Clare

  “I’m really sorry. We can’t find what’s wrong with your cat? We’ve examined her but can’t find anything wrong with her. We’ve done x-rays, CT scan, MRIs, blood tests, toxicology screening, EEG and infectious disease testing. They all came out with normal indicators. I would have recommended you consult with a veterinary neurologist but the way your cat is now, I'm not sure she can live until tomorrow.” The second vet we’d traveled to the closest city to meet concluded.

  It was six hours after we found Queen and we had been forced to travel to the city after the vet in Hawkins town told us he didn’t have the necessary machines to determine what was wrong with her after her blood test came out with all the right indicators showing that Queen who was shivering like hell, frothing at the mouth and had fallen into some kind of coma was perfectly all right.

  Now, however, the Vet he had recommended, known to be the best in the city, was telling us the same thing. There was no problem with Queen physically.

  Suddenly, the idea that had flitted through my head after the first vet told us Queen seemed to be normal physically, came back to me again. However, I was resistant to it. I really, really didn’t want to ever use that evil power again. Although I’d used it to save a few animals when I was younger, it had shattered a man’s spirit and pushed him into a persistent vegetative state where he was barely alive.

  Shuddering at the thought, I reassured myself that whatever was wrong with Queen was definitely not spiritual-related.

  However, when Sawyer, Koda and I were allowed to see Queen again, I could no longer hold on to my convictions.

  Queen was no longer frothing at the mouth but her eyes were opened a tiny slit. When she saw Sawyer, she let out a weak meow and tried to stand up but couldn’t.

  Sawyer’s eyes were red-rimmed as he laid his hand on her head, petting her over and over.

  When I squatted in front of her to look her in the eyes, I finally saw that her golden eyes were way darker than they should have ever been.

  I’d seen a big playful Siberian husky’s light blue eyes turn dark like that before as it lost its vitality. However, because I’d seen it at its weakest before I healed it, I hadn’t realized that what was preying on Queen was probably the same creature.

  I lowered my gaze to the floor and then stood up.

  “Are you okay? Why do you look so pale?” Since Sawyer was busy petting Queen while murmuring sweet nothings to her, Koda was the one who noticed my change in demeanor.

  Truthfully, I felt a bit faint as I realized that I might have to use my instinctual magic if I wanted Queen to remain alive, but unlike when I saved that husky, there was now trauma attached to my instinctual magic.

  When I saved that husky, I’d realized that even though I wasn’t a powerful herbalist like my mom, who knew the best way to mix herbs to make them produce magical results in people’s body, I could still help people. But now that my instinctual magic had harmed a life, albeit for self-preservation purposes, I now knew that it could be used in a deadly manner and couldn’t really trust it anymore.

  Therefore, I’d closed it off for several months only to realize now at this moment that I needed it to save Queen’s life. But after ending someone’s life with the same magic, did I have the right to save anyone’s life with it again? Wasn’t that just…wicked?

  I stumbled backward a little as Sawyer left Queen to hold my arm, wrapping his arm around my waist to support me as he led me to my seat.

  “Are you okay? What’s wrong with you? Do you feel sick anywhere?” Sawyer asked, staring at me with worried, bloodshot, and tired eyes.

  I shook my head twice before I could finally say a word. “No…I know what might be wrong with Queen and if…I’m right, I can…help her.”

  “Really? Then that’s good news, right? Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Koda asked as he stared at me with a puzzled gaze.

  Sawyer was way more sensitive. “Will it hurt you to help her?”

  I shook my head, avoiding Sawyer’s gaze as I stared at my fingers that were interlocked together so I could try to restrain the way they were trembling.

  “If it would hurt you to help her, why don’t you tell me what’s wrong with her? Maybe we can find someone who can?”

  Sawyer’s words woke me up.

  Yes, even though I had never heard of or met someone with abilities like mine, I hadn’t really searched for someone with them. Maybe they could help Queen.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I’ll…let me check to make sure that’s what’s wrong with her.” I said and then, ignoring Koda’s furrowed brows and weirded out glance at Sawyer, I stared fixedly at Queen.

  With her in my view, I closed my eyes, trying to pull the cord that changed my vision to a negative film, allowing me to see the world in a different way from everyone else.

  It took a while. After all, using my instinctual magic required practice, which I had neglected for several months now. However, once everything in my view became white and black like a negative film and Queen lost her cat form and became a cat-shaped spirit body, I stood up and walked toward her.

  When I stood over her and stared down at her, I finally saw it.

  The translucent, writhing leech with a ghostly glow that was feeding on Queen’s life force.

  It didn’t see me, but I could see it.

  Under the compulsion and instinct of my instinctual magic, I felt a murderous intent toward it. That murderous intent had me pulling that cord to switch off my instinctual magic.

  As usual, my magic defied me as only one of my sights turned back to normal while the other continued to see the world in negative film.

