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.
“Are you alright?” Mom asked.
He looked at her as if she spoke German, and she might as well have. She had asked a stupid question. He had lost Evangeline, and now Patrick. Nobody was all right now. Emmy wasn’t. And she knew Mom wasn’t.
“Are you hurt?” Mom asked now, revising her question. Xavier had a bandage on his arm, and an oxygen machine by the bed, but he breathed on his own now. He didn’t reply.
“Your father is fine. He’ll be here soon.”
After an awkward silence, Xavier said, “What about Patrick?”
He said it so quietly this time, Emmy thought Mom didn’t hear him. She looked around, perhaps seeking out someone to discharge him.
“We don’t know,” Emmy said. “What happened?” Her heart thumped erratically. She could never remember being so scared. She looked into the eyes of her only remaining sibling out of four.
Xavier expelled a breath as if he meant to say something, but nothing came out. He shook his head.
“Patrick is smart. He’ll be okay.” Emmy wanted to believe it, but she knew it made no sense. You couldn’t outsmart fire.
atrick could sense his presence before he spoke. When you spent your whole life living one room over from a wizard, even if you didn’t know you were wizards for most of the time, you got a sense of their magic, their energy.
Jude.
Even though he had spent so much time and energy hating him ever since he had raped Samantha, his first reaction to Jude’s presence was relief. His big brother had come to save him. He would protect him. Something about the pain had stripped away a lot of his anger. He wanted to go home. To get far away from Caroline. He wanted his brother to take him home.
“No,” Caroline said. “What are you doing here? I told you to stay home.”
“You know, you can’t expect me to bend to your will like that. If you wanted a man like that, you should have dated a Mundane.”
“I love you, but you don’t have the stomach for this.”
Patrick’s own stomach turned. They were dating. This horrible creature was his brother’s girlfriend. At least he could say these assholes deserved each other. But he had the sick feeling from the way they spoke to each other that they didn’t treat each other as they treated everyone else in the world. They made each other happy. And they really didn’t deserve that. But whenever Caroline lost—he knew she would—perhaps she would die. Or, at least go to prison. And if Jude loved her that would punish him too, making the victory sweeter.
“No, I do,” Jude said. “It’s fine. They gave my mom six months. We can’t waste time. I’ll help anyway I can.”
“Well then, I have good news. We’re closer than ever. Maybe close enough to cast the spell to save her.”
“We are?”
“I have the third.”
Patrick knew it was bad Jude hadn’t sensed him there right away. It meant his magic had already grown weak, what little magic he had in the first place. Patrick could hardly move, due to the lingering effects of the paralyzing spell and the way his whole body still ached with pain. But he hated Jude seeing him lying there in a hopeless heap. With a grunt, he pushed himself up and turned away from the wall.
Jude stared at him when he turned around. Caroline stood behind him, looking scared for the first time since Patrick had seen her. She watched Jude’s reaction with her brow furrowed, lips pursed. She looked afraid he would be angry with her, or disappointed, or leave her maybe. The look made her look human, and Patrick hated it. She didn’t get to be a human and a monster at the same time.
Jude’s face turned pale, but Patrick couldn’t read his expression. He looked better than Patrick would have expected. He looked normal. Clean. Well-dressed.
“Why?” Jude finally said.
“He’s the third,” Caroline said.
Jude didn’t take his eyes off him. Patrick tried to compose his stiff, aching face into a look that showed he simultaneously despised Jude, but al
so barely recognized him, as if he wasn’t important enough to remember.
“I don’t think so,” Jude said.
“I don’t make mistakes like that, and you know it. I know you’re not experienced with wizard datings, but I’m sure if you took the time to really consider his magic, you’d see it too.”
“He’s not powerful,” Jude said. “There is no point to this.”
“Traditional solstice arrogance. You think he’s not powerful because he doesn’t make the biggest bang. All that flash means little.”
Jude scoffed. “That may be true for you. But I know him. He can’t do much.”
“He’s an equinox wizard, Jude. You can argue it all you want. It won’t make it less true.” She squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t know it would be him. But this is why you shouldn’t be here.”
