Watch Me Burn: The December People, Book Two (9 page)

His magic felt different than his sister’s —at least, weaker than his sister’s. He had more of a flickering quality, like a candle trying to stay lit on a windy day. The darkness of the forest must be sapping his energy somehow. That would at least explain his bizarre behavior. He skimmed the forest, stepping in and stepping out, walking in erratic circles.

Emmy lurked within the cover of the forest, watching him. She found she could travel through the trees without any problem. And in their shade, he didn’t seem to notice her. She could stand there and observe him from ten feet away. He would squint in her direction occasionally, and she thought he might see her. But he seemed to see things everywhere. He darted his gaze in all sorts of directions, looking for invisible monsters.

She watched him for at least half an hour. He looked similar to his sister, but instead of her blonde hair, his was a sun-streaked auburn. He was tall with broad shoulders, on the grown-up side of eighteen. She had never seen anyone so frustrated and determined. He reminded her of a bug crawling out of a puddle even though she kept pushing it back in.

Too late, she realized
she
was the bug—a moth circling a light, getting closer and closer.

Nathan stooped down slowly and picked up a piece of pointed branch. Emmy didn’t think much of this, until he suddenly jumped up, and ran directly toward where she hid. Emmy tried to scramble away, but her hiding spot was too good—brush surrounded her and she couldn’t move quickly. Twigs snapped conspicuously as she pushed her way through the brush. When she was nearly free, she tripped on a thorny vine, and Nathan found her on the ground clutching her thorn-scraped shin. He yelled out as if he had never seen anything so horrifying.
Rude.

Emmy jumped to her feet and faced him, preparing to defend herself, even though she didn’t know how.

But, his yell stopped abruptly, and he squinted at her as if she was still hard to see. “Wait…you’re…
small
,” he said.

“I’m not that small. I’m average-sized.”

“I mean…you’re not what I expected.”

“What were you expecting? A big scary monster?”

“Yes, actually.”

“What makes you think I’m not a big scary monster?”

“I didn’t say you weren’t.”

Nathan hadn’t dropped the stick, even though they stood at least eight feet apart. Emmy didn’t know how he saw her, but she thought he looked a little big and scary himself. At least, now that she looked at him directly, her head pounded. But the sensation of unbearable brightness did fade, as if her eyes had adjusted to blinding sunlight after leaving a dark theater.

“You’ve been following me for a while, haven’t you?” Nathan asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“It’s complicated.”

He looked confused at this. Perhaps in his life, nothing was ever complicated.

“You’re looking for your sister,” Emmy said.

“How did you know that?”

“She’s all over the news,” Emmy said. “I’ve been watching you. You know she’s here somewhere, but you can’t go into the forest. The forest is too dark, and you’re too light. You can’t see anything very well. And you can’t penetrate the darkness much past these trees.”

He stared at her. He let the stick go slack in his hand.

“I can go if you want,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“I can go inside the forest. The darkness doesn’t bother me.”

He squinted at her again, as if she had gone fuzzy. “No. You can’t go in there. I don’t know who you are or what you want. But it’s not safe. You need to go home.”

“You may not know what I want, but you do know who I am, or at least
what
I am. You know I can go in.”

“Yes, I know what you are. And, I don’t know why you’d want to help me.”

Emmy shrugged. “I know Julie…sort of. We went to volleyball camp at the same time last year. I can help.”

“Maybe you can, but that doesn’t mean you should. You might be dark, and you might be a powerful witch, but you’re also just a girl. There are plenty of horrible things that can happen to a little girl that have nothing to do with magic.”

Emmy shrugged again. “I know.”

Nathan jerked around, startled by something Emmy couldn’t see or hear. He looked so afraid. Emmy understood fear. Ever since Jude—her talisman—had betrayed her and left, she felt afraid all the time. But the only thing that made her feel less afraid was pretending she felt brave. If she pretended hard enough, the courage became real.

“Please go home,” Nathan said. “I’m not going to let you go in there. It’s not safe.”

“I get it. You’re noble. You want to protect me. It’s very boring, you know.”

He stopped looking around for invisible demons and smiled. “Boring?”

“Oh, yes. I mean…do people like you have to act all noble all the time? Or can you ever do anything different? It’s so predictable.”

“Yeah, that’s what they say about fire. It’s so…predictable.”

