Whit and Wisty Allgood have sacrificed everything to lead the resistance against the merciless totalitarian regime that governs their world. Its supreme leader, The One Who Is The One, has banned everything they hold dear: books, music, art, and imagination. But the growing strength of the siblings' magic hasn't been enough to stop the One's evil rampage, and now he's executed the only family they had left.

Wisty knows that the time has finally come for her to face The One. But her fight and her fire only channel more power to this already invincible being. How can she and Whit possibly prepare for their imminent showdown with the ruthless villain that devastated their world-before he can truly become all-powerful?

In this stunning third installment of the epic Witch & Wizard series, the stakes have never been higher—and the consequences will change everything.

Book One | Blood Holiday

Chapter 3

Whit

"YOU HAVE TWO choices," the pint-size vigilante professes.

I look at her warily. There's no telling if she's really on my side. They've used kids to get to us before, and there are almost no rebels left in the capital. There's a reward for our capture, no doubt; maybe she's got dark motives.

She's filthy and bone-thin, but she's got this strangely confident expression. And—weirder—she's wearing antlers.

Then it sinks in: the Holiday.

In my panic I must've missed the details. Though celebrating the Holiday is forbidden under pain of death, I now see hints of it everywhere as I glance out the window: ribbons clipped to New Order flags, candles winking from windowsills, and the kind of ice sculptures that Wisty and Mom went nuts for—only these are shimmering tributes to The One.

"You have two choices," the little girl repeats impatiently. "And they are your choices, and yours alone."

She's got her hands on her hips, her round, silvery eyes glaring out of her tiny face. She's probably around seven or eight, but her eyes look way older, like those of the wizened elves Wisty and I used to read about in the Necklace King series—back when we got a kick out of fantasy books and didn't know we actually had magical powers.

"You can either come with me or let the red-haired girl die. It's no big thing for me," the little fountain of goodwill says, like death is something she's intimately familiar with, even bored by. "You should dump her and save yourself." She eyes Wisty and frowns. "That's what I'd do."

Copyright © 2011 by James Patterson

Read by Elijah Wood and Spencer Locke