Witch & Wizard: The Fire
Whit
My lungs are bursting, and if she dies, I’ll die.
We’re tearing through the cramped, dank streets of the capital, running for our lives from the New order police and their trained wolves. My calves are burning, my shoulders ache, and my mind is numb from all that’s happened.
There is no more freedom. So there is no escape.
I stumble through this strange, awful world we have inherited, past a mass of the sick who are shuddering from more than just the cold. A man collapses at my feet, and I have to wrestle my arm away from a woman holding a baby and pointing at me, shrieking, “The one has judged! He has judged you!”
And then there’s the blood. Mothers scratch at open pustules, and children cough into rags stained red. Half the poor in this city are dying from the Blood Plague.
And my sister is one of them.
Wisty’s even paler than usual, and her slight frame is curled over my back, her thin arms wrapped around my neck. She’s in agony; her breath comes in gasps. She’s murmuring about Mom and Dad, and it’s ripping my heart right out of my chest.
The street pulses with waves of vacant-eyed citizens scurrying to work. A guy in a suit shoulders me to the curb, and an old man who seems to recognize me slurs something about “dark arts” under his breath and hurls a glob of spit at my cheek. Everyone has been brainwashed or brutalized into conformity. I can hear the shrieks from the abused populace as the goons hammer through them just a block behind.
They’re gaining on us.
I can picture the wolves straining against their chains, foam building on their jagged teeth as they yank our pursuers forward. All missing fur and rotting flesh, they’re Satan’s guard dogs come to life. Something tells me that if —or when —the New Order police catch us, those animals aren’t exactly going to go easy.
There’s got to be an open door or a shop to slip into, but all I can see are the imposing, blaringly red banners of propaganda plastering every building. We are literally surrounded by the New Order.
Now they’re right on us. The cop in the lead is a little zealot who looks like a ferret. His face is beet red under an official hat with the N.O. insignia on it. He’s screaming my
name and wielding a metal baton that looks like it would feel really awesome smashing across my shins.
Or through my skull.
No. I will not go out like this. We have the power. I think of Mom and Dad, of their faces as the smoke streaked toward them. We will avenge them. I feel a rush of rebel inspiration as lines of a banned poem thunder in my head along with the soldiers’ boots.
“Rise like Lions after slumber / In unvanquishable number.” I put my head down, hike up Wisty, and surge forward through the plague-ridden crowds. I won’t give up.
Excerpt granted with permission by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers New York, NY of WITCH & WIZARD: THE FIRE by James Patterson. Copyright © 2011 by James Patterson. All Rights Reserved.
Witch & Wizard: The Fire
Whit and Wisty Allgood have sacrificed everything to lead the resistance against the merciless regime that governs their world. But the growing strength of the siblings’ magic hasn’t been enough to stop the evil rampage of The One Who Is The One, and now he’s executed the only family they had left. Wisty knows the time has finally come for her to face him. But her fight and her fire only channel more power to this already invincible being. Will she and Whit be able to prepare for their imminent showdown with the ruthless villain who devastated their world before he can become all-powerful?
Witch & Wizard: The Fire is James Patterson’s third installment of his epic series, and the stakes have never been higher.
Hardcover Book : 352 pages
Publisher: Hachette Book Group Usa ( December 05, 2011 )
Item #: 13-361209
ISBN: 9780316101905
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 0.79inches
Product Weight: 13.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
February 11, 2013
I loved the whole trilogy I couldn't put any of the books down.
Reviewer: Jessica
It was ok 
April 18, 2012
i enjoyed first book . witch and wizard but this one was ok i stil did not finish
Reviewer: debi
The Fire
February 29, 2012
Nice conclusion to the other two books. I don't see any reason for another in the series. Loved the characters and watching them mature.
Reviewer: Margaret
Fizzle
February 22, 2012
I've really enjoyed James Pattersons Witch and Wizard series. While I enjoyed the storyline of The Fire, I felt I spent too much time reading in circles. There was a lot of dead space that didn't advance the story or give important fill information. While I would read any and all Witch and Wizard books, there just seemed something a little off with the writing style on this one.
That being said, I did enjoy the storyline.
Reviewer: Peggy
loved it!
February 21, 2012
what a great story, i was absolutely thrilled and hated that it ended so quickly.
Reviewer: darla
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