“Think something dirty,” Marcus said. “It’s still the only thoughts I can read.”
“Uh…” Charlie hesitated, before his thoughts came through our bond.I fucked Ava to the high heavens last night.
A thrill traveled through my chest as I replayed the memories. I waited for Marcus to say something, but he didn’t catch Charlie’s thoughts.
“I got nothing,” Marcus said.
Kallie sighed in relief. “Thank the gods. Do me next.”
Marcus placed the mind-reading ward on each of us in turn. The magic tingled through my head, before settling. Charlie, Oberi, and I could still communicate through our bond, but Marcus couldn’t read our thoughts anymore, which meant the Warden couldn’t get inside our heads either.
I didn’t want to cut off communication with Marcus, in case we needed to use it, but he could only read our dirty thoughts for now, which wasn’t any use to us. It was better if we cut off everyone to protect ourselves from the Warden.
“That brings us to Ava’s powers,” Takahashi said.
“My demigod power lies in exceptional healing,” I stated.
It is as I said. Your healing ability is not that of other Anichi,for Anichi can only speed up the body’s natural process, and mend what nature already would with time,Oberi stated.Ava, dear, you have the ability to surpass what is possible, and heal what no others on this earth can.
I translated what Oberi said to the rest of the group, and Charlie breathed, “Ava, you healed your dad when he was sick with pneumonia. There was no other way he could survive. The other Anichi healers did all they could, but you were able to regrow his lungs, which is basically impossible.”
“That must be it,” Takahashi said victoriously. “Ava has the ability to cure ailments beyond what’s possible by normal magic. Ava shouldn’t have been able to heal her brother from sepsis last semester, but her healing abilities are such that she is able toreplacewhat’s already been too damaged to repair. That is why her father survived his illness.”
I chewed my lip. “But what were those blue eyes staring at me in my father’s hospital room? I thought they were the ones doing the healing.”
“A teacher, perhaps, from the Ancestral Lands, guiding your magic before you knew you had it,” Takahashi commented. “You should take note to see if this teacher appears to you again.”
“But if I could heal my father and restore his lungs, why can’t I heal my own spine?” I asked.
“Exactly. Ava should be able to heal anything,” Kallie argued. “Ez should’ve been cured of his disease when she healed his sepsis.”
Not without proper training, Oberi objected.And even then, there are conditions, ailments and ways of being, that we agreed to undergo in order to gain knowledge and experience before we came to Earth, as is what’s stated in our soul contract. Ava would not be able to cure such conditions without a revision of such a contract, and a statement of free will.
“I can’t just call up my healing magic on a whim, though,” I argued, after I’d explained what Oberi had said. “I’ve been able to heal beyond what any Anichi should, yes, but I struggle to heal a paper cut when I’m not under pressure. It’s hardly easy for me. I know my demigod power is strong, but I don’t know how to grow it, or how to use it properly.”
Maybe there’s a way to practice your healing powers without so much resistance,Oberi hinted.There has been a time when it was easy.
Something came to me, and I was shocked by the thought. “I… I was singing in music class the other day. When we came in, I was in so much pain, because I didn’t have any medication. But by the end of it, I almost felt nothing at all.”
“Do you think your healing abilities are connected to your music?” Kallie asked.
“Yes! I think that’s the way to access it without having to force myself,” I said in excitement.
“We need to try out this theory,” Charlie said. “Does anybody need healing? Something simple.”
“I hurt myself during football practice earlier,” Kallie said, and she raised her sweater to show a large, mottled bruise running all along her side. “Usually, my shifter blood would’ve healed it by now, but I got tackled by a dragon, and this one really hurt. I had busted ribs by the end of it. It’s still not completely better.”
“It’s a good place to start,” I said. Kallie set Rishi on the table, who immediately took off his bonnet with a grumpy wave of his paw. She walked over to me, and I gently placed a few fingers on the bruise. She hissed at the contact, and I pulled my hand away.
“Do I just start singing, or what?” I looked to Oberi for guidance.
What song comes to mind? There’s always one, Oberi said.Don’t try to force the magic. See what comes up.
I looked at Kallie’s bruise. A couple of notes rose to my thoughts, one of my favorite songs.
As I started humming the opening medley, I watched as the purple welts on Kallie’s side faded away. I sang a couple of the words softly, and the bruise vanished, until all that was left was brand new, pink skin.
I sat back in my chair with a gasp of disbelief. I didn’t feel tired, either. Accessing my healing abilities through song didn’t make me exhausted. It gave meenergy.
