The Wicked and the Wondrous Read Online Free PDF

and someone asked if they really liked the old script and should we keep it as a tradition or should we modernize it. I think I said, now would be a good time to tell the truth if you want to make any major changes. I meant with the script, not in people’s lives.” She rubbed her temples. “I haven’t made a mistake like that since I was a teenager. I’m so careful to avoid the word truth.” She scrubbed her hand over her face a second time, trying to erase the sting of Sylvia’s hand. “You know if I use that word everyone in the immediate vicinity tells the truth about everything.”
    “It worries me that we all felt the same disturbance,” Kate said. “Hannah saw a dark shadow in the mosaic. You said something you would never have normally said, and a crack opened up nearly at my feet and ran all the way up the embankment.”
    Hannah gasped. “You didn’t tell me that. Kate, it could have been an attack on you. You’re the most…” She broke off, looking at Abbey.
    Kate lifted her chin. “I’m the most what?”
    Hannah shrugged. “You’re the best of us. You don’t have a mean bone in your body. You just don’t, Katie. I’m sorry, I know you hate our saying that, but you don’t even know how to dislike someone. You’re just so…”
    “Don’t say perfect,” Kate warned. “I’m not perfect. And I think that’s why Matthew’s brothers always laugh at me. They think I want to be perfect and fall short.”
    Hannah and Abbey exchanged a long, worried look. “I think we should call the others,” Hannah said. “Sarah will want to know about this. She must have felt the earthquake too. We can ask her if anything strange happened to her. And we should call Joley, Libby, and Elle. Something’s wrong, Kate, I just feel it. It’s as if the earthquake unleashed a malicious force. I’m afraid it could be directed at you.”
    Kate took a long sip of tea. The taste was as soothing as the aroma. “Go ahead, it can’t hurt to see what the others have to say. I’m not going to worry about it. I didn’t feel a direct threat. I’m not calling Sarah though. She and Damon are probably twined around one another. You can feel the heat right through the telephone line.”
    “I can go to the captain’s walk and signal her,” Hannah said wickedly. “Their bedroom window faces us, and for some utterly mysterious reason the curtain keeps opening in that particular room.”
    “Hannah!” Kate tried not to laugh. “You’re impossible.”
    Hannah did laugh. “And you are perfect whether you want to acknowledge it or not. At least to me.”
    “And me,” Abigail said.
    Kate smiled at them. “I’m not all that perfect. I’d like to give Sylvia Fredrickson a piece of mind. She had no right hitting you, Abbey. Even in high school she was nasty.”
    “I’ll take care of Sylvia,” Hannah said. “Don’t worry, Abbey. She’ll spend a long time thinking about how stupid it was to hit you.”
    “Hannah!” Kate and Abbey chorused her name in protest.
    Hannah burst out laughing. “I get the message, Kate. You’ll talk to Sylvia, but you don’t want me casting in her direction.”
    Kate grinned. “I should have known you were baiting me.”
    “Who said I didn’t mean it? Sylvia gives women a bad name.”
    Kate shook her head. “Hannah Drake, you’re becoming a bloodthirsty little witch. I think Jonas is having a bad influence on you.” She touched Abbey’s cheek gently. “Even for this we can’t use our gifts for anything other than good.”
    Hannah made a face. “It’s good for Jonas to have to chase his hat. It keeps him from becoming too arrogant and bossy. And who knows what great lesson Sylvia Fredrickson would learn if I tweaked her just a little bit.” Before either sister could say anything, she laughed softly. “I’m not going to do anything horrible to her, I just love to see you both get that ‘there-goes-Hannah-look’ on your faces.”
    Kate nudged Abbey, ignoring Hannah’s