“I am suggesting that perhaps you should have chosen less populated places to live out your long life. Alaska, maybe, or Mongolia, Siberia, the Outback or some far reaches of the Amazon. Places without people. Without victims.”

An icy silence descended on the back of the car. The twins looked at one another, and Josh raised his eyebrows in silent question, but Sophie shook her head imperceptibly. She pressed her index finger to her earlobe; Josh got the message: listen, say nothing.

“Are you suggesting I’ve caused the deaths of innocent people?” Flamel asked very softly.

“Oh yes.”

Color flushed Flamel’s pale face. “I have never-” he began.

“You could have disappeared from this world,” Palamedes pressed on, deep voice vibrating through the cab. “You faked your own death once, you could have done it again, and made a home someplace remote and inaccessible. You could even have slipped into one of the Shadowrealms. But you didn’t; you choose to remain in this world. Why is that?” Palamedes asked.

“I have a duty to protect the Codex,” the Alchemyst snapped, genuine anger in his voice, the scent of mint stronger now, filling the air.

Car horns started to blare again, and Palamedes swiveled in the seat, released the brake and drove on.

“A duty to protect the Codex,” he repeated, staring straight ahead. “No one forced you to become the Guardian of the book. You took that role gladly and without question… just like all the other Guardians before you. But you were different from your predecessors. They went into hiding with it. But not you. You stayed in this world. And because of that, many humani have died: a million in Ireland alone, more than one hundred and forty thousand in Tokyo.”

“Killed by Dee and the Dark Elders!”

“Dee followed you.”

“And if I had surrendered the Book of Abraham,” Flamel said evenly, “then the Dark Elders would have returned to this world and the earth would have learned the true meaning of the word Armageddon. Ripping open the Shadowrealms would have sent shock waves across the earth, bringing with it hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunami. Millions would die. Pythagoras once calculated that perhaps half the earth’s entire population would be destroyed just by the initial event. And then the Dark Elders would have come pouring back into this world. You’ve met some of them, Palamedes; you know what they are like, you know what they are capable of. If they ever return to this planet, it will be a catastrophe of global proportions.”

“They say it will herald a new Golden Age,” the driver replied mildly.

Josh watched Flamel’s face for his reaction; Dee had made the same claims.

“That is what they say, but it is untrue. You’ve seen what they’ve done as they’ve tried to take the Book from me. People have died. Dee and the Dark Elders have no regard for human life,” Flamel argued.