Awakening (Children of Angels) (17 page)

“
I know,
”
soothed Leonara
“
I was joking. Too soon, huh?
”
She winked as Mia scowled.
“
Alright, you need to be upright for this,
”
she said, unceremoniously yanking Mia upright by her arm.

Mia groaned as her body obeyed the surprisingly strong Angel’s will over her own, which was telling her body to flop back down and sleep.

“
I
’
m going to teach you something invaluable, Mia. Something humans would kill to know - how to heal yourself, from any injury. Almost any injury,
”
she corrected
“
t
he kind that you can
’
t be healed from
…
well, we just have to hope you never come up against those.
”

She directed Mia to once again sit upright and cross legged on the bed, but this time to observe as Leonara demonstrated her healing ability. The Angel pulled a blade from one of the folds of her dress, and Mia’s eyes opened wide.

“
Don
’
t worry Mia, I confiscated this earlier today - I am not in the habit of carrying a weapon. Angels have no need of weapons like these.
”

She used the knife to cut her palm, and Mia watched in fascination as blood pooled on Leonara’s pale palm.

“
Now, Mia, listen carefully. First, I focus my attention not on the area that is causing me a problem,
”
she held her hand up, as if it were necessary to emphasize that this was the
‘
problem
’
area
“
but rather, I focus on a vibrant and healthy part of my body.
”
She held up the other, unmarked palm.
“
Now, I
’
m going to draw energy from here
”
she raised the healthy palm again
“
and send it to
here
”
she raised the cut palm, and Mia watched a drop of blood fall from it and onto the floor.

Leonara closed her eyes and a look of calm came over her face. She sat with her two palms facing upwards, and for a moment, nothing seemed to be happening. After a few moments of watching Leonara’s serene face and waiting for her to speak again, Mia returned her gaze to the up-facing palms. Mia’s eyes were playing tricks on her. The healthy palm seemed to be whiter than it was before, and looked as though someone was shining a light on it, so bright was the skin there. Mia decided it was simply a trick of the eye, as she looked from the healthy palm to the cut one, where the blood was now making it almost impossible to see the skin beneath. It must have been that the skin on the unhurt palm just looked paler next to the gore of the injured one.

But as she watched, the brightness seemed to spread up Leonara’s arm, and began to spread across her chest. Mia blinked and shook her head, thinking it was simply that her eyes had gone strange because she had been staring for so long. But when she looked again, the fabric of Leonara’s dress across her chest seemed to glow gently with the luminescence from the skin beneath. Sure enough, the brightness worked its way slowly down her other arm, towards the injured palm. It glowed very brightly for a moment, and then the brightness disappeared altogether, and Leonara opened her eyes with a smile. She gave Mia a knowing wink, then stood up and walked to the bathroom, still holding her bloody palm upwards.

When she emerged a moment later, she was carrying a towel in her hand and without taking her gaze away from Mia’s face, she used the soft white hand towel to wipe away the blood from her palm with a smile. She held it up, facing Mia, who saw a completely undamaged palm, not a scar nor even a scratch showed the point where Leonara had cut herself. The only clue that anything had been wrong to begin with was the pinkish stains on her hand, and the blood on the towel.

“
Now you try
”
she beamed, tossing the towel through the open bathroom door, where it landed on the floor with a barely audible thump.
“
You
’
ll have to go bit by bit, it
’
s a long process, and pretty power-draining. But it
’
s a pretty good place to start. If trying other stuff is going to keep wearing you out, and you
’
re still not over being Read, then you really need to know how to make yourself better. Close your eyes, and focus on my voice.
”
Her quiet authority once again compelled Mia to obey without question and she nodded, closing her eyes.

“
Find, inside yourself, one part of your body that feels
alive
. I know all of you is alive, but focus, one part of you, at least, is not hurting right now. Is not tired, doesn
’
t want to give up and go to sleep, doesn
’
t ache. It
’
s just
alive
. And you need to find it.
”

Mia did as she was told, and began considering each part of her body in turn, starting from her toes. There was a dull ache there, which continued all the way up her legs, through her hips, through her stomach and her lungs and her arms, her neck ached, and her head pounded ceaselessly.

