Drake Sisters 02 - The Twilight Before Christmas

welcome loved ones. As she could draw truth, so did she speak truth. She added her voice to the tapestry, promising peace and rest and final sleep in the arms with those he loved most.
    “He’s coming. He’s beginning to believe, to want to take the chance,” El e said. “He’s hesitant, but he’s so utterly weary, and the idea of seeing his wife and child and resting in their arms is irresistible.”
    Libby raised her arms with Hannah, sending the promise of healing, not the body, but mind and soul. She added her power to the force of the wind, added her healing energy to Kate’s soothing peace.
    The wind increased in strength, blowing with the force of a smal gale, tearing through Sea Haven, herding the fog, guiding it toward the sea.
    Toward the house on the cliff and the seven women who stood on the battlement, hand in hand. The feminine voices carried unbelievable power throughout the air, land, and sea. Rising on the wind. Cal ing. Promising. Leading.
    And the fog answered. The thick gray vapor turned toward the sea, drifting reluctantly at first, tendrils feeling the way, hesitant and fearful. The voices swel ed in strength. The wind blew through the fog.
    El e reached for Kate. “Now, Kate. Go to him now.”
    Kate never stopped talking in her beguiling voice, but she closed her eyes and deliberately entered the world of shadows. He was there. A tal , gaunt man with sorrow weighing him down. He looked at her and shook his head sadly. She held out her hand to him. Beside her, El e stiffened as a beastly creature with glowing eyes and fur stared down at Kate with hate. As the snakelike vines slithered and coiled and hissed as if alive, wanting to get to her sister. El e moved them, holding them back with the sheer force of her power, giving Kate the necessary time to lure the spirit of Abram to her.
    Kate told a story of the love of a man for his wife and children. A man who made a courageous decision to go against what others said was right and al owed his family to participate in a production designed to bring people together. She spoke of laughter and fun and his pride in his family as he watched them. And the horror of a terrible accident. The candles and dry straw, the heavy planks coming down on so many. The man watching his loved ones die. The guilt and horror. The need to blame someone…to blame himself.
    Joley and Abbey sang softly, the voice of a woman and child cal ing for the one they loved to join them. Kate used the purity of her voice, silver tones to draw him closer. The woman and child waited. Loved. Longed for him. His only job was to go to them, to forgive himself. There was no one to save but himself.
    Kate kept her hand extended and pointed behind him. Clouds of dark gray fog drifted aside. He turned to see the shadows there. A woman. A child. Far off in the distance waiting.
    There was a sharp cry like that of a seagul . The waves crashed against the cliff, rose high and frothed white. Lightning veined the clouds, forked into the very center of the fog. The flash lit up the shadows, throwing Kate out of that world and back into the reality of her own. She landed heavily on the wet surface of the captain’s walk, in the middle of her sisters. Libby held her close.
    “You’re al right. It’s al right now. You did it, Kate. You gave him peace,” Sarah said.
    “We did it,” Kate corrected with a wan smile.
    They sat together, too weary to move, the rain lashing down at them. Sarah turned her head to calculate the distance to the door. “Damon wil be here with tea, but I don’t think he can carry us back inside.”
    El e draped herself over Abbey. “Who cares about going inside? I want to just lie here and look up at the sky.”
    “I want to know Matt’s safe and that he was able to get to Danny,” Kate said. “When Damon comes up, please have him cal Jonas.”

    Matt scooted careful y down the steep bank, skirting rocks until it became impossible to go farther. He had no choice but to go over them.
    “I’m Tommy, not Kate,” a voice cal ed weakly from his right side.
    Matt didn’t realize until that moment that he was whispering her name over and over like a prayer. He glanced up at the sky, felt the wind in his face, the first few drops of real rain. He felt power and energy crackling in the air around him. “Thank you, Katie, you are unbelievable.” He said it fervently, meaning it. Already the fog was beginning to thin so that he could make out the boy lying a