With Lucas, I had been at my weakest. Perhaps the manananggal could sense that—take advantage of it, even. But I still didn’t have any answers as to why this was happening in the first place. If I could transform at any time, it meant that being around others was getting more dangerous. And I felt like I couldn’t do anything to stop it. At the same time, hiding in the house wasn’t an option, especially not when Qian was starting to show an interest in me. I had to keep pretending like everything was normal until we figured out what to do next.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about Lucas. Yesterday had been a mistake on so many levels; I knew that. Still, the ghost of Lucas’s lips remained on mine. His kisses unraveled me and made mequestion everything, and I could hardly think about anything else, even when I got dressed and headed to breakfast. But Clarissa was waiting for me in the hall.
“Your Majesty,” she said, with a curtsy. Then she curtsied at Nix, adding, “Princess.” She turned to me and said, “Your healer has arrived.”
“My healer?” I asked, eyebrows drawn, and then I remembered. “The manghuhula!”
I wasn’t hungry anyway. I told Clarissa to inform everyone at breakfast not to wait for us, and I hurried to meet the manghuhula. Nix was more than eager to join me.
Together, Nix and I rushed toward the sitting room, where Clarissa said the manghuhula would be waiting for us, and Nix could hardly stop talking. She did that when she was nervous or excited, but this time, I think she was more nervous. “I heard manghuhulas dabble in necromancy and talking to spirits. That they were banished from the kingdom because they brought someone back from the dead. Do you think the manghuhula is dangerous?”
“One way to find out,” I said. “And I’m not going to miss an opportunity like this because of some rumors.” I was sick and tired of turning into a monster every night. If the manghuhula was my only hope, I couldn’t be scared.
When we came into the sitting room, a person was waiting for us, but they weren’t the person I was expecting. When I’d heard the manghuhula was similar to the mambabarang, I imagined they would be some kind of witch, a wizened old lady with scraggly white hair and a cackling laugh. Instead, the healer was a heavyset male encanto with shining blond hair and warm, dark brown eyes.He looked like a thirtysomething-year-old human, except for the points of his ears. He was dressed in a white barong, held a small bag at his waist, and smiled when we entered, bowing.
“Your Majesty,” he said. “It’s an honor to meet you.”
“You’re the manghuhula?” I asked.
“Yes, I am Isagani of Mount Hamiguitan, but everyone just calls me Gani.”
Gani came over and shook my hand. Somehow, that comforted me. “Everyone calls me MJ,” I said.
“MJ,” he repeated. When he shook Nix’s hand next, he asked her, “You are a healer, I presume?”
“Yeah, but nothing like what you do. Just in training. I’ll help in any way I can.”
He smiled. “Absolutely. I need to know everything before we properly get started. Shall we move to the infirmary for the examination?” My heart thumped nervously, and he must have sensed that, because he added, “Nothing invasive, I promise.”
The infirmary wasa necessary room in the great house. With royals vacationing here for decades, it was imperative that they could get any medical attention they needed at all times. When I came inside, it reminded me of an apothecary, with dried herbs hanging from the ceiling and even more potted plants growing near the windows. In the middle of the room was an examination table surrounded by wall-to-wall shelves full of glass jars neatly labeled for every ailment.
Gani had me sit down on the examination table, and I waitedwhile he went around the room, gathering supplies from drawers. Nix helped him, serving as a kind of assistant in locating what he needed.
“I’ve been told you’re looking for a spiritual cleansing. Is that correct?” Gani asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“Have you been haunted by anything in particular?”
I glanced at Nix, who looked back at me, wide-eyed. Should I tell him? I wasn’t so sure. I just wanted him to fix whatever was wrong with me. “Got a lot going on right now,” I said.
“Being a queen is no easy task, I’m sure,” he said with a smile.
Gani took the powdered herbs and put them into a glass jar filled with a clear liquid, and the second the herbs touched the liquid, they burst into flames and turned the liquid into ichor. The smoke trailing on the surface smelled impossibly like joy—that was the only way I could describe it.
His eyes were soft, though, when he handed it to me. “Drink this.”
“What is it?”
“Without boring you with healers’ jargon—”
“But I love healers’ jargon!” Nix interrupted him.
He laughed and said, “I’ll let you look at my notes if you so wish, Princess Nix, but for MJ’s sake, it’s a kind of light elixir. It will help us see if there are energy blocks and where they’re located, like holding up a flashlight to your hand and seeing your fingers glow red.”
It kind of made sense, and I made no objections as I drank the elixir. It tasted like candy when it went down.
Gani had me lie back on the examination table, fully clothed, and I got comfortable with a pillow under my head. Then Gani hovered his hands over my body like he was scanning me. My body wasn’t glowing, which I half expected, so I figured it was something only he could see. Nix watched, totally enraptured by his technique.