Jude stopped looking at Patrick, and stared at something invisible on the floor. He stayed quiet for long enough Caroline tugged him arm.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes,” Jude said. “It’s fine.”
“You don’t love him,” Caroline said. “You think you should. Because you share DNA. And you’ve been conditioned by society that you’re supposed to love your brother. But that doesn’t mean you do. He certainly doesn’t love you.”
Jude stared at Patrick for a long time, then he turned to Caroline. “My family turned their backs on me,” he said. “But not you. You saved me. I’m on your side, Caroline.”
She smiled and threw herself into his arms, and kissed him.
Disgusted, Patrick turned back toward the wall, and decided if he got the chance, he would kill his brother in a heartbeat.
mmy knew Nathan was at the hospital. When the firemen called Mom, they said Nathan had saved Xavier from the fire. Xavier had passed out from the smoke, and after Nathan brought his brother out to the road, Nathan went back in for Xavier. And the firemen couldn’t stop him. Of course they couldn’t. Nathan probably commanded them to stay.
And she could feel him. His energy. She could feel the energy of other summer wizards too. But she didn’t care.
While Mom filled out paperwork, Emmy followed the energy to the other side of the ER. The Mundane doctors seemed to instinctively know that the summer wizards and winter wizards needed rooms as far apart as possible. Or perhaps they had tried to kill each other on the way over here in the ambulance.
Emmy pushed the curtain away in an over-dramatic fashion. She hadn’t meant it to be, but she was nervous. They both stared at her as if they had expected her arrival, which they probably had.
Luke, Nathan’s brother Emmy had never met, stood by Nathan’s bed. Luke had a hospital bracelet on, but looked okay. Nathan looked less okay. He had his shirt off and a large bandage on his back. If wands existed, he would have his pointed at her. Instead, he had to settle for a deadly glare.
“Go away,” Luke said.
“You go away,” Emmy said.
“I said, get the fuck out,” Luke said.
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
Nathan half groaned, half growled in a way that told Emmy he was in pain. “Stop it,” he said. “Luke, give us a minute.”
“You’ve got to me kidding me,” Luke said. “You’re kicking me out?”
“If you don’t go, you know I can make you. But I’m tired, so I’d prefer it if you did as I asked. Stay close though.”
Luke took a wide berth around Emmy, glaring at her the whole way.
“What happened to you?” Emmy asked. “Are you okay?”
“I got hit with some flaming debris. I’ll be alright.”
With his shirt off, Emmy could see more of his old burn marks. He had them all over. They had too much of a pattern, too much symmetry. It reminded Emmy of Evangeline’s tick marks.
“Is that how you got your scars? Saving people from fires?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“You didn’t have anything to do with the fire at my house, did you?”
“No.”
“I feel bad about what I did to you.”
“I don’t feel great about it either.”
“I’m sorry.”
Nathan nodded. He sat up in bed, but hunched, as if moving hurt.
“Can I get you anything?” The question sounded stupid. What would she get him? Water? A sandwich? How helpful would that be? She hated seeing him in pain. She wanted to do something to take it away.
“No, thank you.”
Emmy put her hand on his. He looked up at her and she leaned into him, resting her forehead on his.
“Patrick,” Emmy said.
“I know.”
“Not Patrick.”
Nathan pulled her closer and she cried into his shoulder.
Patrick looked at the sky. Night had fallen, but the sky stayed orange. It looked as if the entire world were burning. But Caroline’s cloaking spell had managed to protect them. The air continued to have that still, empty, seasonless quality. The fire couldn’t burn them, but it could light up the night. Keep the day burning on forever.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
Patrick flinched at the sound of his brother’s voice. The fire had distracted them, and Patrick had a moment of peace. He sat on the ground, leaning up against the side of the house.
Patrick didn’t respond, so Jude kneeled in front of him.
“That’s because of you, you know,” Jude said, and he gestured toward the sky. “If you hadn’t shown up, we all would have died in the fire. But with your magic, Caroline is even stronger now. The concealment spell was powerful before, but not like this. Right now she’s working on strengthening the perimeter, but it looks like it’s going to hold. It’s fucking incredible. Did you know a large wildfire can cause hurricane force winds?”
