The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

stood.
    Josh leaned across the table toward his sister. “I’ll bet Virginia’s gone.”
    Sophie nodded.
    Osiris and Isis listened to the servant’s report, and the moment she’d finished, Osiris turned and hurried away.
    Isis turned. “It seems Miss Dare decided she did not need her sleep after all,” she said. “But not to worry, we’ll find her. A
child
could follow her stink through the city. Now, you two, go get dressed. Properly this time. In clothing appropriate to this time and place.”
    Josh opened his mouth to protest.
    Isis held up her hand. “No arguments, Josh. You will find that there is a suit of gold armor in your room; silver in yours, Sophie. Wear it.”
    “Why?” Josh demanded.
    “You are being presented to the Ruling Council of Danu Talis this very evening.”
    Sophie shot her brother a fast look. “Why the rush?” she asked.
    “It seems Danu Talis is in need of a ruler. Aten, the previous ruler—well, technically the present ruler, until he is tossed into the volcano—has been removed from power. Bastet thought she could be clever and acted while we were away. She’ll be presenting her son Anubis to the council, making a case for him as the rightful heir of Amenhotep and the next ruler of the island.” Isis’s mouth twisted in an ugly sneer. “She believes we will support her. Of course, she does not know that we have you, the rightful heirs of Danu Talis.”
    Sophie shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “You—both of you, Gold and Silver—are the rightful rulers of Danu Talis.” Isis leaned forward, enveloping them in her cinnamon odor. “Within the hour, the Ruling Council with recognize you. At dawn tomorrow, you will be crowned rulers of the greatest empire ever to arise on the earth.”
    Sophie stepped back from the woman who looked like her mother. She was shaking her head. “No, that’s not right. That can’t be right.” She frowned as the Witch’s memories danced in her head. “That’s not what happened before.”
    “A version of it did,” Isis said quickly. “I was there in that time stream and I saw it all. I watched the twins fight and I saw Danu Talis fall.”
    “Hang on a sec. Which twins?” Josh demanded.
    “Us,” Sophie said bitterly.
    “Us?”
    “In a different time stream we fought. There have only ever been one set of true twins: us. We are the original twins of legend.”
    Josh felt the world shift and spin around him. His head had started to thump. “Hang on, hang on. We’re the original twins. The first Gold and Silver.”
    “Yes,” Isis said.
    “And in another time stream, we fought. What happened then?”
    He desperately tried to remember the fragments he’d discovered over the past days. “What happened to us, Sophie?”
    Isis answered. “In the other time stream, the twins fought on the Pyramid of the Sun. They died there on that pyramid and Danu Talis fell,” she said coldly. “That is not going to happen again. This particular time stream is one of the rare Auspicious Threads, those moments in time when the future is not yet fixed. There is a window—a small window—where we can change everything. We will not repeat the mistakes we made. You are the twins of legend, the original legend, created by your father and me: one to save the world, one to destroy it.”
    “Who saves it, who destroys it?” Josh asked. “Don’t you know?”
    “It does not refer to you as individuals, it means the world,” Isis explained. “Together, you will save a world: Danu Talis.”
    “But only by destroying another world: the earth,” Sophie whispered.
    “Everything has a price. Now go, get dressed. We will leave as soon as your father returns.” Isis walked away, then stopped and looked over her shoulder. “A week ago you were nothing more than ordinary teenagers. Now you are on the cusp of becoming gods. Your powers will be limitless.”
    “I don’t want to be a god,” Sophie called after her defiantly.
    The door slammed, leaving the twins alone in the garden. They stood in silence for a long time, trying to make sense of everything they’d discovered. When Josh finally turned to look at his sister, she was crying, huge silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
    “Hey . . . hey . . . hey,” he began. “Everything is going to work out. We’re going to be okay.”
    “We’re not!” she snapped. “Josh, I’m not crying because I’m sad. I’m crying because I am so mad right now. They