The Sorceress (the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, #3)

The third installment in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series follows two parallel storylines as the immortal Alchemyst Nicholas Flamel races to train fifteen-year-old twins Sophie and Josh Newman in elemental magic in London, while his wife, the Sorceress Perenelle Flamel, fights to escape the monster-filled prison island of Alcatraz. The story builds on earlier events: Flamel's centuries-long conflict with Dr. John Dee, the English Magician who serves the Dark Elders, ancient beings seeking to reclaim the earth; Sophie's Awakening, the magical unlocking of her dormant aura and powers, and her training in Air and Fire magic; Josh's recent Awakening by the Elder Mars Ultor; and Dee's theft of the Codex, a magical text also known as the Book of Abraham, which he now possesses except for two final pages.

Flamel, aging rapidly from overuse of his powers, arrives at St. Pancras station with the twins, hoping to find Gilgamesh the King, the oldest immortal, who knows all elemental magics but possesses no aura to use them. Three flesh-eating creatures called Genii Cucullati, sent by Dee, corner the group in a dead-end alley. Josh draws Clarent, an ancient stone sword he has carried since Paris, buying time while Flamel deploys a bracelet woven from the Elder Iris's aura, which transforms a puddle into something akin to the waters of the river Styx and knocks all three creatures unconscious.

In Paris, Dee and Niccolò Machiavelli, a tall Italian immortal, receive orders from the Dark Elders. The Elders plan to reclaim the earth at Litha, the summer solstice only three weeks away, using the twins' auras to fuel the Final Summoning and open the Shadowrealms, parallel worlds where the Elders are exiled. Dee is ordered to pursue Flamel in England; Machiavelli must fly to America, kill Perenelle on Alcatraz, and unleash an army of sleeping monsters on San Francisco.

On Alcatraz, Perenelle has escaped her sphinx guard with help from the island's guardian ghost and allied with Areop-Enap, the Old Spider, an ancient Elder imprisoned beneath the island. Nereids, sea nymphs, and their father Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, now surround the island, cutting off escape by water. When millions of poisoned flies nearly destroy Areop-Enap, Perenelle conjures a phantom stench at the San Francisco Dump to lure the swarm away, but the Old Spider retreats into a healing cocoon, leaving her alone.

In London, the Comte de Saint-Germain, a French immortal ally, arranges for Palamedes, the Saracen Knight, to pick up the group. Palamedes, a massive warrior who once fought alongside King Arthur, is hostile toward Flamel and reveals that previous twin candidates the Flamels sought were harmed or did not survive. At Palamedes's fortified compound, guarded by Gabriel Hounds, shapeshifting dog-people, the twins meet the immortal William Shakespeare, a former apprentice Dee lured away from Flamel as a boy. Shakespeare reveals that Dee killed his twin son Hamnet through a failed Awakening. He proposes an alliance and uses scrying, a form of magical long-distance communication, to connect Flamel with Perenelle via liquid crystal monitors.

Flamel warns Sophie that the Witch of Endor's memories, absorbed when the ancient being taught her Air magic, are gradually becoming Sophie's own, threatening to crowd out her identity. The scrying connection with Perenelle works, but when vampire creatures attack Perenelle during the conversation, the twins pour their auras into Flamel to strengthen the link. The combined power surge acts as a beacon alerting every supernatural being for miles. On Alcatraz, Perenelle uses the brief power boost and an image from Sophie's consciousness to create a devastating ice storm that buries the sphinx under tons of rubble, though the creature is only slowed.

Dee descends into the catacombs beneath Notre Dame to bargain with Mars Ultor, the Elder god of war, whom he entombed in bone the previous day atop an ancient stone curse placed by the Witch of Endor. Dee proposes that if Mars helps locate Josh, with whom Mars shares a connection from the boy's Awakening, Dee will bring Sophie to lift the curse, since she carries the Witch's knowledge. Mars agrees. Later, Dee's Elder ally Bastet, a cat-headed goddess, reveals that Mars is her brother and that the Witch of Endor is Mars's wife, who cursed him out of love to protect the world from his destructive rage.

