“Us? Samantha, you’re not a cat.”
She giggled. “I know.”
“Are there lots of wizards in New Orleans?”
“Yes. My aunt says there is a higher wizard per person ratio in New Orleans than almost any other place.”
“So, at least you’re not lonely.”
“Of course I’m lonely.”
“I’m sorry,” Emmy said again.
“It’s not your fault.” A pause passed between them. “So, how is everything with you?”
“It’s fine. Boring. Hot.”
“I can tell when you’re lying you know.”
“You don’t believe it’s boring and hot?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Do you still talk to Patrick?”
Samantha paused again. “No. Not recently.”
“Oh.”
“If you wanted to know, why didn’t you just ask him?”
“I don’t know. I like talking to you better.”
Samantha laughed quietly.
“Well, I wanted to stay with him but it was too weird, you know?”
“Sure…”
“And we’re too far apart, and all.”
“Yeah.”
“How is he doing?” Samantha asked.
“Fine.”
“Are you sure? You don’t sound sure.”
“So, you didn’t talk to him at all last week? No texts, nothing?”
“No…why?”
“No reason.”
“You can’t do that. Now I’m scared,” Samantha said. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s nothing. It’s family business.”
Samantha scoffed. “Then why did you even call me?”
“I’m sorry. I have to go. I really am…sorry.”
David needed to learn more about Leona and Caroline. If the Prescotts had two other missing daughters, but covered it up, then they knew more about Julie’s fate than they let on. Perhaps Julie had been too popular. Even if they knew what happened to her, too many other people would notice her absence for them to sweep it under the rug as they had with their other daughters.
He didn’t have a good plan. He couldn’t walk into their house and look. And he couldn’t pretend to be the cable guy or something, because they would recognize him as a dark wizard before they opened the door. But he had to do something.
All four kids watched television in the living room, and he addressed them as casually as he could.
“Hey guys. I’m going to step out for a minute. I’ll bring home lunch.”
Three of them nodded with expected disinterest, but Emmy stood up. “Where are you going?” she asked.
“The car repair shop. The truck engine is making a funny noise. I want them to look at it again.”
“Can I go with you?”
“Uh…you want to go with me to the repair shop…to look at the truck’s engine?”
“Yes, I do.”
“You’re still grounded for sneaking out.”
“But I can go somewhere with you right?”
“Um, I guess so. But you wouldn’t want to do this. It’s not going to be fun.”
“I want to get out of the house. I’m going stir-crazy. Give me one good reason why I can’t go.”
“I…can’t think of one.” He had tried to think of one, but blanked out.
“Cool. I’ll go get my purse.”
David sat behind the wheel with Emmy in the passenger seat. Now he had no choice but to go to the repair shop.
“Where are we going?” Emmy asked.
“Um…I told you.”
“No, you didn’t. You were lying. We’re going to Sugar Land. I saw you getting some directions from Google Maps.”
“Oh…”
“It looked like a house in a neighborhood. It’s the Prescott’s house, isn’t it?”
“Emmy…”
“Come on, Dad. It’s too late. I found you out. Now, tell me why you’re going there.” She had an Emmy-ish aggressiveness in her voice, but her eyes told a different story. She looked at him earnestly, almost frightened.
“Why do you care so much?” he asked.
“Why do you care so much?” she countered.
“I…” He didn’t want to involve Emmy in any of it. He should have told her to get out of the car. But Emmy never cared this much about anything he did, and it felt good to see her care.
“What?” Emmy asked.
“It’s nothing to be worried about. I thought I could help find her…Julie. Or, maybe I’m supposed to. I think someone cast a spell to get her home, and I’m part of it for some reason. It’s hard to ignore.”
Emmy cocked her head to the side thoughtfully. “Oh,” she said. “That’s it? Really?”
“Yeah, really. What did you think it was?”
“So, if you’re part of bringing her home…then you, or someone you know, must be involved in her kidnapping.”
“Not necessarily. And why’d you say ‘you.’ I hope you don’t think I kidnapped her.”
“Probably not.”
“Definitely not. I can promise you I would never, ever kidnap an innocent girl.”
“Yeah, I know, Dad.”
“Okay.”
“So, why are we going to the Prescotts?”
On the drive, he told her about Leona and Caroline, and everything he had found out from the PI. She listened intently, asking questions, but offering fewer opinions of her own than usual. He knew he shouldn’t bring his daughter to a home invasion. But in this case, it felt right. They talked to each other as two human beings sharing a common interest, which felt miraculous. Partners in crime, maybe—but at least they were partners in something.
With Emmy along, he knew he would be more cautious. No breaking and entering, just a little look.
“When we get there, do you want me to go peek in the windows? Maybe I could find Leona’s bedroom and see if she’s there,” Emmy suggested.
“No. You’re staying in the car.”
“Aw, come on Dad. Think about it. If someone sees you lurking around, they’ll call the cops. No one is going to take any notice of me.”
