The Wicked and the Wondrous by Christine Feehan

connected in some way. You can’t be in such close proximity to us and carry on like that. We’re all in overdrive, thank you very much.”
    Unrepentant, Matt grinned at them as he pulled Kate tight against him. “Sorry about that. We’re off to see some preschoolers.” Kate hid her face in his shoulder, trying not to laugh. He did the gentlemanly thing and got her out of there quickly, waving at Damon, Sarah’s fiancé, as they hurried past him.
    “The man should thank us,” he whispered, and pretended to wince when Kate smacked his arm.
    Kate stared out the window of the Mustang at the white-capped ocean as they drove along the highway toward the exit to the street where the preschool was located. “The fogbank is very thick out over the ocean,” she said, a note of apprehension in her voice. “See how dark it is, more gray than white, and it seems to be churning.” She turned her gaze on Matt. “I should have been more careful. Somewhere in the diaries there has to be something about this strange phenomenon.”
    “What diaries? You’ve mentioned the diaries before. How can they help?”
    “My family keeps a history, books handed down generation to generation. Somewhere this event had to be recorded. The problem is, all of us were supposed to learn the earlier languages used, but we gave it a half-hearted attempt. All of us know a little, but Elle really can read it. We have to decipher the books.”
    Matt turned the car onto the exit. “You think this thing is coming back.”
    “I know it is. Can’t you feel it on the wind?”
    He could only feel how close he was to her. How just out of his reach she always seemed to be. Matt parked the car in the lot at the preschool, and they sat for a moment, absorbing the unnatural silence. There were no children playing in the small yard.
    Kate squared her shoulders. “Do you want to wait out here?”
    For an answer, he got out of the car and went around to open her door. He wasn’t about to miss his opportunity to see more clearly what Kate’s life was all about.
    Gina Farley greeted them with obvious relief as they entered. Many of the children were sobbing and sniffling as if they’d been crying a long time. Some of the children stared silently at Kate and Matt with large, frightened eyes. Others hid their faces. In the room were several adults, many of whom Matt recognized and nodded to.
    There was tension and fear in the room, but Kate smiled at everyone and went directly to the children. “Hello, everyone. I’m Kate Drake.” She sat down in the circle and looked at the little ones in invitation.
    Matt stood back and watched her. She looked utterly serene, a center of calm in the midst of a violent storm. Immediately the children were drawn to her, pushing and shoving to sit as close to her as they could get. She began talking to them, and a hush fell over the room so that only Kate’s magical voice could be heard, bringing a sense of peace and contentment.
    “So most of you had a bad dream last night?” Kate’s smile was a starburst, radiating light and warmth. “Dreams can be very frightening. All of us have had them. Haley, would you tell us about your dream?” She asked the little girl who had been sobbing the hardest. “Dreams are like stories we make up in our imaginations. I make up stories and write them down for people to read. My stories can be very frightening sometimes. Was your dream scary, Haley?”
    It wasn’t so much her actual words that were magic as it was her voice. It became apparent to Matt that somehow Kate drew the intensity of the children’s emotions out of them. As the room grew calm, and the children quieter, the tension dropped dramatically. It was only Matt who could see the effect on Kate. How draining it was to accept the backlash of emotion not only from the children but their parents as well.
    Haley revealed her dream in halting sentences. A skeleton-like man in a long coat and old hat with glowing eyes and bony