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Chapter 7

3rd POV

June 2nd

Paris, France 4:30 AM

Astrid landed gracefully on roof of the Sacre Coeur, folded her wings and waited for Charlotte and Jaz to deliver the box. The blonde lifted her head slightly and sniffed the air. The smell of serpent was prominent in the night air, but there were no traces of cinnamon or honeysuckle, which meant Jaz and Charlotte weren't there but Niccolò was. She stood and her black shirt, dark pants and matching boots made her indistinguishable from the night sky.

Maybe they had gotten lost? No, Jaz knew the streets of Paris better than the back of her hand. Astrid crept through a passageway into the church; maybe they were inside. The alarm was going off in the main sanctuary, but not because of her. Astrid opened her wings again to fly among the rafters, going unnoticed by the basilica's intruders. She looked down to see two teenagers, a boy and a girl, fighting a wax tupla along with Scathach the Shadow. Nicholas Flamel stood at the door, tracing green patterns on the wood surface, trying to unlock the door. She heard the girl scream and that's when Astrid decided to intervene. She swooped down and planted a small device in the tupla's wax body, then grabbed the boy and girl's shoulders' dragging them back as the tupla exploded in a gloppy mess, splattering everyone with wax.

The twins stared in awe at the woman. Not because of her strange silvery scars that decorated her fair skin or the gold whip that rested on her hip, but at her wings. Beautiful, black raven's wings protruded from between her shoulder blades. The wing span was almost fifteen feet in total. With her ageless face, gold hair and wings, she looked like a fallen angel.

"You're back in Paris," Scathach stated as she pulled her swords out of the wax goop that was once a tupla. Scathach and Astrid were acquaintances, but the blonde woman was on better terms with Scathach's sister, Aoifie.

Astrid shook her head. "No, just visiting. Charlotte and Jaz should be here any minute with... a package. I'm here to pick it up," the woman explained with a light French accent. She turned to the twins, analyzing them with intelligent hazel eyes, and held out her hand. "I am Astrid O'Hare, the Raven. And you are?"

"Sophie Newman and this is my twin brother, Josh," the girl answered, gesturing to her brother. Sophie shook the woman's hand, making both of their auras ignite-both Sophie's silver and Astrid's light purple. The smell of vanilla and rosemary filled the air. Astrid dropped the girl's hand and touched Josh's shoulder with one finger tipped with a crimson nail. His gold aura flared, oranges filling the air.

"Twins, gold and silver," Astrid remarked in awe, removing her hand away from Josh's shoulder. "Which only means-"

"I got the door open," Flamel announced, and then noticed the winged woman. "Dee hired you to find us?"

"Dee did not hire me," the woman informed him coldly. "I have no ties with the Magician, not for the last few years. I am here to pick up the Box." The twins noticed the malice in her voice when she said Dee's name. There was clearly a past between the two immortals.

The Alchemyst gave her a curious, and slightly confused, look. "You are not allied with the Dark Elders?"

"All Elders despise the Stars, especially Dee's Masters," Astrid told him. She pushed open the door and spread her wings. She looked over her shoulder at the group. "And the feeling is mutual. Machiavelli is coming this way, good luck with dealing with him." With that, she flew off into the night sky just as they heard police sirens.


Machiavelli was standing on the steps of Sacre Coeur as Astrid landed next to him with her wings out and a frown on her lips.

"Hello Madam O'Hare," he greeted her politely. The last time he had seen the woman was about six years ago.

"Where's Jaz?" she immediately asked. There was no 'hello' or 'how you've been?' After knowing the immortal for nearly 400 years, Machiavelli had learned that when Astrid was that blunt, she was extremely worried or upset.

"She texted me and said that she'd be home in the morning, why?"

"Jaz and Charlotte were supposed to bring an artifact for me to take back to base," she answered, clearly upset. "Neither of them called or contacted me for pick up-I'm worried Niccolò."

"I'm sure they're fine," Machiavelli told her gently. "Last time she went missing Jaz turned up in a few days later." Astrid only nodded and flew off.


Time jump to 5:30 AM

Despite what Machiavelli and Astrid thought, Jaz and Charlotte were not fine at all. The two of them were covered in scrapes, bruises and cuts with a few minor fractures in various bones. Both of their dresses were torn in various places, their unpractical high heels abandoned long ago. They had been corned in the far side of the room where an orchestra had been hired to play for the evening. The musicians themselves had fled, but left their instruments in the chaos.

"What the hell are all of these demons doing? And how did they even get here?" Charlotte yelled as she shot another demon in the chest. The two girls were getting tired and the demons just kept coming. Their plan to just go crazy and kill all of the demons, but it wasn't working as well as they thought it would.

"No idea," Jaz answered as she grabbed the nearest instrument, a violin, and bashed a demon in the head. The violin was in splinters and the demon turned to dust.

"You think you can figure out how to turn these things into ducks or something?" the Siren asked Jaz.

"Nope-wait, yes I do!" Jaz grinned. "Cover me and close your eyes," she commanded and summoned a ball of pure sunlight, like she had in the book shop. Jaz shut her own eyes and threw it in the center of the room and it exploded, leaving everyone except Jazmine and Charlotte blind and burned. Jazmine collapsed and hoped her aura wouldn't make her spontaneously combust from the powerful move.

"Jaz, you okay?" Charlotte ran over to where Jaz collapsed, but she was already standing up.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She sounded out of breath. Jaz checked her phone. "It's already 5:30, we need to hurry before the press shows up". Jaz gathered up her strength and the two girls ran out of the small hotel as the press arrived.

Just so you know, Machiavelli left the hotel before Jaz jumped on stage and told everyone to leave, so he doesn't know what happened to Jaz.

Review!

-MJ2001