Page 71 of Lies That Blemish
“She’s a healer,” Virtue said from the doorway.
Anika’s mouth popped open, and she reached up and touched the hair at her temple. “Oh. Well, I’ve been to healers before. What I have I was born with and can’t be healed.”
I’d heard that before.
My hands began to heat up, and then I felt Zara at the window behind me.
‘No, I don’t want to do this right now,’I told her. Golden arcs of light began to shoot off my palms, and Arjun gasped.
“Tej!” He called for his older brother.
‘I don’t think we control this gift,’Zara told me, and that broke my heart. So I couldn’t save Elaine, who was like a mother to me, but my power wanted to save some stranger from Imbria?
It wasn’t fair.
Anika’s brain, her puzzle, her missing piece, the broken noodles, they surged unbidden in my mind.
“She fully healed Tetra’s foot,” my sister said, and the entire energy of the room changed.
The Imbrian girl walked towards me suddenly and then fell to her knees in front of me, eyes filling with tears. “Please,” she whimpered, and my heart shattered.
I might not be able to control the gift, but I wouldn’t deny it to anyone either. That was not within me.
I nodded, placing my glowing hands on her head. The energy that I saw as broken noodles flared to life when I touched her, and a splitting headache overcame me. I hadn’t felt anything before, standing near her like I had with Tetra, but now that I was touching her, it hurt.
I hissed, pulling the broken energy noodles together and mending them with the golden light.
“What the stars?” Tej said, but I ignored him.
The door opened, and I felt Zara at my back. She was like a piece of ember, charging me up when my golden magic ran low. We were both still learning how this worked.
I pieced the energy in Anika’s head together, threading noodles in to fill the black gaps, and my headache eased. When I was all done, the golden energy fell away from me, and I popped my eyes open.
We all just sat there, silent and unsure of what to say. This wasn’t like Tetra’s healing, where we could see the results.
“I felt that,” Anika said dreamily, standing. “Did you… am I healed?”
I looked at her. All the puzzle pieces were in order now. I nodded.
“Thank you.” She pulled me into a hug, and I patted her back awkwardly. I wasn’t used to this.
“I should fly back and see if I can help my sister,” I told everyone.
Zara nudged my leg.‘Stay here. Kohen and Onyx are coming with Elaine.’
My head snapped to her. “What?” I asked my creature aloud.
‘Go outside,’she told me.
I rushed out front of the house and into the street filled with mansions just like it. Peering up, I noticed Onyx, Kohen’s dragon, but she wasn’t alone. There were three people riding her. Kohen was one, the healer he had brought was the other, and?—
“Elaine!” Virtue yelled, running out into the cobblestone street.
Onyx landed, and Elaine, who was pale and weary-looking, slid off of him and pulled out a cane made of a broken tree branch.
Virtue and I both ran to her, embracing her lightly so as not to cause any more wounds.
“I’m sorry,” Elaine told us, her voice rough. “I’m sorry I allowed them to take Victory.”
