“What do you want me to do?” Flamel asked, leaning back against the door, his hands shoved into the back pockets of his jeans.

“Say nothing and do nothing except stay out of my way,” Gilgamesh snapped. He looked over at the Alchemyst, his blue eyes blazing. “And when this is over, you and I will have a little talk… about the decade I was incarcerated. We’re due a reckoning.”

Nicholas Flamel nodded, his face expressionless. “This process,” he said. “Will it activate the twins’ auras?”

The king tilted his head to one side, thinking. “Possibly. Why?”

“Their auras would act as a beacon. Who knows what they will attract.”

Gilgamesh nodded. “Let me see what I can do. There are different ways to teach.” The king sank cross-legged onto the floor in front of the twins and briskly rubbed his hands together. “Now, where do we begin?” he said.

Josh suddenly realized that they were surrendering themselves to a mad vagrant who sometimes forgot his own name. How was this man going to remember age-old magic? What would happen if he forgot the process halfway through? “Have you done this before?” he asked, growing increasingly worried.

The king reached out and took Sophie’s right hand and Josh’s left hand and looked at them seriously. “Just once. And that didn’t end well.”

“What happened?” Josh attempted to pull his hand away from the immortal’s, but Gilgamesh gripped it tightly, his flesh as rough as tree bark.

“He flooded the world. Now, close your eyes,” the king commanded.

Sophie immediately shut her eyes, but Josh kept his open. He stared at the king. The man turned to look at him, and suddenly his bright unblinking blue eyes seemed huge in his head and Josh felt a nauseating twist of vertigo. He felt as if he were falling forward… and down… and rising up all at once. He squeezed his eyes closed in an attempt to shut out the sickening sensations, but he could still see the king’s huge blue eyes burning into his retina, growing larger and larger, white threads starting to twist and curl across them. They reminded him of… of… of… clouds.

Gilgamesh’s voice boomed. “Now, think of…”

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

“… Water.”

Josh opened his eyes.

A huge blue planet floated in space. White clouds swirled across its surface; ice glittered at its poles.

And then he was falling, plunging toward the planet, hurtling toward the bright blue seas. Strong and commanding, Gilgamesh’s voice boomed and roared around him, rising and falling like the waves of the ocean.

“It is said that the Magic of Air or Fire or even Earth is the most powerful magic of all. But that is wrong. The Magic of Water surpasses all others, for water is both the lifegiver and the deathbringer.”