“Maybe not Mundanes, but a summer wizard would. A dark wizard is a dark wizard.”
“Still. They wouldn’t hurt a little girl.”
“If I were convinced of that, we wouldn’t be doing this in the first place.”
The Prescotts lived in the type of neighborhood you would expect—an attractive neighborhood near Southwest Freeway, with lots of parks and playscapes and sports fields. The houses were mostly spacious two stories, but nothing ostentatious.
He found himself driving slower and slower as he approached the little destination dot on the GPS.
“This is a bad idea,” he said.
“Keep driving,” Emmy said.
They could at least drive by the house. He thought he might feel their presence as they turned on their street, he couldn’t tell. Summer radiated from all angles at one hundred degree strength.
As he got closer to the house, he saw people standing in the front yard and he slammed on his breaks with a loud screech.
“What are you doing?” Emmy asked. “Drive by and act natural.”
“Okay. Get down.” He pushed her head down.
“Why? You think they’re going to shoot at us?”
“Just do it.”
“Fine.”
David tried to do what Emmy suggested and drive past them normally. That had to be possible, right? People drove down neighborhood streets all the time for all sorts of normal reasons. Why did that seem so impossible all of the sudden?
He realized quickly that it wouldn’t matter how normal he acted. A block away, the three people in the front yard froze and turned their heads in his direction. It reminded him of deer freezing when they hear a hunter’s approach. He recognized the three people as John and Thea Prescott, and their oldest so
n, Nathan. Nathan had either recently arrived or was preparing to leave, and the parents spoke to him while he leaned against his truck.
David had no choice now. They had seen him, so he might as well keep driving. Their stares followed him as he passed, and David gave them a nod and a slight wave. They did not wave back. Just stared, frozen, like big glassy-eyed deer.
As soon as he passed, he pressed on the accelerator to get out of there as fast as he could without attracting more attention. He hoped they were too stunned to write down his license plate number.
mmy managed to wait a whole two days before trying to sneak out again. She knew Nathan had hypnotized her or something. He’d made her go straight home and confess what she had done and ask to her parents to ground her. That was low. Although, his ability to bend her will impressed her. In general, no one could ever get her to do anything she didn’t want to do, magically or otherwise.
She needed to go back to that forest. She knew she could go where Nathan couldn’t. She could go where, perhaps, few others could. She could walk right into the darkness without blinking an eye. Maybe that’s why the catalyst spell needed her and Dad. The magic knew only a dark wizard could save Julie from the darkness. That didn’t explain the bracelet, but it did explain why dark wizards had to save her.
Sneaking out of the house wouldn’t be easy this time. Her parents had gotten smarter. Mom had started hiding the keys somewhere in her bedroom at night. But Emmy had an extra key she didn’t know about. Dad had talked Mom out of putting bars on the windows and locking her bedroom door from the outside because, as he said, that was crazy. If they had a bathroom in their bedroom, he might have lost the fight. But Mom couldn’t bring herself to make Emmy and Evangeline pee in a bucket at night in their locked room.
Before she left her room, Emmy sought out the presence of each of her family members, so she could pinpoint their location. She could tell by the nature of the energy whether or not they had fallen asleep yet. She had also mastered the art of quiet. She had honed this skill while she hid from Whitman Colter in the pitch dark desert. She found she could slide through darkness and almost be invisible. Not literally invisible—but if the darkness were water, she could slide through it without a ripple or splash.
When she made it outside, she ran to the truck, her heart racing, cricket song covering the sound of her footsteps. She loved that moment. The moment when she knew she had gotten away with it. She was free. She would probably get caught, and end up more trapped than before. But at least for this moment, she could do anything she wanted. And what she wanted right now was to go lurk through a dark and evil forest.
She enjoyed this time of night. Around 3 a.m., too late for most people to be still up, and too early for most people to start the day. In the Houston Metroplex, people were on the roads all the time, but at this time of night, the roads had more of a hushed quality. And most of the stores were dark inside. Quiet.
Once she made it to the smaller country highway, the darkness became more total. She only passed a few cars. And even then, they were nothing more than anonymous headlights. She was alone. She had her phone off. She was nowhere.
She had to admit, part of her hoped she’d run into Nathan again. She found herself wishing it to the point that she may have cast a spell to make it happen. She didn’t know if she could do that. The concept behind casting spells was simple, but she couldn’t manage to get anything she wanted anytime she wanted it. Half the time, the spells she cast didn’t do anything.
She found the little spot in the trees where Nathan had parked before. She was disappointed to see the spot empty. But as worried as he was about his little sister, she doubted he spent all night, every night looking for her. Last time she had seen him at daybreak. She guessed a summer wizard wouldn’t venture out here until the sun came over the horizon.
