Watch Me Burn: The December People, Book Two (34 page)

If the light was what Evangeline thought it was, then they might have hope. She might see her family again. And see all the color and the light of the world.

The light’s breath caught, and she sounded like she was crying.

“It’s okay,” Evangeline said.

“Are you a demon?” asked the light.

“No, I’m a girl, like you.”

“You can’t be. You’re so dark.”

Evangeline knew she was. As a winter solstice witch, she was the darkest dark. And in a place so full of darkness and pain, she would blend in to the background as if invisible.

“I’m a girl,” Evangeline said again.

Evangeline flinched when she felt hands. But with a steadying breath, she let the other girl touch her. Feel her arms, and her face. This girl didn’t have her hands bound as Evangeline did. Maybe she was past that. Maybe she had stopped fighting.

“You are a girl,” she said.

“You are Julie, right?”

“Yes, who are you?”

“My name is Evangeline.”

“You are a girl like me, and that means…”

Julie’s voice was lost, as if sucked away by wind.

Then she found her voice again. “You must be winter.”

“Yes.”

“Then she’s won. She has us both. The light and the dark. It’s over.”

“No.”

“That’s good. Then, maybe she’ll kill us. And it will really be over.”

“I don’t want to die.”

“I do.”

When Evangeline had walked through Caroline’s concealment spell, she hadn’t been afraid. She felt like Alice walking into Wonderland. Cold air had rushed from the sky and the wind whipped her hair off her sweaty neck. The cold made her feel fresh and clean. Droplets of ice crystallized on the pine needles as if the forest were dripped in stars.

Even when the winter passed, she still walked in amazement. Before this, Patrick’s concealment spell had been the best she’d ever seen. This concealment spell fell into it’s own category. Concealment, repulsion, illusion, display—all sorts of magic wrapped into one massive, impenetrable spell like nothing she had ever seen.

She had been thrilled to meet the wizard who had created this world within a world. She had wanted to meet the person who could push the boundaries of usual magic. She wanted to learn from them, and to honor them.

However, Caroline was just another predator…who happened to be good at magic. Evangeline tried to fight. She cast every defensive spell she could think of, but Caroline was the better witch. Once she bound her with magic, she bound her with duct tape too, just in case Evangeline broke the paralyzing spell.

Caroline talked a lot. About her plans. About how she was better than everyone. However, after Caroline started making Evangeline hurt, she talked less. Evangeline thought she could handle the pain, but Caroline could make her hurt in new ways she couldn’t have imagined. All Evangeline could do was cry. She kept thinking about Xavier and her new family, but she tried to push the thoughts away. The belief she might be safe again would make it harder. Hope was dangerous.

She knew all about prax portentia. She knew Caroline wished to take her power, as her stepfather had.

She didn’t think she had much left to give, but she might have been wrong. The more Caroline hurt her, the more depleted she felt. Caroline would take long pauses to simply stare at Evangeline. She had a look of concentration and annoyance. Something about Evangeline didn’t sit right with Caroline. Something bothered her. So she went at her harder. Evangeline watched the skin on the arms bubble and blister even though no fire touched her. Eventually she passed out.

When she woke up, she felt different. Caroline’s spell had worked. Something was missing inside her, but it might not have been what Caroline expected. Caroline had left her and the worst of the pain had passed. Evangeline felt adrenaline rushing through her body. The world felt oddly clear and silent, as if everything had moved into sharper focus. She felt clean again, like she had when the winter wind enveloped her.

Something had gone out in her, and left a pleasant absence in its wake. She felt darker, and in this darkness, she could see light more clearly. She could see Caroline a few rooms over—not her body, but her life. Evangeline could see her life, light a little light inside her. At that moment, she realized she had a power that few wizards had.

She could reach into Caroline and snuff out that light, like extinguishing a candle with her finger.

Now she only needed to figure out how.

David thought it had to be getting late, but the day went on forever. The sun refused to set until it had finished with them. Driving Thea’s car felt surreal. She had given over her keys, but had gotten in with him. He didn’t stop her. To stop her, he’d have to attack her again, and he didn’t want to. He wouldn’t do anything else to delay saving his kids. He’d already been misdirected more than enough.

So, he tried to ignore the woman sitting next to him. He tried to ignore James’s blood on her knees. He tried to ignore the fact that her husband had murdered her brother. And that she had admitted to burning not only his house, but unexpectedly, the development in Tangled Forest. And he tried to ignore that everything about her—body and soul—made him want to rip the hair from his head. He kept saying to himself,
distraction, distraction, distraction
. The magic wanted his kids at the forest, and wanted him away. And the magic would do
anything
to keep him away. James couldn’t be helped. Thea’s fires had already burned out. But the one in the forest continued to burn.

