The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

and then immediately answered her own question without having to resort to the Witch’s knowledge. “Because you can’t.”
    Osiris’s smile was icy. “We have other skills, Sophie, but no, we are not able to stimulate the Awakening process.”
    “So it’s not a family trait?” Josh asked, confused.
    “Not immediate family, no. But it is definitely clan related,” Osiris said.
    “Are we related to those Elders? The ones who Awakened us, who taught us: Hekate and Mars, Prometheus, Gilgamesh, Saint-Germain and the Witch?” Sophie asked.
    “Distantly,” Osiris muttered.
    “But they’re not your friends, are they,” Josh stated more than asked.
    Isis and Osiris shook their heads simultaneously. “No, they are not.”
    Everything that had happened over the last several days suddenly started to make sense to Josh. “Since no one knew you were related to us, you somehow got your enemies to Awaken and then train us because they thought we’d be working against you,” Josh murmured, almost to himself.
    “Yes, and we’re quite proud of that strategy.” Isis smiled at her husband.
    “That’s just great,” Josh muttered.
    “Thank you,” Osiris said. “I see all those chess lessons weren’t entirely wasted on you.”
    Josh dipped his head and concentrated on pushing the fruit around on his plate. He was thinking furiously, remembering a thousand tiny details from the past. Suddenly they took on a new meaning. He finally speared a segment of orange and popped it in his mouth. “So everything that’s happened over the past week—”
    “Don’t speak with your mouth full!” Isis snapped.
    “Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Isis,” he deliberately amended. He swallowed hard. “So you’ve been behind everything that’s happened over the past week?”
    “Not just the past week,” Osiris said. “Over the past fifteen years of your lives, and the ten thousand years leading up to that. From the first moments of your birth, we have been training both of you for this, your destiny. We taught you history and mythology so that when you did discover the truth, it would not be such a terrifying revelation, and so you would have some familiarity with the characters and creatures you’d encounter. We even insisted that you take up a martial art so that you could protect yourselves.”
    The twins nodded. Neither of them had ever wanted to do Tae Kwon Do, but their parents had insisted, and no matter what city they lived in or school they attended, they had always been enrolled in a dojang to continue their training.
    “We showed you the world,” Isis said. “Exposed you to other cultures so that when you came here it would not be such a shock.”
    Osiris leaned forward. “And then, when all was in readiness, when you were both as prepared as you could be, I suggested you go for that job in the bookshop with the Flamels.”
    Josh blinked in surprise, then frowned, remembering. His father had showed him an ad in the university newspaper:
Assistant Wanted, Bookshop. We don’t want readers, we want workers
.
    “And I didn’t want to do it,” Josh whispered.
    “And I told you I’d worked in a bookshop when I was your age. You wrote the letter and résumé, but never sent them in.”
    “I did,” Isis said.
    “And you were called for an interview two days later.”
    “You knew where the Flamels were hiding?” Sophie asked.
    “We’ve always known where they are. We’ve been very careful to keep a close watch on the Codex.”
    “And you knew that when they saw me, they’d recognize me as a Gold,” Josh whispered. “And Sophie as a Silver.”
    Isis’s smile was bitter. “Those arrogant fools, the Flamels, have been seeking Golds and Silvers across the centuries. We simply gave them what they were looking for.”
    Osiris nodded. “The Alchemyst and his wife came to believe that they were far more important in the grand scheme of things than they really were. They were pawns. Just like Dee, and all the other humani.”
    “And us?” Sophie asked. “Are we pawns too?” She looked over at her brother and saw him nod.
    “You are Gold and Silver,” Osiris said quietly. “And yes, we have manipulated you, but not to use you as pawns. To protect you. Everything we have done was to keep you safe,” he insisted. “You are like the king and queen on the chessboard: right now, in this time and place, you are the most valuable and important people on this world.”
    Isis leaned forward, metal bracelets