Destruction: The December People, Book One (22 page)

“Wizards can become twisted up in each other. My mom believes it. She says ‘love’ is the only magic she practices. The only magic she believes in. And I always want to punch her in the mouth. It’s so sappy. But part of me listened. She says if she and my dad were apart, they would die. She warned me; whoever dies first, the other will follow. One way or another, they can’t live apart. The other one will die.”

“Like my mom?” David asked.

Amanda ran her fingers across the back of his hand. His words seemed to throw a bucket of water on her anger. He imagined steam rising from her.

“Is that why she killed herself?” David asked. “She couldn’t live after my dad died?”

“I don’t know, honey.”

“But… he abused her?”

“Yes.”

“What do you remember? Or, what do
I
remember?”

“I won’t tell you about the memories I removed. I don’t care how many times you ask.”

“They’re mine.”

“Not anymore. I will never tell you. Your parents are dead. They can’t hurt you, or anyone. You’ve moved on. You have your own family now. I like the man you are. The man who believes in good magic.”

“You don’t think I would… if I knew?”

“I don’t know.”

“If you really think it was the right thing to do, then do the same for Xavier and Evangeline.”

“Do you really want me to do that?”

“Absolutely.”

She paused. “No.”

“No?”

“I love you too much to regret what I did to your memories, but that doesn’t mean I can’t admit I was wrong to do it.”

“You are contradicting yourself. Again, you say magic is always bad, unless you really want to do it, unless it serves
your
purposes.”

“Magic is dangerous. And the magic I did was no different. It is the perfect example, really. It was destruction that was well meaning, done out of love. But someone was still punished for it, in a way I could never have anticipated. I believe if you still had your memories, things would have been different. Evangeline and Xavier wouldn’t have been abused like that. It’s my fault.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“If you had had your own memories, things would have been different. If you had known about magic, you might have realized what was going on with Crystal. If you had known, you might have been able to protect your children.”

“It’s
really
not your fault. You can help me protect them now.” He brushed some of the hair away from her face. She didn’t knock his hand away. “Sometimes I think we’ll need magic to protect our children. If dark forces are at work, don’t we need to learn good magic to stop it?”

She smiled sadly. “We can’t. We’re not good wizards.”

“Good magic has to exist.”

“It does. Of course, it does. But it’s hard. Destruction is easy. Dark magic is like stabbing someone in the heart. And good magic is like performing heart surgery to fix it. Almost no one can do it.”

“But heart surgery isn’t impossible. It’s just difficult. If you go to medical school and study for years and practice your craft, you can do it. There is a difference between hard and impossible.”

“I love you, David.”

“What?”

“I love you,” she said again. “I love that you believe in good magic. I’m sorry I took it away from you. I love you… so much.”

“I love you too.”

He saw his moment. He took her head in his hands and kissed her, knowing it might not happen again. The wine would wear off. She would hate him again. Their horrible present would return. He circled his tongue around hers. Tasted her. Felt the rough of her tongue. Her smooth gums. Her teeth. The hardness of the roof of her mouth. As soon as his tongue touched hers, he knew he wouldn’t stop. Something inside her could fix everything. If only he could find it. If he could only go deep enough inside.

She pressed her abdomen against his. It wouldn’t take more than that. He would take her right there. In the dining room, with Carson and Jess one room away. He couldn’t imagine anything else happening. Only wizards would do something so incredibly inappropriate.

He lifted her up and put her on the table. She wrapped her legs around him and squeezed. He ran his hands through her hair so roughly he probably pulled out chunks of it. She pulled at his pants, bringing him closer and closer. Clothes seemed like a maddening obstacle. He pressed himself into her as if he could enter her right there, clothes or not. Thankfully, she wore a skirt. He reached his hands beneath her skirt and pulled off her panties and threw them on the floor. She didn’t stop him.

And, there on the table, he made love to his wife.