“That’s fascinating. Did your girlfriend tell you that?”
“She did, actually.”
Patrick’s mouth felt dry and it tasted of dirt. He needed water, but he refused to ask his brother for it.
“She’s amazing,” Jude said. “If she can stop a wildfire, with three out of four of the events. With spring, she’ll be able to do anything. Absolutely anything.”
Jude smiled at him with perfect white teeth. He hardly looked familiar. Something about him had shifted. He’d always been evil. He’d always been crazy. But now he seemed happy, which made him seem more evil and crazy than ever.
“Oh, yeah. She’s amazing. I really like her. Can I please be best man at your wedding?”
“I know you’re being sarcastic. But I would love it if you would be best man at my wedding.”
“Do you not understand what’s happening here? You and your girlfriend have kidnapped and tortured three people. You are not going to live happily ever after, you are going to go to jail. And that’s if you’re lucky. I’d like to see you both avoid getting murdered. Because you’ve pissed off a lot of powerful wizards.”
“Well, we’ve managed to avoid getting murdered so far. These so-called powerful wizards are doing a terrible, terrible job at taking down one witch.”
“You gave Mom cancer. Or, was it Caroline’s spell? A distraction so she could take Evangeline.”
Jude’s face darkened, or maybe his eyes sparkled less. He stood back.
“That was an accident. It’s wasn’t Caroline. She wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh, sure. What was I thinking? Caroline wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Caroline is going to save Mom’s life. That’s better than anything you can do for her.”
“What?”
“With the power of all the seasons, she can do anything. Anything. And saving Mom is the first thing she’s going to do.”
“Is that how she explained all this to you? I mean, I know you’re a horrible person, but some part of you had to be at least a little annoyed when you found out your girlfriend had taken your sister and brother as her personal playthings and didn’t even tell you about it. So, that’s what she said right? Oh, no,
Jude, it’s okay. I’m only doing it to save your Mommy.”
Jude kicked him in the chest. After going through the worst pain of his life, Patrick could handle the pain of the kick. But he hated the way it took his breath and rattled his heart in his ribs. He coughed until his coughing turned into a strange wheezy laughter that didn’t sound like him.
“That is what she said, isn’t it?” Patrick asked with a hoarse voice. “That’s exactly what happened. She is so good at playing you, isn’t she?”
“I don’t have to defend my relationship to you.”
Patrick laughed again. He didn’t know why he laughed, and he knew he sounded crazy. He probably had gone crazy.
“That’s fine,” Jude said. “Enjoy yourself now, because Caroline will be back soon.”
vangeline kicked at the wooden panels along the side of the foundation. She had tried magic too, and it would have worked if Caroline had been a Mundane, or even a lesser witch, but she must have cast a spell to keep them here. She needed to get closer to try a killing spell. Since she’d never done it before, she needed proximity, concentration, and minimal distractions—and she didn’t know how she would manage that. But now she had a new reason to fight.
Evangeline gave up on the trap door and crawled over to Julie. She just lay there. Evangeline touched her arm and she shuddered. Like Evangeline, Julie had old scars. She knew nothing other than a life of being tortured by her sister. And Evangeline knew how that felt. The person seemed so big. They were the whole world, and there was nothing before or after them. Just them. And just pain.
“It’s just me,” Evangeline said. “I need you to help me. Did you hear that?”
Julie didn’t respond. It was too dark to see much of her face. But she glowed less, which meant Caroline glowed more.
“Did you hear it?” Evangeline asked again. “I can’t tell if it’s in my mind, or if it’s real.”
“What?”
“Screaming. Someone screaming.”
“Yes. I think it’s me.” She had really lost it.
“No, no, it’s not you,” she said patiently. “It’s a guy.” Evangeline had the sick feeling she knew him, she recognized his energy, but she couldn’t tell for sure. She was too far away.
Watch Me Burn: The December People, Book Two Page 21