The Wicked and the Wondrous Read online

  “What’s even more impressive,” Joley continued, “is that Matt seems to be sporting one of his own.”

  A collective gasp went up. “We want to see, Matt,” Abigail pleaded.

  “Only if I get to make a wish on the snowglobe,” he bargained.

  There was instant silence. Sarah sat up straighter. “Matt,” she paused and glanced at Kate. “Wishing on our snowglobe is not like making a silly, frivolous wish. It’s very serious business. You have to know what you want and really mean it. You have to have weighed your decision very carefully.”

  “I can assure you I have. If you want to see the love bite, you can produce the snowglobe.” Matt folded his arms across his chest.

  “Matt,” Kate cautioned, “if you’re thinking about wishing for anything we already discussed—don’t. It wouldn’t work.”

  Joley lifted her head off the back of the couch and eyed them both. “This sounds very interesting. Does anyone else want Christmas snacks to go with the tea, because I really could go for those little decorated sugar cookies.” She waggled her fingers in the direction of the kitchen. “Tell us more, Matt. The snowglobe is right over there by the fireplace. Please do step on Jonas’s hat. It always livens things up when he does his sheriff he-man routine.” She turned her head to glance at the stairs. “He’s been up there a long time. You don’t suppose he’s taking advantage while Hannah is asleep, do you?”

  Sarah nudged Joley with her foot. “You’re terrible, Joley.”

  Matt skirted around Jonas’s hat and reached for the snowglobe. It felt solid in his hands. He glanced at Kate. She shook her head, looking fearful. The globe warmed in his hands. He stared at the scene, the snowflakes whirling around the house until they all blended together to become fog. The lights on the tree sprang to life.

  “You activated it,” Sarah said. “That’s nearly impossible.”

  “Not unless he’s…”

  “Joley!” Kate interrupted her sister sharply. “Matt, really, it isn’t something to play with.”

  “I’ve never been more serious. Tell me what to do.” He looked at Sarah.

  She glanced at Kate, then shrugged. “It’s relatively easy, Matt, but be sure. You look into the fog and picture what you want most in the world and wish for it. If you meet the criteria, the globe will grant your wish.”

  “And it works?”

  “According to tradition. Family is allowed one wish a year, no more. And you can’t wish for harm to anyone.”

  “That’s why we don’t allow Jonas access to it,” Joley said.

  Matt inhaled the fragrance of the candles and fresh-baked cookies wafting from the kitchen. He didn’t question who made the cookies. He wasn’t even surprised by the fact that there were cookies. He stared into the fog inside the snowglobe and conjured up the exact image of Kate. With everything in him, body, soul, heart, and mind, he made his wish. The fog was still for a moment, then swirled faster, dissipating until the globe was once more clear and the lights on the tree dimmed. He placed the globe back on the shelf carefully and grinned at Kate.

  “Let’s hope you know what you’re doing,” Joley said.

  Suddenly in a much better mood, Matt flashed her a smile. “At the risk of sounding like an adoring fan, I love your collection of blues. You have the perfect voice for blues.” He grinned at her. “Or Christmas music.”

  Joley winced. “I just sent that to my family for fun.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Abbey said. “Are you having fun on your tour?”

  Joley frowned. “Yes, it’s tiring, and there are always the freaks out there, but there’s nothing quite like the energy of forty thousand people at a concert.”

  “What freaks?” Jonas demanded, walking back into the room. “Hannah didn’t even wake up, not even when I called her Barbie doll. Are you certain she’s okay, Sarah?”

  Sarah paused for a moment, seeking inside herself, reaching out to her sister. “She’s exhausted, Jonas, and needs sleep. We’ll have to find a way to get some food into her soon.”

  Jonas rolled his eyes. “We can’t have Miss Anorexic gaining an ounce. She’s probably worried the camera won’t love her, and she won’t be able to parade around half-naked on the cover of a magazine for the entire world to see.”

  Kate tossed her napkin at Jonas. “Go away, you’re annoying me. We have to have clear heads to decide how to handle this, and you just stir everyone up.”

