The Magician (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #2) by Michael Scott Page B

alongside the man, he’d grown to like and respect him. He wanted to trust him and yet he could never forgive him for putting Sophie in danger.
    Flamel glanced up and down the street; then, putting his hand on Josh’s shoulder, he guided him through the stalled traffic and across the Rue de Dunkerque. “Just in case we’re being followed”, he said softly, his lips barely moving as they darted through the early-morning traffic.
    Once they were across the road, Josh shrugged off Nicholas’s hand. “What Dee said made a lot of sense”, he continued.
    “I’m sure it did”, Flamel said with a laugh. “Dr. John Dee has been many things in his long and colorful life, a magus and a mathematician, an alchemist and spy. But let me tell you, Josh, he was often a rogue and always a liar. He is a master of lies and half-truths, and he practiced and perfected his craft in that most dangerous of times, the Elizabethan Age. He knows that the best lie is one that is wrapped around a core of truth.” He paused, his eyes flickering over the crowd streaming past them. “What else did he tell you?”
    Josh hesitated for a moment before replying. He was tempted not to reveal all of his conversation with Dee but then realized that he’d probably said too much already. “Dee said that you only used the spells in the Codex for your own good.”
    Nicholas nodded. “It’s a fair point. I use the immortality spell to keep Perenelle and myself alive, that is true. And I use the philosopher’s stone formulation to turn ordinary metal into gold and coal into diamonds. There’s no money in bookselling, let me tell you. But we only make as much wealth as we need we’re not greedy.”
    Josh hurried ahead of Flamel, then turned around to face him. “This isn’t about the money”, he snapped. “There is so much else you could be doing with what’s in that book. Dee said it could be used to turn this world into a paradise, that it could cure all disease, even repair the environment.” He found it incomprehensible that someone would not want to do that.
    Flamel stopped in front of Josh. His eyes were almost on a level with the boy’s. “Yes, there are spells in the Book which would do all that and much, much more”, he said seriously. “I’ve glimpsed spells in the Book that could reduce this world to a cinder, others that would make the deserts bloom. But Josh, even if I could work those spells which I cannot the material in the Book is not mine to use.” Flamel’s pale eyes bored into Josh s, and Josh had no doubt now that the Alchemyst was telling the truth. “Perenelle and I are only the Guardians of the Book. We are simply holding it in trust until we can pass it on to its rightful owners. They will know how to use it.”
    “But who are the rightful owners? Where are they?”
    Nicholas Flamel put both hands on Josh’s shoulders and stared into his bright blue eyes. “Well, I was hoping”, he said very softly, “that it might be you and Sophie. In fact, I’m gambling everything my life, Perenelle’s life, the survival of the entire human race that you are.”
    Standing on the Rue de Dunkerque, looking into the Alchemyst’s eyes, reading the truth in them, Josh felt the people fade away until it was as if they were standing alone on the street. He swallowed hard. “And you believe that?”
    “With all my heart”, Flamel said simply. “And everything I have done, I’ve done to protect you and Sophie and to prepare you for what is to come. You have to believe me, Josh. You must. I know you’re angry because of what has happened with Sophie, but I would never let her come to harm.”
    “She could have died or fallen into a coma”, Josh muttered.
    Flamel shook his head. “If she were an ordinary human, then yes, that could have happened. But I know she isn’t ordinary. Nor are you”, he added.
    “Because of our auras?” Josh asked, digging for as much information as he could get.
    “Because you are the twins