Watch Me Burn: The December People, Book Two (28 page)

On their drive to Sugar Land, David spotted a dark-haired woman walking on the side of the highway. She drew his eye for two reasons. For one, he could tell she was a witch from a distance. And two, she looked like Evangeline. Something about the way she walked and the way her long dark hair fell down her back. As he got closer, he could tell she wasn’t Evangeline, but still…so familiar.

He slowed as he passed her. She turned and looked at him. David’s entire body froze. He had never felt so cold. He slammed on the brakes, which caused the car to skid and veer off the highway into the median.

“Son of a bitch,” yelled James as the car skidded to a dusty stop.

David looked back and saw no one. He searched the dry dusty roadside and didn’t see her lying on the ground either, so he didn’t hit her. She had never been there at all. Those sad brown eyes hadn’t looked right at him.

“Ghost,” David said, barely able to catch his breath.

“What?” James said.

“Did you see her?”

“Who?”

“The woman on the side of the road.”

James turned around in his seat and scanned the highway. “Uh…no.”

“Wizards are real. Are ghosts real?”

“I don’t…think so.” He didn’t sound sure.

David pressed his hands to his eyes. He didn’t know if he wanted to scrub her image from his mind or memorize every detail.

“You’re really not okay, are you?” James asked.

“No, James. I am not okay. I don’t think I’ve ever been less okay.”

“Let me drive. You’re too distracted.”

David paused. Something James said shimmered in his brain.

“What?”

“Give me the keys,” James said. “You’re going to wreck my car. You probably already messed it up randomly driving off the highway.”

“No, what else did you say?”

“Uh, I said you seem distracted.”

“Oh, God.”

“What?”

“Oh, no.”

“David, what?”

“I’m
distracted
. I don’t know if it was a ghost or what, but it was a reminder. A clue I’m on the wrong track. She wanted me to remember what she said before. About misdirection. I’m misdirected, James. It’s what the magician wants.”

“What?”

“Where is my phone?”

“What you saying? That the good doctor didn’t start that fire? This is some kind of trick?”

“I don’t know if he did or not, but I know it doesn’t matter. Not right now, anyway.”

“What do you think you’re being distracted from?”

“I don’t know. Something bad happening to someone I love. Because I’m not watching over them. Because I’m a fool. Where is my goddamn phone?”

“It’s here,” James handed him the phone.

As the most likely to find trouble, he called Emmy first. As the phone rang, he pulled back onto the highway heading toward the motel, too close to an oncoming car that blasted its horn.

“David!” James looked as if he prepared to grab the wheel.

Emmy picked up on the second ring.

“Where are you?” David asked before she could say hello.

“At the motel, with mom. Where are you?”

“So, you’re both fine?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I know you never listen to anything I say, but I’m begging you…stay there. Please, please stay there.”

“What’s going on?”

“Where are your brothers?”

“I’m…not sure. Patrick’s car is gone. They probably went to get food or something.”

“Dammit. Okay. Stay there, Emmy. I love you.”

“Wha—”

He hung up the phone and called Patrick. Xavier rarely had his cell phone on or with him. But Patrick
always
had his with him. He’d seen him sleeping with it in his hand on more than one occasion.

He heard Patrick’s recorded voice on the voicemail. “I’m not in. Leave a message.”

“Patrick, this is your father. Some kind of magic is happening. You have to call me back, immediately.”

He tried Xavier and heard, “The person you have called has a voicemail box that has not been set up yet. Goodbye.”

“Damn this thing.” David opened his window and chucked the phone into oncoming traffic.

“Oh my God,” James said. “That was stupid. For so many reasons.”

“No. I rely too much on my phone. I’m not thinking like a wizard.”

“Yeah, but still. There is a reason why wizards still carry cell phones. Steve Jobs bested us on that one.”

“Stop talking. I need to think.”

athan didn’t know if he wanted to see a car come around the building. If he did, then someone could help him. But then someone would also have to see him handcuffed to a pole. He could cast a summoning spell so the closet person would decide to come behind the building. But he couldn’t cast a spell to get the handcuffs off. He tried. He thought maybe he could burn them off. But he only managed to make the metal hot, which left scalded rings around his wrists, adding a fair amount of pain to everything else. Eventually, he’d have to give up and summon someone. His eyelids hurt when he blinked, which meant the sun had burned him to a crisp. And without water soon, he might have a serious problem.

