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.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
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