At that, we both laughed.
The next hour moved at a torturously slow pace. I was beginning to think that Matthias ditched us when the door flew open and Matthias stormed in, his boots wet from the downpour, his chest heaving as he sucked in air and forced it back out.
An older woman trailed behind him. She wore a black coat to protect herself from the rain, the length of it falling almost to her ankles. She stood to about the middle of my chest, and her white, curly hair hinted to her age more than the light wrinkles on her face.
And her eyes damn near glowed in the dim lighting of the inn.
I stood up to greet her, but her eyes were already locked on Rummy. “Move aside,” she said. “I need to see the girl.”
I did as she ordered, scrambling away from the bed. As I stood beside Matthias, the woman took my seat next to Rummy and dropped her bag on the floor. Immediately, she focused her attention on Rummy’s face. She brushed her fingers over her pale skin and inhaled a sharp breath.
“The boy tells me she was attacked?”
It took a second for her question to register. I was too caught up in how terrible Rummy looked. “Yes—yes,” I stuttered. “In the forest. An animal jumped out of the woods, and before we could stop it, she was impaled by one of the horns.”
The woman muttered beneath her breath, her words sounding foreign.
I glanced up, making brief eye contact with Xavier before we both zeroed in on Rummy and the woman again.
She placed a hand on either side of Rummy’s face, humming to herself. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she tilted her head up to the sky. The humming grew louder by the second, and in the silence of the inn, the vibrations overtook the room.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
In my periphery, Matthias shot a daggered look my way. I ignored him.
The woman stopped, frozen. The room went eerily silent, with only our breaths echoing off the thin walls. Finally, she opened her eyes and said, “There is a darkness in the girl. The darkness comes and comes, and she cannot fight it.”
A shiver erupted down my spine. “What does that mean? Can you heal her?”
Her attention moved from Rummy’s face to the wound on her abdomen. She lifted the bloody bandages, then scooped herbag up and rummaged through the contents. “I can heal the wound, yes, but…”
My stomach sank. “But what?”
“But I cannot help the girl beyond that. I am only a healer of the physical world.”
“What are you talking about?” Xavier took a small step forward. “You’re saying she’s sick or something?”
The woman clicked her tongue and shook her head as she applied a salve to Rummy’s wound. “In a way, yes. And it will get worse.”
Was she serious?“Are you going to tell us what that means? How to stop it? Or are you just going to keep speaking in vague terms?”
Ignoring me, she held her hands over Rummy’s torso, keeping them hovering an inch above her. I’d seen Wolf heal using his magic before. It was rare, and he hadn’t perfected his abilities yet, but he had the same gift.
When a white, luminescent light radiated in the small space between Rummy’s torso and the woman’s hands, the three of us froze, watching in awe.
The woman remained focused on her task. If she was a true healer, she likely did tasks like these multiple times a day. This was probably as easy as breathing.
But to us, it was a damn miracle.
Right away, the large, infected wound on Rummy’s torso began to close.
Of their own accord, my feet moved, bringing me closer. The red, irritated skin healed, the wound shrinking until there was nothing left but a red scar.
Only then did the light stop. Only then did the woman move her hands.
“I told you,” she said. “I can heal the physical body, but the magic within her is a disease of its own. You must help her with that.”
Dread washed over me. “Help her how? What kind of magic does she possess? She’s never wielded before.”
