My father made a strangled sound behind me. I ignored him.
“Done.” The stranger tapped his bio-watch. My wrist buzzed as his credits cleared and settled in my open account. My father’s wrist did the same.
My father examined his bio-watch. “It’s all there.”
I didn’t look at the nestled watch on my wrist. The whole situation was dirty enough.
“There is one thing first.” My father went to the only table in the room. A blue vial sat on top. He held it up to the lone light in the dark room. “We require all our clients to take this. This is the first time we’ve had a visitor, but you will need to take it too.”
And so, the show begins.
“What is it?” the stranger said nervously.
“Bloodsienthe,” my father replied.
The other man stumbled back. “You want me and my boy to take bloodsienthe? Where did you even get it? It’s illegal. A few drops can turn a man crazy.”
“Not crazy. It may cause some memory loss.” My father shook the vial in front of the stranger’s face. “It is part of our process—for the healing technique to work. We will give the boy and you…just enough.”
“I don’t think so.”
My father drew himself up. “You may step outside and we will just give it to the boy.”
The stranger glowered. “Not without me. It’s dangerous.”
“He’s in a coma. I doubt it could harm further,” I interjected. The more time the man wasted with me, the worse for the boy.
“It’s your only chance,” my father added flatly. He shook the vial again. This time a drop of gold swiveled around in the blue liquid. “This is our own diluted version. It only has one drop of the drug at its core. But we feel as if we should warn you because of the risks. It’s why we charge so much. Bloodsienthe is a rare commodity. We never have enough.”
My gaze flitted to the lone window in the room. We never have enough because you use it.
The stranger backed up a step.
Not willing to lose, my father said slyly, “You came to us because the other healers have no answers. Recall that you said whatever it takes.” My father tilted his head. “Didn’t you mean it?”
It was my cue to close the sale. I asked quietly, “What do you have to lose?”
“Fine,” the stranger bit out. He took the vial and drank it. His body shuddered. The cane fell, smacking onto the floor. With a grunt, he fell onto finely dressed knees. His entire body shuddered.
My father gave a relieved breath. He took out another vial from his pocket and handed it to me.
The bloodsienthe would muddle the stranger. Then all I would convince him I’d done my “work” and he could leave and get the boy real help. I walked past the bearded father to the sleeping boy and set a palm down on the sleeping boy’s forehead. My fingers, rough from years of skyboarding on a cold mountain, pressed against the wealthy boy’s pearly smooth skin. He had gone cold, unlike other clients. Worry made a tense knot in my stomach.
Hurry, Shine. With my other hand, I lifted his chin to part his mouth. I poured in the diluted bloodsienthe.
At first, there was nothing. Then, darkness hit me square in the chest. I struggled to breathe. My body shuddered, just as if I’d taken bloodsienthe too. What is happening? Multiple sensations, shock, intense heat and cold, hit me.
Under my hand, the boy’s face remained still.
Emptiness. Dark. Peace.
My mind filled with jumbled memories of the morning. He rode his skyboard, exhilarated and living in the brief moment of complete freedom. Then, the skyboard cracked. It began zigzagging. Fear hit me.
The memory floated in front of me as if through a dark shroud. I focused on the skyboard and the memory began to clear. Suddenly, I was in the boy’s shoes at the exact moment of the accident.
Fear. Danger. Sleep.
As if actual energy leeched out from me to the boy, tears gathered unshed behind my eyes. I panted. This isn’t supposed to happen. Nothing is supposed to happen.
But below me, the boy still didn’t move.
My shoulders slumped. You are not really a mind-pain healer, remember? Time to end the show, Kira Shine. I took off my headband.
The Third Eye opened. Usually, it did nothing. This time it burned, a searing heat like being stabbed with a hot poker.
To my shock, the boy let out an ear-piercing scream.
The sound hit me like a runaway train. My insides echoed it, overwhelming my ears and penetrating my mind.
What is happening?
I swayed, my bones suddenly losing all density. The room spun. My body gave up on me.
I woke to the moon. It shone through a plain square window with a slight crack in the glass. I lay in bed. A dim lamp on my nightstand lit an otherwise dark room. My room’s open door showed a nearly black hallway. My hand tightened on rough cotton sheets.
The cottage was quiet. Which meant my father was either passed out or he’d gone on another binge to spend all the money we’d earned. At least he’d bothered to put me on my bed and turn on the lamp, or the dark would’ve left a nervous wreck until he came back.
He can’t have gone that far. He can’t break into your credit accounts anymore. Over the years, I’d gotten clever at hiding them, but he had enough credits to keep him out for several nights.
I touched my face. My forehead throbbed. That was new. The useless Eye never bothered me before.
“You were amazing,” a voice said from the shadows.
“What?” I bolted upright into a sitting position, blinked to take in my narrow bed, its frayed sheets, and the nebulous shape in the darkness.
“I have been all over the Five Kingdoms, and all over Rajekstan, down south as far as the Great Desert and north as far as the Shaded Forests. But I have never seen anything like you. Nothing like what you did. Thanks to you my boy is awake.”
A piercing pain stabbed my forehead. But I focused on the chair in the corner of my room that shrouded its occupant darkness. Swallowing down my own panic, I asked, “He’s all right?”
“My boy is conscious. Healers will take care of the rest.” The beside lamp flickered as the stranger moved the lone chair in my room closer. “This wasn’t quite how I expected to meet you.”
I blinked. “What do you mean expected?”
He ignored the question. Tugging at his beard, he studied me. “You and your father have been quite clever. Taking only so many jobs as to keep under the radar of the Raj. I had to follow the most ephemeral of rumors to find this village.” The highborn laughed. “What a brilliant twist…using bloodsienthe to create confusion in those who you help. How could you know I’ve trained myself to have a certain immunity to that vile drug?”
Who is he? My forehead twitched. I reached up to touch it. Instead of my headband, I poked an open third eye. A cold sweat broke out on my back.
He’s seen it. The deep, dark secret. He remembers the ‘healing.’ I expelled a shaky breath. The Eye usually blended into my skin, leaving no one the wiser, but when I got mad or angry or afraid, it would open. Without my headband, I was naked. Think, don’t panic, Shine. I would go on the offensive, pretend nothing was wrong. Everybody had a third eye. Yes, everyone. Except anyone I’d ever met, a little voice piped up in my head. I shut it down. With all the nonchalance I could muster, I demanded, “Why are you still here? The job is done.”