Emmy gasped. She burned. Her fingers and toes hurt the most, as if she had been frozen and now melted—all her blood rushed in and her nerves flared up. The air in her lungs felt hot, and she coughed, thinking she might breathe fire. She could no longer see Nathan. He’d turned into a bright glowing mass.

The sensation passed and she realized she had fallen. When the brightness passed, she noticed Nathan had gotten much closer.

“Just a warning,” he said, standing over her. His brightness had left a—hopefully temporary—mark on her corneas, and an orange smear in the shape of his silhouette hovered by the real Nathan like a shadow.

He reached out a hand to help her up. Emmy didn’t say anything, but she chuckled to herself. He couldn’t help himself. He was chivalrous even when he threatened her. She hesitated to touch his hand. The burning sensation had passed, but she didn’t want to feel it again. They could hardly stand within eight feet of each other, what would happen when they touched? Out of curiosity, she reached up to let him help her.

His hand did feel too hot, but it didn’t hurt this time. It felt like beach sand that had soaked up sun all day. She assumed she felt frigid to him, and that bothered her.

“Thank you, for helping me up, I guess. You did knock me down, too.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt you, but I’ll do it to protect you if I have to.”

“You know what is different about me and you?” Emmy asked.

“I would assume, almost everything.”

“I don’t have to be good all the time. I can lie. I can tell you I’ll leave now and never come back, but you don’t know if I’m telling the truth. I could come back tonight. Or tomorrow, or a week from now. You can’t know for sure.”

“Please, just tell me one thing. What is your date?”

That took Emmy off guard. “My date?”

“Yes, what day of the year does your magic fall on?”

Mom had told her about this. Every wizard’s magic falls on a day. The summer wizards had rejected Samantha because she was March 3
^rd
. Too cold. But Mom had said only a wizard with special training could determine your date. Emmy had never been “tested.”

“I don’t know.”

“I hope you’re lying, but if you’re not, it’s even more important you stay away.”

Emmy had no idea what he was talking about, and she didn’t like that. She wanted to be back in control of this conversation.

“Why do you want to help me, anyway?” he asked.

“Why not?”

“You’re going to return to a safe place now,” he said.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Yes, I can.”

Apparently he could. She didn’t know how he did it, but she turned and left without a second thought. Before she knew it, she arrived home and gave her parents a sincere, tearful apology for making them worry and begged them to ground her. As the words tumbled out of her mouth, her parents looked as baffled as she felt. When she finally crawled into bed, she called Nathan several curse words into her pillow.

Of all the nasty spells he could have cast, breaking her free will infuriated her more than almost anything else. She vowed never to let him do it again.

mmy held her finger over the call button, feeling nervous. How stupid was that? She used to call Samantha every single day. She had been her best friend. Ever since elementary school, talking to her had felt as natural as breathing. They told each other everything. Well, Emmy told
Samantha
everything. Samantha had kept a big secret from Emmy. The entire time they had been friends, Samantha knew they were both witches, but never mentioned it. When a family decided not to practice, it was uncool to blab to their kids about magic, but still.

When Samantha’s parents died, a Mundane social worker sent Samantha to New Orleans to live with her aunt. Emmy had talked to her a few times in the beginning, but then they stopped calling each other. Emmy didn’t know if she had stopped calling Samantha, or the other way around. Either way, they hadn’t spoken in two months.

Emmy missed her every day, but an image burned into her brain caught fire every time she thought of Samantha—the image of Jude raping her. Emmy knew she shouldn’t avoid Samantha for that reason. But Emmy would do anything to take that image away. That image proved that everything she feared about herself, and everything that people believed about dark witches was true—Emmy was evil. She chose not to act. She chose not to save Samantha, and proved her own wickedness.

Emmy told herself that avoiding Samantha because she felt guilty might be cowardly, but it was for the best. Surely, Samantha had discovered other witches and wizards in New Orleans who she liked better. Spring wizards probably. They had fun all the time and nothing bad ever happened to them. Stupid little pixies frolicking in gardens, away from dangerous dark witches like Emmy.

Samantha picked up on the second ring. “Hey!” she said, and the enthusiasm sounded real, which made Emmy smile on reflex.

“Hey,” she echoed back. “Sorry I haven’t called in a while.”

“It’s okay.”

“How is everything going in NOLA?”

“It’s all right, I guess.”

“Do you like living with your aunt?”

“She’s nice…”

“But?”

“I think she thinks I’m a cat.”

Emmy laughed. “What?”