He thought the others might catch them, but fortunately or unfortunately, it didn’t last long. He might not be eighteen anymore, but he hadn’t wanted anything this badly at eighteen. He thrust into her as if his life depended on it. Maybe it did.

He considered it pure luck she tensed against him and cried out in orgasm. In record time. He thought he wouldn’t last long enough to make her come and hardly tried. She wanted him, too.

Then she became angry again. She pulled her panties back on and ran her fingers through her hair to smooth it.

“Damn it, David,” she said.

he next morning, David made bacon and eggs while Amanda pulled the turkey out of the fridge with a dramatic, “Ugh.” She put the turkey on the counter and rubbed her temples. Hung over.

“I’ll help with the meal. I’ll make the whole thing if you want,” David said.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Amanda said.

Samantha stood in the entranceway to the kitchen in an unconscious ballet position. By her stance and the look in her eyes, she looked as if she prepared to perform a dramatic ballet routine. She crossed her arms over her chest and set her mouth in a firm line.

“It’s Thanksgiving,” she said.

Amanda wiped her hands on her apron and chewed her mouth.

“You said they would be home by Thanksgiving.”

“They needed to extend their stay,” Amanda said.

“Stop lying to me.” Those four words had more force than all the other words David had heard her say combined. He worried things would start breaking.

“I’m so sorry, honey,” Amanda said. “They checked out of Magnolia Terrace and haven’t contacted me.”

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know.” Amanda pulled Samantha in to her arms. “I’m sure they’re fine. We’ll find them.”

“They didn’t say anything about me? Did they leave me here for good? What exactly did they say?”

“They love you. They didn’t want to leave you here at all. They fully intended to get better and come home. I’m sure they still do intend that. But you can stay here as long as you need to.”

After the kids came back from the Oppenheimers, David overheard Emmy and Jude talking to Samantha in Emmy’s room.

“If they won’t do anything, we will,” Jude said.

“We’ll find them and we’ll fix them,” Emmy said.

“You don’t know how,” Samantha said.

“We’ll figure it out,” Emmy said. “There’s always a way.”

“Don’t even worry about it,” Jude said. “We can handle it.”

His kids were loyal friends, but so clearly… just kids. They believed they could do anything.

If you want your kids to do magic, forbid it.
Patrick wondered if his parents meant it to happen that way. As if that was the game; wizard parents didn’t tell their kids anything about magic because they were supposed to figure it out on their own, or something. His parents revolved in their own world a lot of the time, but they couldn’t possibly be that stupid. They might as well have given them all new cars and told them they could drive them.

“No, that’s wrong,” Evangeline said.

Patrick sat with his legs crossed, facing Evangeline, and she had her hands hovering over his as if they prepared to play that slap-hands game. They had found a good spot tucked behind the house, concealed by trees. Xavier leaned up against the air conditioning unit.

“I have no idea what you want me to do,” Patrick said.

“It’s not that hard,” Evangeline said.

“For you, maybe.”

“Ready?”

“No.”

“Just defend yourself.”

She pressed her palms against his. Her hands burned cold and hot at the same time. He pulled his hands away.

“You’re not trying,” she said.

“I don’t even know how to try. This doesn’t make any sense.”

“You’re not really hurting him,” Xavier said. “He doesn’t feel like he needs to defend himself. It’s not going to work unless you are more aggressive.”

“I don’t want to hurt him,” Evangeline said.

“Exactly. That’s the problem,” Xavier said.

“I think it’s a good instinct,” Patrick said.

Evangeline picked up one of Patrick’s hands and read his palm, as if he came with instructions.

“Are there any kind of spells I can learn that don’t involve hurting me?” Patrick asked.

“I guess,” Evangeline said. “Those are harder, though. Dark magic is easy. You have to start with that.”

“Maybe the problem is, I don’t want to attack you,” Patrick said. “I should practice on Jude.”

“You shouldn’t practice on Jude,” she said kindly. “He’s a lot better at magic.”

And sports. And talking to girls. And he’s taller and better looking. He can also drive with his eyes closed.