  Jonas shrugged, in no way perturbed. “I have to go back to work anyway. But I want to hear about these freaks of yours, Joley. You haven’t been getting any nutcases stalking you, have you?”

  Joley took a sip of tea and looked up at Jonas. “I don’t know. I hired a couple of bodyguards, bouncers really, just to protect the stage. Each concert hall has a security force, of course, but I thought if these two traveled with us, we’d have a little extra protection. Stalkers come with the territory, you know that. The more famous you get, the more crazies you attract.”

  Matt sat down beside Kate. “Do writers have that kind of problem?”

  Before Kate had a chance to deny it, Jonas answered. “Of course they do. Anyone in the public eye does, Matt. Writers, musicians, politicians, and—” he glanced toward the stairs—“supermodels.”

  Joley laughed. “You worry so much, Jonas, you ought to go into law enforcement. It’s right up your alley.”

  “Ha-ha, very funny. I’ll call you later to see if anything new has happened.” Jonas glanced out the window. “I never thought I’d dread nightfall.”

  Matthew looked out the window to the pounding sea. “Is Elle expected tonight?”

  “She said around midnight. She’s flying into San Francisco and renting a car to drive here. I offered to pick her up,” Abbey said, “but she didn’t want any of us on the road with the fog. She promised she’d check the weather station before she came into Sea Haven.”

  Jonas scooped up his hat. “I’ll keep an eye out for her. You all rest and stay out of trouble.” He left, banging the door behind him.

  At Sarah’s urging, Damon nodded toward the kitchen and Matt obliged.

  Abbey waited until the men were out of the room. “I didn’t mean to challenge Jackson like that.” She pressed her hand to her mouth, her eyes enormous. “That’s twice now. And the house should have protected me. How could that happen in our home?”

  “You were relaxed,” Sarah said. “You let your guard down.”

  Abbey shook her head. “I haven’t let my guard down since I caused such a problem during the committee meeting. Poor Inez called me this afternoon and told me no one realized it was me, but Sylvia knew.”

  “She went to school with us,” Joley pointed out.

  Hannah walked back into the room. Tall and blond and beautiful, she looked so fragile she could have been made of porcelain. “Don’t worry about Sylvia. I’m certain she’s very sorry she hit Abbey.”

  Joley held out her arms. “Come here, baby, sit by me. You look done in. You were very bad teasing poor Jonas that way and making him think you were sleeping.” Joley kissed Hannah. “You really should be in bed.”

  “I couldn’t sleep,” Hannah admitted. “I needed to be with all of you.”

  Joley stroked back her hair. “You didn’t do anything awful to Sylvia, did you?”

  Hannah’s eyes widened in a semblance of innocence. “You all think I’m so bent on revenge all the time.”

  Sarah paused in the doorway to the kitchen. “That’s not an answer, you bloodthirsty little witch. Exactly what did you do to Sylvia?”

  Hannah leaned against Joley. “I’m glad you’re home. You don’t give me that stern face like Sarah does.”

  “Hannah Drake, what did you do to Sylvia?”

  Hannah shrugged. “I heard from a reliable source…”

  “Inez at the grocery store,” Abbey supplied.

  “Well, she’s reliable,” Hannah pointed out. “I heard Sylvia developed a bright red rash on the left side of her face. It appears to b
e in the shape of a hand. I couldn’t help but think it was fitting.”

  Sarah rubbed her hand over her face, trying to stare down her younger sister without smiling. “You know very well you can’t use our gifts for anything other than good, Hannah. You’re risking reprisal.”

  Hannah stretched her legs out in front of her and gave Sarah a sweet smile. “You never know what a humbling experience can do for someone’s character.”

  “I’m getting your tea for you, but I hope this is a big joke, and I won’t hear about it later at the store.” Sarah turned away quickly to keep Hannah from seeing her laughter.

  Abbey squeezed Hannah’s hand. “You didn’t really do anything to Sylvia, did you?” There was a hopeful note in her voice she couldn’t quite hide.

  “Drink your tea,” Sarah said. “And eat some cookies. You’re too pale. Matt and Damon are making us dinner tonight.”

