Read Watch Me Burn: The December People, Book Two for Free Online

David’s headache had passed. He still felt confused, but had gained enough coherence to hang on to the fact that someone had cursed him. And he suspected his wife.
    In that tiny house, he had nowhere to yell at her without being on display in front of all his kids. He settled for sitting on a kitchen stool and arranging his menacing eyebrows into a glare that would say it all.
I know what you did to me. How dare you?
And several other choice words he would never say aloud, but felt comfortable communicating with his eyebrows.
    Amanda put her purse on the counter in front of him and sighed. Maybe winter witches didn’t do well in the oppressive heat, but she didn’t look well. Her skin seemed too pale and gray, especially for the summer. She put her head on the counter.
    His concern distracted him again. He put his hand on her head, smoothing her pale blonde hair.
    “Are you okay?” he asked.
    She picked her head up, and smiled at him—the transformation too quick. Forced.
    “Just tired,” she said. “You know, the usual.”
    “The usual,” he repeated.
    “How…are you?” she asked.
    Something in the tone of her voice and the way she examined him brought David back to his coherent thought.
    “What did you make me forget?” He punched each word, so he could give the emphasis of yelling while still keeping his voice down.
    “What do you mean?” she asked innocently.
Liar. Liar. Liar.
He had no doubt now. Maybe she could get away with this stuff before he knew he was a wizard. But now, he could see right through her.
    His narrowing eyebrows must have said as much, because she sighed. “Calm down. It was a silly little spell. You’ll be fine.”
    She turned away from him and went into the bedroom. David wanted to shoot death rays out of his eyes, and as a dark wizard, he couldn’t shoot death rays but he could cause some damage with a look.
    She could ignore him if she wanted. He might have forgotten something, but he wouldn’t forget she had been the one to take it. Just in case, he had written it down in several places.
Amanda made you forget something.
    “Where’s Emmy?” Amanda asked, continuing to ignore his rage. She came back out of the bedroom and had already pulled her hair back and changed into yoga pants.
    “What?” David asked.
    “Emmy…you know, your daughter. Where is she?”
    “She’s not here?”
    Amanda’s pleasantness melted away and she gave him a few curses with her own eyebrows.
    “You have got to be kidding me. Your only job is to sit on your ass and watch the kids. And you can’t even do that.”
    “Are you fucking kidding me?” Okay, he gave up. He didn’t stop himself from yelling now. “This is
your
fault, Amanda. You did this to me. And then you left the kids with a man who could barely figure out how to feed himself today. You did this.
You!
”
    “She’s fine,” Patrick said, turning around from where he sat on the couch. “She went out with friends.”
    “What friends? Where did they go?” Amanda demanded, while she dialed Emmy’s number. Emmy’s phone trilled in her bedroom.
    “She leaves her phone at home so you can’t track her GPS. We know you do that, you know,” Patrick said.
    “Dammit, that little…” Amanda trailed off into incoherent hissing. “Who picked her up?”
    “Some creepy guy in a van,” Patrick said.
    “What?”
    “Are you guys ever going to get jokes?”
    “That’s not funny,” David said. Adding the only coherent thought he could manage.
    “It was a couple girls. In my grade. A Cassie, or Chrissie, or something. Or maybe it’s Erica.”



mmy dragged the vacuum cleaner out of the garage as noisily as possible. For leaving the house without permission, she had been sentenced to vacuuming and shampooing the inside of the truck. Her mom was such a bitch. She had gotten home at 8pm.
8pm
—when nuns and babies came home. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Mom claimed she smelled cigarettes and alcohol on her, but she had no