She sat parked for a while before getting out. Despite her own darkness, the gloom of the forest intimidated her. It seemed as if forest wasn’t dark because of the night, but the night was dark because of the forest. Shadows oozed from between the trees like tar, extinguishing all the ambient light from the massive metropolis around it. It reminded Emmy of when the family had called upon the darkness on the Winter Solstice. That darkness hadn’t scared her—in fact, she had never been happier. That night they all got to be exactly what they were, but only the best parts of what they were. The twilight on that night had not threatened her, but exhilarated her. Vast and too beautiful for words—a night sky littered with stars, a deep infinity of beauty. Both proof something much greater than her existed in the world, but also proof all the magic and mystery in the world was hers to touch, flowing through her.
Clutching her flashlight, she got out of the car and walked past the tree line. She reminded herself again that darkness wasn’t scary. She thought about how the darkness on the solstice had opened up her lungs so she could breathe more deeply and fully than ever before. The solstice darkness felt clean and pure as untouched spring water in a cave. However, this night felt the opposite. It suffocated her. It felt thick. Dirty. Walking through it felt like wading through mud.
She lost track of her path, and turned on the flashlight. The bulb looked dim and orange, as if the batteries had run low, but Emmy suspected the darkness in the forest was draining the illumination. She turned off the sad little light. Flashlights were tools for Mundanes anyway.
The trees seemed unusually thick, and it took forever to cross a short distance. When she finally got a pace going, she found herself back at the truck. She had walked in a damn circle. She slammed her fist on the hood. She turned around and entered the forest at a run, but within a few bounds, she tripped on a root and careened forward in some thick brush.
“Dammit,” she said.
If she did make it home without getting caught, she’d have to find a way to explain how she got more red scratches on her arms and face while she slept in bed.
She shook a branch off her leg frantically. She had thought she would have no problem entering the forest. She had thought since she was dark, she had a free pass, and could just walk in. Instead, she felt…rejected.
A repulsion or concealment spell existed in this forest. She knew about these. She and her family had cast these spells before. A concealment spell couldn’t actually make you invisible. But it could motivate someone to always look in the other direction. A repulsion would give someone a creepy feeling about a place, like it was haunted. You could also conceal by confusion. Make someone so confused they would forget why they came and left. Wizards had always needed concealment spells, and had gotten good over the centuries.
However, concealment spells, as all spells, worked within the bounds of reality. You couldn’t make something invisible. You couldn’t set up an actual force field around a place. If Emmy really, really wanted to walk through the concealment spell, she could. She might feel crappy doing it, and all instincts might tell her to run the other way, but she could do it. But if this was a concealment spell, why hadn’t Julie’s family gritted their teeth and walked in?
Emmy kept working at it, and found she could walk into the forest for a while, but somehow would change direction without noticing and end up at the road. The purplish light of dawn trickled through the trees, so she walked to the truck to check the time. After 6:30am. Mom would wake up soon, but Emmy had a chance of making it home if traffic wasn’t too bad and she left right now.
Then Nathan’s truck came around the corner, blocking her in. He climbed out of his truck and looked at Emmy. He didn’t look the least bit surprised to see her there.
“What?” he asked.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You called me.”
“I don’t even have your number.”
This started out as one of the weirdest conversations she had ever had, but he squinted at her as if she didn’t make sense.
“You called me with magic,”
he said.
“I did? That is so cool.”
“You didn’t do it on purpose? You don’t have any information or need help or anything?”
“Uh…no. I’m sorry.”
“If you called me on accident… that means, you just wanted me to be here?”
Emmy felt her cheeks burn and she tried to will the blood out of them so she would stay pale and nonchalant. She had no idea what to say. She hated all of it, just as she hated the forest. She had no control.
“I don’t know. I don’t know how I did it, or why. It was an accident. That’s what an accident means,” she said.
“You couldn’t go in either, could you?”
Emmy scrunched her nose. She didn’t want to admit it. “No,” she said.
He nodded solemnly.
“What about the Mundanes? The police officers? They’ve searched every inch of the forest.”
“You know how it is. Magic that’s obvious to us is subtle to them. They think they’ve searched every inch of the forest. I’m sure some of them noticed something off about the place. But they wouldn’t know what it was.”
“That’s not a normal concealment spell, right? I didn’t know they could be that powerful.”
“Do you want to go get breakfast?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Breakfast. It’s a meal people eat in the morning,” he explained. “Pancakes and bacon and stuff like that.”
“I know what breakfast is.”
“I came all the way out here. You could at least buy me a cup of coffee.”
“You want to eat breakfast with a winter witch? Wouldn’t that piss off your parents?”
“Hey, I already wanted to go to breakfast. You don’t have to try and convince me.”
Emmy turned her phone on and texted her parents. Yeah, I know. I’m not there. I wanted you to know I am not dead and don’t plan on becoming dead anytime soon.
Then she turned her phone off again. Emmy followed Nathan to a Waffle House only a few miles away. When she followed him in, a waitress greeted him with this sad smile that showed she knew about Nathan and his troubles. No one paid attention to Emmy, but they were Mundanes. They had no idea winter and summer didn’t belong in the same booth.
Watch Me Burn: The December People, Book Two Page 6