  “Did I miss anything important while I was making Jonas carry my deadweight up those long and winding stairs?”

  “Only Matt wishing on the snowglobe,” Joley said. “And we’re all fairly certain what he wished for.”

  “You’re so brave, Kate,” Hannah said. “I could never be with a man so absolutely frightening. They have those cold eyes and those scary voices, and I just want to curl up and fade away.” For a moment tears shimmered in her eyes. She looked over the rim of her teacup at Kate. “You thought I was so brave to go out into the world and be seen, while you chose to stay out of sight and share your wonderful stories with the world, but you’re willing to try with a man to have a real life with him.”

  “I haven’t made up my mind yet,” Kate admitted. “I’m afraid he’ll wake up one day and realize what a coward I am. You’ll find someone though, Hannah.”

  Hannah shook her head. “No, I won’t. I don’t want some man snarling at me because I forgot to put the dishes in the dishwasher, or angry because I had to fly to Egypt to do a photo shoot. And I could never live with a man who always seemed on the edge of violence, or even capable of violence. I’d be so afraid I’d be paralyzed.”

  Kate laid her hand on Hannah’s knee. “Matt isn’t capable of violence against a woman. He’s protective, there’s a difference.”

  “That’s how everyone describes Jonas, as protective, but he’s really a bully. He’ll order his wife around day and night.”

  “If Jonas ever falls in love with a woman, I think he would move heaven and earth to make her happy,” Kate said. “He looks after all of us, and we’re sometimes very aggravating. He has a job to do, and he works hard at it. We often make his job much more difficult. And it must be very disconcerting to be so connected emotionally to us. He senses when we’re in trouble or hurt, and unfortunately we’re in trouble quite often.”

  Hannah sighed. “I know. He’s just so annoying all the time. I closed the window in the entryway; too much fog was drifting in, and it scared me.” She forced an uneasy laugh. “I never thought I’d be afraid of the fog.”

  Kate stood up and looked around the house. “What do you mean too much fog was drifting in?” She stared out the window toward the sea. “You saw it? You weren’t dreaming? What did it look like?”

  Sarah stood up too and began to move uneasily about the room, checking the windows.

  “It looked like fog,” Hannah said. “I came down the stairs and, to be honest, was a little unsteady, so I sat on the floor in the entryway for a couple of minutes. I could see fog drifting in through the open window. It appeared to be normal fog, a long wisp of it, but the fact that I could see it in the house upset me. So I closed the window.”

  “Nothing can get into the house, Sarah,” Abbey said. “It’s protected. You know that the house has always protected us.”

  Sarah shook her head. “Mom told us we needed to know the ancient language of the Drake sisters, and we all shrugged it off with the exception of Elle. She also told us we needed to renew our safeguards every single time we came home, but did we do that? No, of course not—we’ve become complacent. Mom has precog, we all know it. It was a foreshadowing, but we didn’t take her instructions seriously.”

  Abbey put a hand to her throat. “Do you think the entity was influencing me to use my voice on Jackson as well as at the committee meeting?”

  Sarah nodded. “There’s a good chance of it. We have to be very careful. None of us are handling this very well. We’ve never faced such a thing before.”

  “And I never want to again,” Kate said fervently.

  “Dinner,” Matt called from the kitchen. “Come eat. And bring Hannah with you. Jonas said she had to eat something.”

  Hannah rolled her eyes. “There’s my point exactly, Kate. Men always try bossing women around. It’s their nature, they can’t help themselves. We know the thing in the fog is a male, and I’ll bet he’s seriously upset with a woman.”

  They all started into the kitchen. Sarah and Kate helped steady Hannah. “Actually, I felt guilt and sorrow and rage coming from him,” Kate said. “I could feel the connection, but he tossed it away because he feels he doesn’t deserve forgiveness. Something terrible happened, and he believes he’s to blame for it.”

  “Why is he causing terrible things to happen now?” Hannah asked.

  “I don’t know,” Kate admitted. “But it has something to do with Christmas. Sarah’s right. We have to really pay attention to every detail now. He can’t get any stronger, or we won’t be able to stop him.”

