Drake Sisters 05 - Safe Harbor

candles. The scent of cinnamon and apple potpourri filled the air. The flickering light threw dancing shadows on the walls. She hoped that the candlelight also softened the effect of the wounds on her face.
    Already, her body was healing. Her sisters gathered twice a day, pushing themselves in order to boost her body's ability to recover. The wounds had closed and this afternoon she'd noticed the raw redness was already fading. Unfortunately, the healing sessions had little effect on the trauma. With Jonas next to her, she could sleep a little, but alone, she was terrified to close her eyes.
    Sometimes she tried to recapture the moment of the attack in an effort to give Jonas more details, but her mind didn't cope well with the trauma and steadfastly refused to provide anything else that might help him. The only thing she remembered with any certainty was the shocking slash of the knife. Although it made no sense, she could have sworn she remembered her attacker whispering an apology as he drove the knife into her again and again.
    Her sisters were gathered in the large living room, where they usually met in the evenings when they all came home. Most no longer resided full time in the family home. Sarah lived next door with Damon, and Kate and Matt had a house on the bluff by the old mill. Abbey and Aleksandr were purchasing a large two-story home overlooking the sea a mile down from the Drake house, and Tyson and Libby had an extraordinary home he had found for her up on a bluff surrounded by acres of private land. Only Hannah, Joley and Elle still used the family home as a permanent base when they weren't traveling.
    Hannah waved her hand at the fireplace and flames leapt to life. "I should have baked cookies earlier, but I didn't think about it," she greeted her sisters, forcing a cheerful smile.
    "That's okay," Kate said. "I made some myself." She arched a look over her shoulder at Joley. " All by myself."
    "Hey!" Joley objected. "I started the first batch and you kicked me out of the kitchen."
    "She set the oven on fire," Sarah explained.
    "It wasn't my fault," Joley said. "I put the cookies in the oven and just forgot I was baking. Did you know that cookies can turn to charcoal if they're in the oven long enough? And then they can actually catch on fire."

    "You caught the cookies on fire, Joley?" Hannah covered her mouth to smother a laugh, and looked away from her younger sister. For the first time since the accident, she felt more comfortable with her sisters, and she realized she couldn't feel overwhelming pity from them. If they felt it, they were careful to shield her from their emotions. They were acting much more normally, and teasing Joley was habitual. She just gave them so many opportunities.
    "Yes, actually I did, and they were surprisingly resistant to being fixed."
    Alarm spread. "You used magic to fix them?" Hannah cast a mock-terrified look around. "No one has eaten them, have they?"
    Her sisters shook their heads. Joley put her hands on her hips. "I'm not feeling the love here. I went to a great deal of trouble to try to fix those cookies; the least you could do is try one. What a bunch of chickens."
    "Joley, you can't fix burnt cookies with magic," Hannah said. "What spell did you use?"
    "I countered it," Elle said. "Sorry, Joley, but it was the only safe thing to do.
    Considering the mood you were in and the way you were muttering about Prakenskii, I was afraid your spell might take a wrong twist and turn the things into bombs or something."
    "It's okay, sweetie," Libby said, wrapping her arm around Joley. "At least your heart was in the right place."
    The girls tossed pillows on the floor and sank down in their familiar circle.
    "Speaking of Prakenskii, what's going on with you and him?" Hannah asked. "He asked me if you were a spell-singer. I didn't like that he might even know what that meant."
    There was a small silence while they all exchanged anxious looks.
    "He was almost possessive with you," Sarah added. "And to use up a personal favor just to get the name of the man you supposedly were photographed in a compromising position with in a tabloid, that's just plain crazy."
    Joley swept her hand through her hair. It was a bit shorter and a new color, not dark like Libby's anymore, but rich bands of red and dark brown with streaks of gold.
    Hannah touched her own hair, so difficult to work with, heavy enough to give her headaches, and wished she had the courage to do whatever she wanted