handling the ancient object with obvious reverence.
The Book of Abraham the Mage, she whispered, leaning forward, but not
approaching the book. Let me see the back.
Reluctantly, Dee turned to the back of the book. When the Morrigan saw the
damaged pages, she hissed with disgust. Sacrilege. It has survived ten
thousand years without suffering any damage.
The boy tore it, Dee explained, closing the Codex gently.
I'll make sure he suffers for this. The Crow Goddess closed her eyes and
cocked her head to one side, as if listening. Her black eyes glittered and
then her lips moved in a rare smile, exposing the rest of her pointed teeth.
He will suffer soon; my children are almost upon them. They will all
suffer, she promised.
CHAPTER TWELVE
his foot to the floor and the heavy car shot forward. But the gap wasn't
quite wide enough. The SUV s grill struck the side mirrors on the other two
cars and snapped them off. Oops Josh immediately took his foot off the
gas.
Keep going, Flamel ordered firmly. He had Sophie s phone in his hand and
was talking urgently in a guttural, rasping language that sounded like
nothing the twins had ever heard before.
Deliberately not looking in the rearview mirror, Josh roared across the
bridge, ignoring the honks and shouts behind him. He shot along the outside
lane, then cut into the middle lane, then back out again.
Sophie braced herself against the dashboard, peering through half-closed
eyes. She saw the car hit another side mirror; it came spinning, almost
slowly, up onto the hood of their SUV, scoring a long scrape in the black
paint before it bounced away. don't even think about it, she muttered as a
tiny open-topped Italian sports car spotted the same gap in the traffic that
Josh was aiming for. The driver, an older man with far too many gold chains
around his neck, put his foot down and raced for the gap. He didn't make it.
The heavy SUV caught the right front edge of the little car, just tapping it
on the bumper. The sports car was flung away, spinning in a complete
360-degree turn on the crowded bridge, bouncing off four other cars in the
process. Josh tore through the opening.
Flamel twisted around in the seat, looking through the rear window at the
chaos they had left in their wake. I thought you said you could drive, he
murmured.
I
steady, I just didn't say I was good at it. Do you think anyone got our
license plates? he asked. This was nothing like one of his driving games!
The palms of his hands were slick and wet and beads of sweat were running
down the sides of his face. A muscle twitched in his right leg from the
effort of keeping the accelerator pressed hard to the floor.
I think they ve got other things to worry about, Sophie whispered.
The crows had descended on the Golden Gate Bridge. Thousands of them. They
came in a black wave, cawing and screaming, wings cracking and snapping. They
hovered over the cars, darting low, occasionally even landing on car roofs
and hoods to peck at the metal and glass. Cars crashed and sideswiped one
another along the entire length of the bridge.
They ve lost focus, Scathach said, watching the birds behavior. They re
looking for us, but they ve forgotten our description. They have such tiny
brains, she said dismissively.
Something distracted their dark mistress, Nicholas Flamel'said.
Perenelle, he said delightedly. I wonder what she did. Something dramatic,
no doubt. She always did have a sense of the theatrical.
But even as he was speaking, the birds rose into the air again, and then, as
one, their black eyes turned in the direction of the fleeing black SUV. This
time when they cawed, it sounded like screams of triumph.
They re coming back, Sophie said quickly, breathlessly. She realized that
her heart was pumping hard against her rib cage. She looked at Flamel and the
Warrior for support, but their grim expressions gave her no comfort.
Scathach looked at her and said, We re in trouble now.
In a huge black-feathered mass, the crows took off after the car.
Most of the traffic on the bridge was now stalled. People sat frozen in
terror in their cars as the birds flowed, foul and stinking, over the roofs.
The SUV was the only car moving. Josh had his foot pressed flat to the floor,
and the needle on the speedometer hovered close to eighty. He was becoming
more comfortable with the controls he hadn't hit anything for at least a
minute. The end of the bridge was in sight. He grinned; they were going to
make it.
And then the huge crow landed on the hood.
Sophie screamed and Josh jerked the wheel, attempting to knock the
evil-looking creature off, but it had hooked its feet into the raised ridges
on the hood. It cocked its head to one side, looking first at Josh, then
Sophie, and then, in two short hops, it came right up to the windshield and
deliberately peered inside, black eyes glittering.
It pecked at the glass and a tiny starred puncture mark appeared.
It shouldn t be able to do that, Josh said, trying to keep his eyes on the
road.
The crow pecked again and another hole appeared. Then there was a thump,
followed by a second and a third, and three more crows landed on the roof of
the car. The metal roof pinged as the birds began to peck at it.
I hate crows. Scathach sighed. She rooted through her bag and pulled out a
set of nunchaku two twelve-inch lengths of ornately carved wood linked by
four and a half inches of chain. She tapped the sticks in the palm of her
hand. Pity we haven t got a sunroof, she said. I could get out there and
give them a little taste of this.
Flamel pointed to where a long shaft of sunlight was coming through a pinhole
in the roof. We may soon have. Besides, he added, these are not normal
crows. The three on the roof and the one on the hood are Dire-Crows, the
Morrigan s special pets.
The huge bird on the hood tapped the windshield again, and this time, its
beak actually penetrated the glass.
