Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

said, struggling for control of her emotions. It was unfair to her sisters to be so wild with her feelings. “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what Sarah and Kate are thinking.”
    “Libby’s in the house and I want her to do a psychic healing on you,” Hannah said firmly. “You have to let her. The pain is getting worse, not better.”

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    “You could have stepped off that cliff,” Joley pointed out.
    Hannah and Joley looked at each other. “Prakenskii,” they blurted out simultaneously.
    “What was this about?” Joley inquired.
    Abigail shrugged. “I feel so stupid. I was looking at Aleksandr with Sylvia and I realized he might very well sleep with her, not because he was at all attracted and had the impulse to cheat, but because he can be cold-blooded enough to use whatever tool he deems necessary to further an investigation. I was responsible for a man’s death, or at least played a part in the tragedy of his death, while I was in Russia.
    All this time, I’ve wondered that Aleksandr might have killed someone, maybe more than one man, in order to get me out of Russia. I couldn’t face it. I wanted to pretend he’d never do such a thing. And I didn’t want to feel responsible for any more deaths. But he could have. He could have done such a thing if he thought there was no other way.”
    “Abigail, you don’t know that,” Hannah protested.
    She wiped at the tears on her face. “But he did. I know he did. He can be utterly ruthless. And if that’s what it took to get me out of Russia, he’d do it. The moment I saw the truth and I had to admit what he did for me, I realized I love him just as much or more than I did four years ago. That I’m never going to stop and I can’t live with him.” She covered her face. “I can’t live with him.” She raised her head to look at her sisters with haunted eyes. “And I don’t know if I can live without him.”
    Hannah wrung her hands together. “It has to be Prakenskii. Who else has the power to amplify your emotions to such a state?”
    “Abigail’s always felt things strongly,” Joley said. “Although I’d like to meet Prakenskii one more time without everyone around.”
    They arrived home and parked. In the doorway to the house they found Libby waiting for them, one hand pressed to her stomach. “I think she’s feeling both of their pain,” she told Hannah, “Aleksandr’s as well as her own. I’m wondering if he feels it too.”
    “Their auras mix,” Hannah said.
    “I noticed that.” Joley glanced down the long drive. “I expect that he’ll show up here very soon. He isn’t the type of man to let his woman walk away from him like that.” She narrowed her gaze as she looked in both directions. “I still think Prakenskii has something to do with this.”
    “I think we’d recognize his fingerprints all over the magic.” Hannah was practical. She handed Abigail over to Libby. “Let’s make up the circle and be ready for when the others return home.”
    “I’d like to take a shot at matching magic with that man.” Joley rubbed her palm up and down her trousers, scowling at her sisters. “I swear I still feel him touching me.”
    Hannah glanced at her sharply. “You didn’t tell us that. You should have said so right away, Joley.
    Prakenskii‘s a total unknown. We have to be very careful until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
    Abigail sat on the floor in the middle of the living room while her sisters drew a circle of protection around her using wooden staffs. She rested her cheek on her raised knees, feeling worn out and thin.

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    “Hannah, we weren’t looking for magic at the party. We were looking for evidence of smuggling. Would we have recognized Prakenskii‘s magic? Except for when he turned Joley’s magic back on her last night at the inn, his power has been very subtle. I’m not certain I would know if I were being influenced—would you? Except that my reaction to seeing Sylvia with Aleksandr is so unnatural.“
    “I honestly don’t know,” Hannah admitted. “It’s outside my realm of expertise. Other than the aunts and Mom and Grandma, I’ve never encountered anyone else using magic, and certainly not directed against us.”
    “And if he is directing it against us,” Libby said, “I think the question would be—why? What are we