  Covering my right eye with my right hand, I told Sawyer. “I don’t know what it is, but it looks like a leech. It’s not physical. It’s ghostly, probably. It’s a spirit…parasite. I’ve seen it feeding on a dog once and it won’t stop until it’s killed or probably the host dies. If…”

  “Moon goddess, you have an instinctual magic like Sawyer too?! Damn, you two are so lucky! Why didn’t my mom marry a Fae man or a mixed blood? I want to be special too.” Koda complained.

  “Koda.” Sawyer called once in a warning tone.

  Koda immediately seemed to remember that we were talking about the dying queen rather than advertising instinctual magics and apologized, “I’m sorry, go ahead.”

  “If you can find someone like me who can see things like that. Maybe they could help. They probably just need to extract it and then squash it.”

  “You sound like you know how to do it, so why don’t you?” Koda asked.

  His question made my heart start racing fast in my chest, so fast that I felt like I was about to have a heart attack.

  Instead of insisting that I answer Koda’s question, Sawyer distracted him by throwing him his car keys, “Koda, go get my laptop from the car.”

  Then, after Koda left, he asked a different question. “Do you know your instinctual magic classification number on the Supernatural Council’s magic classification records?”

  I shook my head and instead of asking me why I refused to save Queen, he asked another question, “Can you explain how your magic works, then? If we type in prompts, we can try to find it.”

  “Why aren’t you asking me why I won’t save Queen?” I couldn’t help asking.

  He sighed and then stepped close to me, cupping my face. “Because you’re pale and you’re shivering and trembling. Your fear is palpable to anyone who is looking carefully and you’re holding one eye because your fear is affecting your control over your instinctual magic. Based on this, I can conclude that you can’t use your instinctual magic to help Queen for one of two reasons: You haven’t learned to control your magic or you’re too afraid of your magic that you can hardly control it. Don’t worry, I’m sure we can find someone with your instinctual magic somewhere to help Queen.”

  He gave me a soft, reassuring look while softly stroking my cheeks with his thumbs.

  By the time Koda came back, I was in a better state and my right eye had returned to normal.

  Together, Sawyer and I found my magic classifications because I seemed to be able to use more than one instinctual magic.

  My ability to see things in another light was called Spectral Vision and my ability to physically interact with what they called spectral forms and spiritual energies and matter was called Spectral Handling.

  Unfortunately, searching for people with this ability was less than fruitful. Even though Sawyer typed away for more than an hour and a half at his computer, looking through databases here and there at breakneck speed which he admitted to accessing illegally, we discovered that there was only one person with Spectral handling in the world and he was all the way in Africa.

  Several glances at Queen during this few hours of research showed that she didn’t actually have any more time so contacting someone who obviously had commitments to the Supernatural Council in Africa and trying to get him to come all the way here was not going to be feasible.

  But Sawyer was determined to keep searching for another option.

  Even though the vet had sent a nurse to tell us that he would be closing up after his 8pm surgery, Sawyer had simply asked Koda to book three hotel rooms for us nearby and buy everything Queen would need to stay comfortable in said hotel room with his card.

  As I stared at him staring fixedly with bloodshot eyes at his laptop screen, that was flitting through pages at an uncomfortable speed, I knew what I had to do.

  “I’ll do it.” I said, causing Koda to pause where he was making a phone call.

  Sawyer turned to me with a weary, tired gaze. “You don’t have to. It’s not worth it if you lose your peace because of this.”

  I shook my head. “I have done this before, so I can do it again. Queen…may not like me, but I like her very much. I like you and you’ll probably not feel very good if she dies. Since I can help her, it’s my responsibility to do so. Even if this is the only good I can do with this…ability, I have to try to do good with it, right?”

  He looked at me for a second before nodding along, putting his laptop on the stool before him and interlocking our fingers. “If you really want to do it, then I’ll stay with you as you do it.”

  So with a curious Koda staring at me like I’d grown two horns on my forehead, I started trying to heal Queen.

  Now that I was resolved and determined to use my magic to save queen, pulling the cord that changed my vision was faster than ever. In less than ten seconds, all I could see was a vision colored like a negative film.

  I didn’t want to touch the strange bug with my hand, so I surrounded it with a white strand of my magic and slowly pulled it out of Queen’s spirit body.

  I didn’t know how to kill it, so I reached for the murderous intent buried deep inside my magic and instinctively squeezed the white strands of my magic around it. It tried to fight, wiggling and secreting a strange liquid film over its body. It was too bad that I wasn’t actually touching it and as soon as I squeezed it in my magic, it slowly disintegrated into nothing but powder.

  Seeing that shook me because it reminded me of how Zayn’s spirit body had broken into tiny shards.

  I only felt better when Sawyer gathered me into his arms, hugging me tightly as Koda got the doctor to confirm that Queen was alive and that her vitals were much more steady as she had finally fallen asleep without any chemical or medical assistance.