"Half a millennium on this earth had taught him how to be very persuasive indeed" (Chapter 1, p. 8).

"Now she knew things that no person should ever know" (Chapter 4, p. 32).

"Niccolo Machiavelli swore that he was going to turn Paris into a trap—and maybe even a tomb—for the legendary Alchemyst" (Chapter 4, p. 36).

"But who did Flamel serve? Josh wondered. Just who was the immortal Nicholas Flamel?" (Chapter 5, p. 45).

"This wasn't the first time he had been hunted in these streets, but it was the first time without allies and friends to help him" (Chapter 9, p. 68).

"Lying flat on her back, Perenelle Flamel stared at the stained stone ceiling directly above her head and wondered how many other prisoners incarcerated on Alcatraz had done the same" (Chapter 13, p. 113).

"'Clarent,' she said, 'is an evil, accursed weapon, sometimes called Coward's Blade. This is the sword Mordred...