Josh turned away and looked at the metal hut. He had no answer to that because it was the truth. Dee himself had admitted to setting fire and plague loose on the world in an attempt to stop the Flamels. “All we know is that Flamel has lied to us right from the very beginning. What about the other twins?” he asked. “Palamedes said Flamel and Perenelle had been collecting twins for centuries.” Even saying the word collecting made him feel queasy and uncomfortable. “Whatever happened to them?”

A gust of icy wind whipped across the junkyard, and Sophie shivered, though not because of the cold air. Staring hard at the metal hut, not looking at her brother, she spoke very slowly, picking her words with care. She could feel herself growing angry. “Since the Flamels are still looking for twins, that means all the others… what?” She spun around to look at her brother and found he was already nodding in agreement.

“We need to know what happened to the other twins,” he said firmly, voicing exactly what she was thinking. “I hate to ask, but does the Witch know?” he said carefully. “I mean, do you know if the Witch knew?” He still found it hard to grasp that the Witch of Endor had somehow passed all her knowledge on to his sister.

Sophie paused for a second, then shook her head again. “The Witch doesn’t seem to know a lot about the modern world. She knows about the Elders, the Next Generation and some of the oldest human immortals. She’d heard about the Flamels, for instance, but she’d never met them before Scatty brought him there with us. All I know is that she’s been living in and around Ojai for years, without a phone, a TV or radio.”

“OK, then forget about it, don’t even think about her again.” Josh picked up a pebble and tossed it against the wall of crushed cars. It rattled and bounced and a shape flickered behind the metal. The red-eyed dogs raised their heads and watched him carefully. “You know, I just had a thought…,” he said slowly.

Sophie watched him, silent.

“How did I end up working for the Flamels, a couple who collect twins, and you end up in the coffee shop across the road? It can’t be a coincidence, can it?”

“I guess not.” Sophie nodded, the tiniest movement of her head. She’d started thinking the same thing the second Palamedes had mentioned the other twins. It couldn’t be a coincidence. The Witch didn’t believe in coincidence, nor did Nicholas Flamel, and even Scatty said she believed in destiny. And then of course there was the prophecy… “Do you think you got the job because he knew you had a twin?” she asked.