Healing Hands (The Queen of the Night series Book 2) by Laura Emmons

with everything I might want or need.
    I’d inherited my winter coat from Rose and my winter boots from Fiona but I needed warmer clothes for school. Corey needed pretty much everything. Rose suggested I find a new outfit for the New Year’s party. She instructed me to find something comfortable to wear around the house but nice enough for eveningwear. After looking for quite a while, I found a knit dress in an indigo velour that almost matched my eyes. The dress was shorter than I liked, so I paired it with black leggings and ballet slippers.
    ***
    Pleased with our purchases, we headed back home. On the way I asked her, “So, what’s up with you and Pat?”
    “Oh, we’ve been dating for a long time,” she said casually. “At one point I thought we would marry, but things were so confusing after your mom and dad left. You see, there aren’t any other Healer families left in Cacapon. Over the decades people have either moved or passed away. It’s strange, but in our clan, Healer women have only ever given birth to girls. Some have married outside the clan and left. Fiona and I are the last Healers here. I’ve always worried something might happen to her and I’d have to…”
    I finished the thought for her. “You assumed you would become the next Great Healer.”
    “…or the last one.”  How much damage did my parents do to this little community when they ran away?
    “I’m here now, and you’re still young. Maybe you and Pat can still marry and have kids.”
    She smiled. “Pat’s my guy, that’s for sure. He’s always stood by me. He never left or married someone else, like his dad did. Who knows what will happen. You’re right.” 
    I felt a little less guilty for existing.
    “But honey,” she continued, “we have to wait and see how things work out. I couldn’t put so much pressure on you. You have so much to learn yet. I’m still willing to do my duty to the clan. Don’t worry.”
    Was I prepared to take on the responsibility ?  Evan had accepted the mantle of Great Seer when he was my age, but I’d only lived with magic for six months. I still couldn’t heal people using energy-touch therapy. She was right. It was too soon to make any assumptions, but if I could undo a bit of the damage caused by my parents, I silently vowed to myself I would do it.
    ***
    When we got back to the house, I found two surprises: an exuberant Corey and the high speed Internet equipment from the phone company.
    Over dinner, he told us all about his day. “The hunt was really cool!  Did you know mistletoe is really a parasite?  Birds eat the berries of the mistletoe plant. Then they fly over trees and poop the seeds out. If the poop lands on the tree branches just so, a new mistletoe plant digs itself into the wood and grows into a little bush. You should see, Maggie, there’s the tree, looking dead because it’s winter. All the leaves are gone, but in the middle of the tree, nestled in these spindly branches and twigs is a little round evergreen bush with berries growing on it, like magic!”
    “I’m pretty sure that’s why they use it in potions and herbal remedies, Corey…because of the magic.” 
    “No, not anymore…that’s probably what ancient people thought, but Duncan says there’s a weird chemical compound which comes from the acids and bacteria in the poop mixed with the nutrients from the host tree. It’s all really complicated. He says mistletoe is an important part of nature, because it provides food for birds during a time of year when no other food is available. A lot of species of birds survive the winter because of mistletoe, and a lot of those birds are songbirds. Isn’t that cool?”
    “It’s very cool,” I agreed.
    “So anyway, the guys said they knew where a bunch of mistletoe grew because they’ve been walking around copses near the crop fields for the last couple of weeks taking notes. Guess what they did when we found some?”
    “I don’t know. What did they