalal muttered.
    “Put your arms through mine and hang on.”
    Josh whistled again.
    Tsagaglalal grunted as the ground shifted again. The earthquakes were becoming more frequent. And then she realized that it wasn’t the stones beneath her that were shifting. She wasn’t even sitting on