Half the time, being a wizard was useless…God’s joke on them. They had the power to get almost anything they wanted, but handcuffs thwarted them. God said, “Hey, you down there. You think you’re so great? Try this.” And then, God laughed while Nathan burned his own damn self trying to get out. As Emmy had said, he may be a master of the flame, but his flesh burned like anybody else’s.

When a car did come, Nathan could sense it before he could see it. He should have cast a summoning spell. Then, someone random would come around the corner. Some Mundane. They might laugh at him, but that would be all. He’d waited too long and someone who could do much worse had found him.

His father’s car came around the side of the building and stopped in front of him. He could tell by the jerky way he drove that he was mad. But when he got out of the car, he just shook his head. His look said something between, “you’re disgusting,” and “you’re an embarrassment.”

“How did you find me?” Nathan asked.

“You’re not as sneaky as you think you are.”

“You knew?”

“Of course.
Nothing
gets past me. I would offer up some kind of punishment, but that seems hardly necessary. I couldn’t think of a better way for you to learn your lesson about winter wizards. Maybe I should leave you here for a while. And you can soak it all in.”

“Fine. Leave me here.”

“This is just like you. You didn’t like that we were paying attention to Julie instead of you? So, you try to get our attention by fooling around with a winter wizard? I have bigger concerns.”

Nathan felt shaky—either from fury or dehydration. Probably both. “No,” Nathan said. He should say more about why everything his father had said had been so wrong, but he couldn’t find the words.

His father examined the handcuffs and snickered. “Look what you did to yourself. This is crude magic. You have to go for the lock.”

“I can’t do that.”

His father put his thumb on the lock and after a moment, Nathan heard a click, and the handcuffs clattered to the ground. His father examined his hands in that annoying clinical way only a doctor could.

“So, when you found out I was seeing her, you burned down their house?”

Dad slapped him in the face. The sunburn made the slap hurt much more than usual.

“How dare you,” he said. “I’m no monster. They’re the villains. Not us.”

“Then who did it?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m sure they deserved it.”

“I’m sure they didn’t.”

Dad had the flame in his yellowish-green eyes that made Nathan think he might hit him again. But instead he just shook his head.

“You’re an idiot,” he said, with a tone that implied hitting him wasn’t worth his time. “I think maybe we should have you dated again. I would swear you’re a spring wizard.”

“I need water.”

“We’re going back to the forest. Your mother ran off and I think she went out there. And we’re picking up your brother. It’s your job to keep an eye on him and you’re not.”

“He’s fine.”

“Just get in the car.”

Patrick hated sneaking out with Mom passed out asleep, but he had to. They couldn’t wait any longer. Xavier had this strange, unstable quality to his energy, like he would soon either explode or fade away. Patrick didn’t feel like waiting around to see which way he went. He hoped looking for Evangeline would keep him focused and present.

They went to the gas station where Evangeline had disappeared. They got out of the car, and Patrick thought he could sense the summer wizards from a distance. But it was hard to tell. The temperature gauge in the car said 109 degrees, which made it the hottest day of the year so far. Summer wizards around or not, summer itself had attacked mercilessly. The heat made it hard for Patrick to breathe. The blinding sun made it hard for him to open his eyes. They couldn’t search out here for long.

Patrick suggested they go inside the convenience store to buy water, and he picked out a couple of two-liter bottles. Xavier drifted toward the potato chips, and Patrick grabbed his arm. Xavier jerked back and looked ready to strike, as he always did when someone touched him.

“Stay where I can see you,” Patrick said.

“I’m not a child.”

“Come on, you know why.”

Xavier grumbled something and took the water Patrick handed to him. Patrick didn’t think that Xavier would get caught in the snare, but the possibility scared the crap out of him. Emmy bringing Evangeline here and losing her, and then Patrick bringing Xavier here and losing him, was too stupid and horrible to consider.

Xavier did as Patrick asked him, and stayed close as they bought their water and went back outside. At least, he stayed as close as he ever would to another human being.

“They’re here,” Xavier said.

“Summer wizards?” Patrick asked.

“Yeah.”

“I thought so.”

“How many do you think?”

“I’m not sure. Not that many.” Xavier pointed toward the woods. “They’re not far.”

“Well, I’m not going to go home with my tail between my legs because summer wizards are here,” Patrick said.

“Fuck, no. Of course not.”

“Alright then.”

Patrick followed Xavier into the woods. The thick pine trees provided shade, but somehow it felt hotter here. He could see the heat distorting the air. He hoped this meant a winter witch as cold as Evangeline would stand out in contrast.