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One hand up, I sent a jolt of power propelling the instruments in the healers’ hands, slowly approaching the creature’s body, to the floor.

“Lucian,” I demanded, my hands sinking into the dark fur.

I was glad I didn’t need to spell out what I wanted from him; he put his hand on the creature’s head and red strands of mist gathered in his palm, offering the dying beast the same thing he gave me on Friday. A little bit of life.

Its pupils widened. My own hands were surrounded in golden strands as I found the torn organs, the broken bones, the gnawed muscles . I screamed as phantom echoes of the pain seemed to tear my own flesh. Most of the time, I could shield myself from the effect of other people’s pain as I healed, but it took effort, and all my attention was focused on mending the damaged body underneath my hands. By the gods, it was a miracle the poor thing had survived this long. I understood why they’d been talking about putting him down.

You will live. You will live. I demand it. I command it.

Runes flew at the edge of my vision, and I chanted them to myself as I worked. “Algiz, Eihwaz, Jera, Uruz.”Protection, strength, peace, courage. It was a risk, given the state of the beast, but I pushed it. “Thurisaz.” The rune of Thor, one of the strongest, and capable of destruction unlike any other. But it also meant power, and the poor thing needed it right now.

To my shock, as I worked, I noticed the very same rune marked on my left arm, close to my elbow, glow a brighter red. I’d always seen them, but the physical representation was certainly new.

“By all the gods. How?” the healer demanded frantically.

I was still chanting to myself, and pushing as much of my power as I could into the fox without risking making the poor thing explode, so I didn’t bother to answer, but I understood her confusion.

Regular healing magic could stop bleeding, and speed up the natural healing process. It could pause the progress of curses, regrow teeth, mend ankles and ribs in a matter of hours rather than weeks.

It couldn’t regrow flesh fast enough for the eyes to see it. There were two other innate healers in Highvale, both powerful in their own rights. Neither could have made the tissues stretch and fill and knit themselves whole as the seconds passed.

The fox was out of danger now, the skin already regrowing, but there was no point stopping halfway, so I kept going until there wasn’t a bit of fur out of place. I liked a job well done.

Once it was over, my fingers were disgusting, soaked by the golden blood, and shaking a little with the echo of all the pain I’d let in. I moved to the sink and scrubbed my hands, feeling way too many eyes on me. It was unsettling.

“I don’t know how,” I told them. “You might as well ask that guy how he can suck the life out of people. It’s just what I do.”

It was hard to accept for a lot of people—that there was no shortcut they could take to do what someone with an innate ability was able to do.

“Also, my healing sessions are a shock to the system. His joints and bones might have reset in a different way than how they used to be before. With humanoids, they stay under observation and need rehab after I help,” I warned the speechless doctor.

Lucian handed me a handkerchief to dry my hands. “Do you need to sit? Drink? Take a moment.”

I shrugged. “I’m fine.”

The woman who brought us here cleared her throat. “We have an owl with a broken wing and a hound who’s not letting us close enough to see what’s wrong, but he walks funny.”

I nodded. “We can have a chat about the reason for our visit while I work. If it’s not an emergency, my attention doesn’t need to stay as focused.”

I paused by the fox on my way out and patted his head. As did Lucian.

The stares were uncomfortable as we left.

""So why aren't you working as a healer?" Lucian asked quietly while we followed the portly lady, now taking her time.

She stopped every member of staff on the way to let them know the fox was safe. It was clear the entire building had been on high alert about the situation. It was refreshing to see people care so much.

"Not every music prodigy wants to dedicate their lives to it. Some just play for fun." It wasn’t the first time I’d answered that question. “Just because I was born with the skill doesn't mean it's what I want to do every day of my life.”

"I'm particularly well placed to understand this. I was also born with an ability I don't make much use of."

Somehow that surprised me. I felt like Lucian was the kind of person who always used a hundred percent of his abilities. "Oh? What's that?"

"Raising the dead. Very messy. A veritable hell on footwear. And it doesn't pay as much as you'd think."

"I'm going to pretend you're joking to avoid all the nightmares."

I knew he could suck the life out of people, but actualnecromancy? I’d heard that the Regis patriarch was capable of it, but I figured it was one of the many scary stories people repeated about Cassius to make him sound more terrifying. As though, “he killed seven hundred people in one night” didn’t do the trick.