Watch Me Burn: The December People, Book Two (35 page)

“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 also 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.