The twins' distrust of Flamel deepens as they learn Perenelle engineered their jobs to place them near the Flamels. Josh discovers that Mars gifted him with instinctive military knowledge during his Awakening. Shakespeare further unsettles the twins by sharing his belief that the Dark Elders should return to save the earth from human destruction.

Flamel's aura flare draws Cernunnos, the Horned God, to the compound. Cernunnos is an Archon, a being far older and more powerful than the Elders, commanding the Wild Hunt, an army of wolves with human faces. Josh refuses to flee, takes command, and ignites an oil moat with Clarent to create a wall of fire. When Dee arrives wielding Excalibur, the twin stone sword to Clarent, the blades cross and Josh concentrates his aura into Clarent, turning it gold and blasting Dee backward. A sudden thunderstorm extinguishes the fires, and Sophie engulfs Cernunnos in a fire tornado before collapsing unconscious. The group escapes in the cab.

On Alcatraz, Perenelle discovers that the Morrigan, the Crow Goddess, is a triune being: three personalities sharing one body. Magical runes called Symbols of Binding on the prison spears have loosened the Morrigan's hold, allowing her sisters the Badb and Macha to resurface. They pledge loyalty to Perenelle, who frees them. When Nereus attacks, she drives him back with an Archon-glyph spear and molten metal.

The group picks up Gilgamesh, now a wild-haired vagrant whose mind is fragmented by millennia of memories. He claims to recognize the twins from a time before history. Flamel admits that previous candidates were damaged by failed Awakenings, falling into comas or developing severe conditions. Gilgamesh agrees to teach Water magic on one condition: that the twins eventually return the Codex so he can reverse the immortality formula and die. Sophie agrees.

Perenelle contacts Scathach the Shadow, the legendary Warrior Maid and immortal ally who was separated from Flamel's group in Paris, via scrying. Scathach and Joan of Arc, an immortal warrior and wife of Saint-Germain, plan to reach Alcatraz through the Point Zero ley gate in Paris, a magical portal connecting distant locations. Machiavelli has trapped the gate with an Attraction spell using ground mammoth bones. When Scathach and Joan step through, they arrive on Mount Tamalpais surrounded by Pleistocene megafauna, woolly mastodons and saber-toothed cats, trapped a million years in the past.

Near Stonehenge, Gilgamesh teaches the twins Water magic through immersive visions. Dee locates the group and attacks with the Wild Hunt. The twins liquefy the ground beneath Cernunnos with Water magic, and Sophie bakes it iron-hard with Fire, trapping the Archon. Josh throws Clarent at Dee to protect the weakened Flamel, knocking the Magician unconscious but losing the sword. Shakespeare and the surviving Gabriel Hounds arrive to cover their retreat.

At Stonehenge, Flamel collapses trying to activate the ley gate. Josh pours his golden aura into two upright stones, discovering they are the same igneous rock as Clarent and Excalibur. Sophie, despite the danger to her depleted aura, touches the second pillar. It blazes silver, opening a portal. Flamel drags both twins through to Mount Tamalpais.

Perenelle has already escaped Alcatraz. When Machiavelli and Billy the Kid, a young-looking American immortal, arrive by motorboat, the Crow Goddess, now controlled by the loyal Badb and Macha, leads them away from Perenelle. The Sorceress steals their boat, fights off Nereus, and drives to Mount Tamalpais, where she reunites with Nicholas and the twins.

In England, Dee discovers Clarent in the grass near Stonehenge. When he brings both swords together, they fuse blade to blade into a single weapon that leaks gray smoke. Gilgamesh shuffles from the darkness, touches the fused sword, and whispers: "The two that are one, the one that is all." The story continues in The Necromancer.