Free Watch Me Burn: The December People, Book Two by Sharon Bayliss Page B

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.
    When he asked her to breakfast, she didn’t consider saying no, but as she slid into the booth across from him, her stomach did flips and she didn’t know if she could keep food down. He wasn’t as noxious as Julie, but facing him head on from only feet away, for the time it would take to eat breakfast, horrified her. She couldn’t figure out what part of his face to look at, so she scanned the menu for much longer than necessary.
    When the waitress took the menus, Emmy had no choice but to look at him. She decided to look at his nose.
    “I’m sorry about your sister,” she said.
    Nathan nodded. She knew it had been a useless thing to say.
    “I don’t understand why you’re here,” he said.
    “You asked me to breakfast.”
    “No. The forest. Why are you really here?”
    Emmy dropped her spoon. His question had a special quality about it—a command. And the intensity of it startled her. An image of the bracelet popped into her head and she stared at her coffee, trying hard to empty her mind. She didn’t know if he could read her mind or not, but it was possible.
    She waited a long time before answering. Planning out every single syllable of the words she wanted to say. He squinted at her as she stared at him in silence.
    “I don’t know,” she said finally. She didn’t tell the whole story, but didn’t flat out lie. She didn’t know what spell he tried to cast, but she must have cracked it.
    Nathan leaned forward in his booth, as if he expected her to say more. When she didn’t he leaned back again.
    “I guess you really don’t know,” he said. “I don’t like that.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Unless you have a habit of driving places in the middle of the night for no reason, it means you’re here because of magic. As part of a spell.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Are you a
Vandergraff
?” He said “Vandergraff” as if he described a type of mystical beast, not her last name.
    “Yes. Emmy Vandergraff.”
    “I’m sorry, I should have asked you your name. That was rude.”
    “You’re Nathan, right?”
    He nodded.
    “Or, should I say ‘Are you a
Prescott
’?”
    He smiled.
    “I know your name because your family is in the news,” Emmy said. “How do you know mine?”
    “I didn’t. Not your first name. But we know about the Vandergraffs.”
    “Oh, do you? What do you think you know about us?”
    “Not much.”
    “That we’re winter wizards and there is nothing else you need to know, right?”
    “We’ve left you be,” he said, as if ignoring them was a great kindness. “Do you know why your father drove by our house the other day?”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “Okay…why?”
    “Oh, basic dark wizard stuff. Stalking the good guys. Being evil for no reason.”
    He smiled bigger this time. His face had this wilted, tired look, but smiling came naturally to him, he couldn’t help himself.
    “Is that right?” he asked. His eyes twinkled. Like, for real. As if invisible fireworks reflected in the greens of his eyes.
    “Can I ask you something?” she said.
    “Sure.”
    “Have you met a winter wizard before? You know, before me?”
    “No. I've seen them. I haven't talked to one.”
    Emmy sipped her coffee and tried to pretend she didn’t hate it. She never drank regular coffee, just sometimes the sugary versions at Starbucks. But she wanted to seem grown-up. Since she’d been