  Matt spent the rest of the day poring over the entries in the diaries and listening to the easy teasing back and forth between the sisters. The women slept on and off throughout the day. Damon and Sarah spent a lot of time kissing every chance they could steal away, and he was a bit jealous that he didn’t have the right to be as openly demonstrative with Kate. As the hours slipped by, all he could think about was Kate and being alone with her.

  He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “It’s late, let’s go back to my house.”

  “Elle’s driving in tonight. I’d like to wait for her. She’s supposed to be here any minute, and we slept most of the day after that horrible encounter this morning,” Kate replied.

  “The fog is coming in,” Matt announced. He opened the door and wandered out to the wide, wraparound veranda to stare out over the ocean.

  “Elle should be here any minute; she told us midnight,” Kate said, studying the wisps of fog as they drifted toward land. “She’ll make it before the fog hits the highway.”

  “Who decorated your Christmas tree?” Matt indicated the huge tree covered in lights and adorned with a variety of ornaments.

  Kate went down the porch stairs to stand in front of the tree. She touched a small wooden elf. “Isn’t it beautiful? Frank, one of the local artists, did this carving. Many of these ornaments have been handed down from generation to generation.”

  “Don’t you worry about them out in the weather?” The tree was inside the yard, and two large dogs protected the area. Sarah’s dogs. No one would sneak in and steal the ornaments, even the more precious ones, but the sea air and the continual rain could ruin the decorations.

  “We never worry about weather,” Kate said simply. “The Drakes have always decorated a tree outside and, hopefully, we always will.”

  The fog burst over them in a rolling swirl, wrapped around the tree, and filled the yard, streaming in from the ocean as if pushed by an unseen hand.

  “I think our old nemesis is attacking another Christmas symbol,” Matt said, pointing to the top of the huge Christmas tree in the front yard. “What does the star stand for? There has to be a meaning.”

  The fog tangled around the branches, amplifying the glow of the lights through the vapor. Kate looked up at the star as it shorted out, sparks raining down through the fog. It brightened momentarily, then faded completely. She was looking up and saw through the wisps of clouds a hot, bright star streaking across the sky, plunging toward Earth. She went still, the color draining from her face. “Elle.” She whispered her
sister’s name. “He’s coming for Elle. That’s what he was doing in the house. He’s after Elle.” The fog was choking the road, making it impossible to see.

  “What the hell do you mean, it was in the house?” Matt raced back inside the house just as her sisters hurried outside to join Kate. He caught up the phone and called Jonas. He had no idea what Jonas could do. No one could see in the fog. They didn’t know exactly where Elle was, only that she was close. She had said she’d arrive sometime around midnight. It was close to that now. She might be on the worst section of narrow, twisting highway leading to Sea Haven.

  Kate whirled around, facing toward the town as a bell began to ring loudly. The sound reverberated through the night. “The bell is the symbol for guidance, for return. She’s here now. She’s coming up the highway now, returning to us. Returning to the fold. Sarah—” she caught her sister by the hand—“she’s nearing the cliffs right now. Even if Hannah had the strength to bring in the wind, it’s too late. He’s warning us, telling us what he’s going to do. Why would he do that?”

  Kate reached for her youngest sister, mind to mind. She wasn’t the most telepathic of her siblings, but Elle was a strong telepathic. Kate heard music, Joley’s voice filling the car with her rich, warm tones. Elle’s voice joining in. Elle drove slowly, crawling through the thick fog, knowing she was only a mile from her home. It was impossible to see in front of the car; she had no choice but to pull off the road and park until the fog lifted.

  Elle peered at the side of the road, trying to see where the shoulder was wide enough to get her car off the highway in case another vehicle came along. She steered slowly over, aware the cliff was high above the pounding sea. Joley’s voice was comforting, a sultry heat that kept the chilling cold from entering the car. Elle turned off the engine and pushed open the door, needing to get her bearings. If she could see the lights from any direction, she would know where she was. She knew she had to be close to her home. The fog surrounded her, a thick, congealed mass that was utterly cold.