“
There
’
s nothing,
”
she said dully
“
it all hurts. Everything, all over.
”

“
Try harder - unless you are at the point of death, there is
always
a part of you that is vitally alive.
”

She let out a huff of breath, then drew in a fresh one and held it whilst she focused again. This time, she decided to start from the top of her body and work her way down, focusing on each detail, rather than simply doing a sweep of the area.

Starting with her head, she considered her skin, her hair, her brain, eyes, nose, mouth, ears…all of them had pain in one form or another. When she thought about her head in general, it felt even worse, as though someone were poking at it. Hastily, she moved her attention further down, trying to visualize each of the vertebrae in her neck, each one of which she was convinced ached individually. With a stifled sigh, she moved onto her chest. As she considered each of her clavicles, then her ribs, she became aware somehow, of something stronger than them. Almost as though there was a light like the one that had healed Leonara, somewhere near to her ribs. Excitedly, she tried to figure out where the strength was coming from.

She began to focus on the power, that was what it felt like, raw untapped
power
. She moved towards her right arm, and felt the power dim. That helped, it was obviously closer to the left. She realized then what she had missed the last time she had done a sweep of her chest.

“My heart” she said, out loud.

“
Nothing else?
”
Leonara asked, sounding doubtful.

“
No
”
replied Mia, her eyes still shut, afraid she would lose that warmth she felt radiating from her heart, if she opened her eyes and let her concentration lapse.
“
There is nothing else. There
’
s only my heart.
”
And here, all along I’d thought my heart was broken since leaving home, she mused.

There was no reply, just silence in the room, and Mia felt her concentration slipping as she wondered why Leonara had not given her further instructions.

“
Leonara?
”
she called, squeezing her eyes shut and struggling to retain her focus. She could feel her concentration slipping away, and with it, the warmth radiating from her heart seemed to be slipping away too. Not that she was getting colder, or that her heart was fading - just that she was less able to pick up on the power that was always there, undetected. It was as though everything was returning to normal
“
Leonara!
”
she called, louder, more urgently.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“
A
lright, don
’
t panic,
”
came Leonara
’
s soft reply, after a brief silence.

“
I
’
m just thinking that maybe we shouldn’t do this right now. We should let you heal naturally for a while, so that there
’
s somewhere else to work from - another part of your body, besides your heart. I think it might be too dangerous, to try with your heart. If you take too much power from there
…”

She trailed off the sentence, but Mia didn’t really need her to finish it. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out what would happen if she drained all of the power from her heart.

“No,” she replied, with a conviction and confidence in her voice that surprised even her “we do this
now
. If something happens, and I need to heal, then
they
won’t wait until I’m feeling better, will they?”

“
No,
”
replied Leonara slowly and carefully
“
but Mia
…
this
…
I won
’
t be able to fix this. If you die now
…
it
’
s all over. For all of us.
”

The last tiny thread of concentration almost completely slipped away at that point, but frantically, Mia clutched at it in her mind, and managed to retain her focus on her heart.

“
Tell me what to do, Leonara. I can do this. I
can
do this.
”
She spoke with such determination that Leonara felt herself swaying in her conviction.
“
Just tell me what I have to do.
”
Mia turned her attention back to finding that warmth, that light spot in her chest, and just barely kept a listen out for Leonara
’
s instructions.

Leonara took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. This was not at all what she had in mind, not for their first session. The girl couldn't even stop herself from practically screaming out to her with her mind with each passing thought of which she was a part. Would she be able to control this? Leonara was not convinced. The girl, however, seemed thoroughly convinced. And since it was the girl who had to do it, then the Angel supposed she ought to leave it up to the girl’s Truths to determine the outcome. She took another deep breath, and focused on ensuring her voice was as calm and confident as the girls own.

“
Alright, do you have it, clear in your vision? The vision in your mind, that is? Your power source? Your heart? Do you see it?
”

Mia nodded slowly, and yes, she could see it very clearly in her mind. It burned so brightly she could have sworn it was hurting her eyes, but that made no sense, as she wasn’t even using her eyes to look at it.

“
Good. Now, tell me what it looks like.
”
Leonara spoke in soothing tones, trying not to sound like she was challenging the girl. She had to be sure that it was not the girl's imagination, and that she had actually found a power source. If she only
thought
she had, and attempted to draw power from her heart, without the proper control that can only come from
seeing
what you are doing, the results would inevitably be bad, and most likely fatal.