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“It’s okay, dear. Calm yourself down. Take deep breaths and let me check you out.”
“Who are you?” I manage, though my words are slurred.
“I’m Maura. I work on the catering staff. I was outside having a cigarette and I saw you climb in through your window. Heard a crash and decided to check it out. The men who live here went out on business, so I didn’t want to risk waiting for them to come back.” She prods the wound on my temple and I cry out in pain. “I’m going to call an ambulance.”
“No.” I’m so alarmed by the possibility, I start to jackknife and a wave of hurt is my punishment. “Don’t call an ambulance. The police will come and Karson…we just can’t have the police. He wouldn’t want them here.”
Maura clucks her tongue. “You lost a lot of blood, dear. I don’t know what will happen if we don’t get you some medical attention.”
Fear grips me and I start to breathe fast, my ribcage heaving in and out.
Instinctively, I start to tell her to call Mateo. Go get Mateo in the forest.
He won’t let me die.
But the most alarming thing begins to happen. My vision begins to fade. My weakness triples and I can feel the life draining out of my body. I open my mouth to speak and no words will come out. I’m dying. I honestly think I might be dying.
“Oh God.” Maura wrings her hands. “It’s worse than I thought.”
I stare up at her. My only hope.
But I can’t speak and darkness is draping over me like a shroud.
“There is one option, but it’s…” She glances back over her shoulder. “I was raised by a woman known as a witch by the locals, but some called her a healer. That’s what I believed her to be, even if she did call on higher powers. Once, when I was young, a child was brought to our home on the verge of death and she healed them, right before my very eyes. Breathed life back into his bones. I can remember the spell word for word. I can…I can try…but it will cost you. The goddess decides the price, not me. I just relay the message.”
I don’t care about the cost.
I will spend my life paying her back if she saves me.
I don’t want to die at nineteen. I’m so scared that tears are rushing down my cheeks and thankfully, Maura interprets that to mean that yes, I want her to save me, no matter the price.
As the last vestige of light is fading from my surroundings, Maura hovers her hands over my head, humming deep in her throat. When she speaks, her tone is nervous, but I can tell she is trying her best to sound brave and confident.
Heal the girl now
Dear goddess, be swayed
I ask her life back for a lesson…
A healer’s even trade
A purplish haze surrounds me and I hear Maura’s voice as if from a distance, sounding a lot more commanding than it did before. Almost like two voices have been braided into one. No longer do I feel the floor beneath my back. Only air. Breeze rushes over me, head to toe.
One man will never suffice
But three may cause the reverse
Heal in one way, but prepare for the hurt
That is the condition of this debutante’s curse
My back hits the ground and my lungs are blasted full of oxygen. There is a knitting together of my wound and it hurts, tremendously, but it’s a good kind of pain. That pain of accelerating healing. Consciousness roars back and I can see clearly now, the dimness ebbing more and more—
The door of my bedroom is kicked open and Pace is standing in the frame, gun drawn. When he sees me on the floor surrounded by blood, Maura kneeling over me, the roar he lets out is harrowing. It stings my eardrums, alarm punching me in the throat.
He fires a shot, narrowing missing Maura’s head.
“No!” I scream, scrambling in front of the woman who seems completely drained after reciting the spell. “No, she saved me! I hit my head and I was bleeding, but she…she healed me. I can’t believe it, but she did.”
Pace’s expression is nothing short of wild and haunted.
“Get the fuck away from her!” he bellows at Maura, thundering forward with the gun still leveled. He throws himself down on his knees beside me, his free hand running over every inch of my head, my stomach, my back, searching for injuries. “Where is the bleeding coming from, Magnolia?” he demands, voice hoarse and frantic. “Where, baby?”
“Nowhere. It was…” I pat my temple. “It was right here, but she recited a…”
“A healing spell,” Maura manages, winded.
“A what?” Looking furious and panicked, Pace cocks the gun. “You put a spell on her?”
“More like a blessing and a curse,” Maura amends.