Thea stared out the window with rapt attention. She leaned away from him and sat frozen, as if he might not see her there if she didn’t move. He doubted any two people had ever driven in a car together so silently. Even though theirs was the only car other than fire trucks and police cars that headed toward the flames, no one stopped them, or noticed them at all. David wondered if he had cast a spell on accident, or perhaps Thea had cast one on purpose. But his unrelenting determination to reach his kids felt so powerful it had to be magic. Nothing would stand in his way. He wouldn’t let it.

“You lied,” David said.

Thea ignored him.

“I just don’t know why. What you said about burning down the development was true. And what you said about starting the fire at my house was true. But when you said you wanted us dead. When you said you wanted my children to suffer and die, you were lying then. You can’t lie to me. Reading people is one of my specialties. You didn’t want us to die at all. If you had, you would have set the fire differently. But no. You designed a fire that was dramatic, but stayed on the surface. You put us in danger…and you’re not going to get away with that. But you wanted us to make it out alive.”

“No, I didn’t,” she said without looking at him. “If you don’t kill me, I’ll try again. I’ll kill your whole family. And it will be your fault, because you were too weak to kill me. Because you’re a coward.”

“You’re still lying. I just can’t figure out why. If you want to die so badly, take your own life. Use the gun on yourself. Or, maybe you think God won’t let you into Heaven that way? Is that it? You have to be murdered by a dark wizard to make the cut?”

“I don’t want to die. But if someone has to, it will be me.”

They had reached the gas station. The place had been evacuated. He pulled in by the pumps, but thought better of it. If the fire took the station, the gas pumps would be the worst place to be. He might park Thea’s car there out of spite, but he had to get himself and his kids out of here somehow.

He went down the road further and parked in the middle of the road, and both of them got out of the car.

“Can you stop the fire?” Thea asked.

“Why would I be able to do that?”

“I don’t know. You’re winter. Maybe you can make it cold.”

David would have laughed if he hadn’t been so terrified. She might as well have asked him to make the sun cold. The air itself seemed to burn.

Thea examined the forest’s edge, perhaps trying to find the best place to run in. If she did, she would die. He didn’t need magic to know that. If the winds shifted, the fire would overcome her like a tsunami hitting a beach. Errant sparks blew through the air, and David noticed black spots on his shirt where embers had already hit him. They were too late. Maybe even to escape themselves. Their only salvation was the road. The fire would cross it eventually, but they had time. If they stayed on the road, they were safe, at least for now.

“No,” Thea said. “No.”

“And the girls…” David asked. “Can the fire touch them wherever they are? Are they really in the forest, or did the portal transport them somewhere else?”

“They’re in the forest. The magic hiding them is a powerful concealment spell. There is no such thing as a portal.”

David began to cough and couldn’t stop. The smoke filled his lungs and he couldn’t breathe.

When someone grabbed him, he hardly cared at first. He let them drag him away. Nothing mattered. It wasn’t until he saw Thea clawing at the face of a fireman he realized they were being rescued.

“Ma’am, stop.”

“No, John left our sons here. They were looking for Julie. They were here.”

“A group of teenage boys? That’s who you’re looking for?”

David shook off the fireman leading him away and moved towards the fireman trying to calm Thea, blinking his stinging eyes.

“They’re fine. We already got them,” the fireman said.

His whole body could have melted with relief. He had forgotten he wasn’t alone in the world. Other people, such as Mundane firefighters would risk their lives, not for their own children, but for strangers. And it wouldn’t matter if they were wizards or Mundanes, summer or winter, they would save their lives for no other reason than that they needed saving.

“Yeah,” the fireman continued. “Three teenage boys.”

Thea looked at David, probably doing the same horrible math David had done. Thea had said sons with an “s.” So both of her sons must have been in the forest. And that meant the firemen had left with one too few.

“What were their names?” Thea demanded.

“I’m afraid I don’t know Ma’am. We need to get you out of here.”

“What were their names?” David shouted at the man. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me their names.”

“I said I don’t know,” the fireman said. “I only saw them. Two with sandy brown hair, looked like brothers. And one with dark hair. Weird, quiet little kid. Looks like you,” he said to David.
Xavier
.

That brief moment of relief passed. The missing fourth was his. Of course it was his.
Patrick
.

Emmy rushed into the Sugar Land ER—the exact same one she had been in four days ago—and Mom didn’t have trouble keeping up with her. They didn’t have to ask anyone where he was. They could find him by his energy. A nurse stood in the way, but Mom pushed by her.

“That’s my son,” she said.

Xavier looked up at them from where he sat on an ER bed. He held his head as if it weighed a hundred pounds.

“No. He’s not here,” Xavier said, so quietly Emmy thought she might have imagined it.

“I meant you,” Mom said.

“Oh,” he said.