“On the day we got our jobs. You were being interviewed in the bookshop and I was having a drink. Bernice was talking to Perenelle Flamel. While Bernice was making my chai latte, Perenelle started a conversation with me. I remember her saying that she hadn’t seen me in the neighborhood before, and I told her I’d come along because you’d been called for an interview in the bookshop.” Sophie closed her eyes, thinking back. “She didn’t say then that she was one of the owners of the shop, but I remember her asking me something like, ‘Oh, I saw you with a young man outside. Was that your boyfriend?’ I told her no, it was my brother. Then she said, ‘You look very alike.’ When I told her we were twins, she smiled, then she quickly finished her drink and left. She crossed the street and went into the bookstore.”

“I remember when she came in,” Josh agreed. “I didn’t think the interview was going particularly well. I got the impression that Nicholas-or Nick… whatever his name is-was looking for someone older for the job. Then Perenelle came in, smiled at me, and called him to the back of the shop. I saw them both looking at me. Then she left the store as quickly as she’d arrived.”

“She came back into The Coffee Cup,” Sophie murmured. Then she stopped as memories and events slotted into place. When she spoke again, her voice was barely above a whisper. “Josh, I just remembered something. She asked Bernice if she was still looking for staff. She suggested that if my brother was working across the street, it would be perfect if I was working at The Coffee Cup. Bernice agreed and offered me the job on the spot. But you know what, when I turned up for work the next day it was the strangest thing. I could swear that Bernice looked a little surprised to find me there. I even had to remind her that she’d offered me the job the day before.”

Josh nodded. He remembered his sister telling him that. “Do you think Perenelle somehow made her give you the job? Could she do that?”

“Oh yes.” Sophie’s eyes turned briefly silver. Even the Witch of Endor acknowledged Perenelle as an extraordinarily powerful Sorceress. “So do you think we got the jobs because we’re twins?” she asked again.

“I have no doubt about it,” Josh said angrily. “We were just another set of twins to be added to the Flamels’ collection. We’ve been tricked.”

“What are we going to do, Josh?” Sophie asked, her voice as hard as her brother’s. The thought that the Flamels had somehow used them made her feel sick to her stomach. If Dee hadn’t showed up in the shop, then what would have happened to them? What would the Flamels have done to them?