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.Gifts obviously are another symbol of Christmas.” She sighed and rubbed at her temples.“Obviously this thing does not like Christmas at all.Any guesses as to why?”“I have no idea,” Matt said.He used his body to gently shepherd her farther back into the room, wanting to close the doors against the fog.She turned in his arms and pressed her body close to his for strength and comfort.“My sisters are waiting.Even Libby.It isn’t easy to sustain a channeling for any great length of time.”Matt tightened his arms around her, holding her captive, holding her safe.He buried his face against her neck.“I hate this, Kate.You have no idea how much.I want to pack you up and take you far away from this place.I know you’re in danger.”“If I don’t do this, Matthew, one of my sisters will try, and they don’t have my voice.” She hugged him hard and slowly pulled away from him.Matt allowed her to slip from his arms, taut with fear for her when she stepped onto the deck.He stepped beside her.Close.Protective.Daring the thing to come through him to get to her.Jonas took up a position on her other side.Kate closed her eyes and raised her face to the sky.A breeze from the sea fluttered against her face.She felt the cooling touch.She felt the joining of her sisters.All seven, together yet apart.Strength flowed into her, through her.She lifted her arms and knew Hannah stood on the battlement of their ancestral home and simultaneously did the same.Matt heard the moaning of the wind.Out on the ocean, the caps on the waves reached high and foamed white.The fog became frenzied, whirling and spinning madly, winding around Kate so that for a moment it obscured Matt’s vision of her.He reached out blindly, instinctively, and yanked her into the protection of his body.“This is bullshit, Kate.” He pressed her face against his chest and wrapped his arms around her head to keep the fog from getting at her.Kate didn’t struggle.She didn’t act in any way as if she noticed.Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper, yet the wind carried it into the bank of mist, and it vibrated through the vapor, taking on a life of its own.Kate remained against him, her eyes closed but her chanting continuing, a gift of harmony and peace, of contentment and solidarity.She called on the elements of the earth.Matt heard that clearly.Voices rose on the wind.Seawater leaped in response to the chant, waves rising high, bursting through the fogbank and breaking it into tendrils out over the ocean.The wind howled, gathering strength, rushing at them, bringing the taste of salt and droplets of water to brush over their faces.Thunder crashed, shaking the deck.Still the voices continued, and the tempest built.“Hannah.” Jonas said her name softly, slightly awed by the raw power forged and controlled between the sisters.Kate took a deep breath and let go.Let go of her sisters and her body and the physical world she lived in to enter the shadow world.Far off, she heard the echo of Hannah’s frightened cry.The world wasn’t silent as one would expect.She never got used to that.There were noises, moans and cries, not quite human, unidentifiable.Static, the sound of a radio not tuned properly.And the terrible howl of the wind endlessly blowing.It was cold and bleak and barren.A world of darkness and despair.She looked around carefully, trying to find the one she was seeking.She wasn’t alone.She could feel others watching her.Some were merely curious, others hostile.None were friendly.She was a living being, and they were long gone.Something slithered close to her feet.She felt the touch of something slimy against her arm.Kate took another breath and called out softly.At once she saw it.A terrifying sight.Tall, bare white bones, the skull ghastly with a gaping mouth and empty sockets for eyes.It wasn’t fully formed.A great hole was in the chest cavity.The ribs were missing.It came striding toward her, and she noticed that the skeleton wore old-fashioned boots stuck at the end of the sticklike bones of its legs.She might have laughed had it not been so frightening.The bones rattled as it rushed toward her, deadly purpose in every bone.“Kate!” Abigail’s cry echoed Hannah’s and Sarah’s.Kate held up her hand to ward the thing off as it reached her.Matt felt Kate’s energy crackling in the air around them, a fierce force never wavering, yet her slender body shook with the effort, or maybe with fear, crumbling beneath the strain.Without warning he felt every hair on his body stand up.Kate went sickly pale.Afraid for her, he swept her up into his arms and held her tight against his chest, the only thing he could do to shelter her from the onslaught of the wind and the menace of the fog.Kate wrenched herself from the shadow world, opened her eyes, expecting to see Matt.Empty sockets stared back at her.The skull’s mouth gaped wide, the jaw loose, bony fingers wrapping around her throat.She screamed and pulled away, trying to run when there was nowhere to go.The pressure on her throat increased.She choked.The wind rose to a howl.Feminine voices became commanding.The bony fingers slid from Kate’s throat.She fell to the ground and stared in horror as the voices of the Drake women forced the skeleton away from her one dragging step at a time
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