The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

unceremoniously tossed aside the bodies of the fallen lizards to get at the two men and kneel beside them. “Do you know,” she said, “I was telling Sophie only earlier today that there is no magic greater than the other. They are all the same and equal. . . .” She stopped. Neither man was moving. “Oh, no,” she breathed.
    When she pulled away the last of the Spartoi, she discovered that both men were crisscrossed with wounds. Prometheus’s armor was a ruin, and Niten’s black suit hung in shreds about his thin body. Delicately she pressed her fingertips to Niten’s throat, but there was no pulse. There was no point in feeling for Prometheus’s pulse, because he had never had one, but she peeled back his eyelids and saw nothing but white.
    “No,” she said fiercely.
    The Elder and the immortal had given their lives defending the city.
    “No,” Tsagaglalal said firmly. “I will not allow it.” Then she threw back her head and howled aloud her anguish.
    Up on the ridge looking down over the Golden Gate Bridge, Bastet and Quetzalcoatl suddenly smelled jasmine on the air and saw the globe of white flare in the fog below.
    And then the sound pierced the night, and although it had been ten thousand years since they’d last heard the noise, they recognized it immediately.
    The two Elders turned to look at one another, then ran toward their cars. Seconds later, Bastet’s limousine peeled out of the parking lot, tires slipping and spinning on the wet pavement. Quetzalcoatl followed, wondering if he would make it back to the safety of his Shadowrealm in time.
    Neither of them wanted to face the wrath of She Who Watches.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
    “JUST WHAT DO you two think you’re doing?” Osiris demanded, face flushed with anger.
    “Why did you run from us?” Isis snapped. “We told you—”
    Sophie clapped her metal-gloved hands together, the sound cracking off the pyramid’s top like a gunshot, silencing them. “Who are you?” she said quietly.
    “
What
are you?” Josh asked.
    Shocked, Isis and Osiris stood at the foot of their vimana, exchanged a glance and then turned to stare at the twins. “That’s no way to speak to your parents—” Isis began.
    “You’re right,” Sophie interrupted. “But you’re not our parents, are you?”
    Isis and Osiris remained silent, but something subtle happened to their faces. Shadows bloomed beneath their eyes; color touched their cheeks.
    “You know I have within me the Witch of Endor’s memories,” Sophie said, closing her hands into fists. Smoking silver aura began to mist off them and the evening breeze whipped away the scent of vanilla. “She never liked you.”
    “She was a—” Isis protested.
    “She spent centuries trying to find out just who you were,” Sophie continued. “She didn’t believe you were Elders. And she knew you weren’t Great Elders or Ancients.” Even as she was speaking, images were tumbling through her mind, snatches of the Witch’s experiences. Sophie gasped as the images grew sharper, crisper. “She never quite figured it out. She came close, though. And as she began to suspect what you might be, she set out destroying millennia of ancient knowledge. Just to keep it from you.”
    A deep shudder rumbled through the pyramid.
    “The Witch was, is and will be a fool,” Isis said petulantly. “And you are a fool for listening to her or believing her.”
    Osiris wandered over to the edge of the pyramid and peered down. The tireless anpu were closing in fast. “It is still not too late,” he said.
    “Too late for what?” Josh spread his arms. “Look around. The Elders are finished. The people of Danu Talis have risen up.”
    “So what? You could wipe them out with a word,” Osiris retorted.
    Isis looked at Sophie. “Do you have any idea of the power you wield?”
    “No,” Josh said truthfully. “Do you?”
    Osiris blinked at him, and in that moment, Josh knew that he didn’t.
    Another spasm shook the pyramid, and off to the right, Huracan, the volcano, began to heave black smoke. Bright red cinders spiraled upward into the darkening sky like fireworks.
    “You are not our parents, are you?” Sophie demanded.
    “We have raised you as our own,” Isis offered.
    There was a terrifying noise from below as the anpu howled their war cry and closed on the six individuals protecting the top of the pyramid.
    “That’s not the question I asked,” Sophie snapped. “Are you our parents?”
    “No,” Isis