Free Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic #1) by M.R. Forbes Page A

wasn't anything special. Fifty years old, four bedrooms and a small yard. It was modest for a surgeon, but it was the kind of place Karen had always dreamed of living in, and she loved it. That meant I loved it, too, and I really did, if only because it was in a low magic zone, and kept the sensitivity from becoming too overpowering.  
    I'd splurged a bit on the car, but I did have to keep up some kind of appearance in the hospital parking lot.
    As I drove, I could hear the pulses of the fields shifting and moving through the earth around me. It had been with me as long as I could remember, but for some reason I was more in tune with it today. It wasn't just the magical energy that was clearer. The sky looked more blue, the air felt more clean. Even the morning traffic barely registered. I was in a weird state of happiness and lust for life that I hadn't felt since Molly was born. I turned on the radio, and started singing along.
    My voice trailed off in the middle of the first tune.  
    That was the moment I knew I had cancer.

    ###

    "It's malignant, isn't it?"
    I was sitting in the office of Dr. Robert Anders. His assistant had been waiting for me when I'd come out of surgery, and after a quick shower I'd put my slacks, shirt, and blazer back on and headed up to see him. I knew I should have been more scared, more nervous, more something.  
    I was resigned.
    When the realization had hit, it had done so with such force that nothing short of God's own voice in my head could have convinced me otherwise. I had done my best to stay in denial, and to be positive for Karen. All alone, left to my thoughts, there was nothing to deny.  
    I was going to die.
    I'd remembered my grandmother Sophie then. She lived to a hundred and four. She made it through the reversal, survived the riots and the feral virus, and managed to avoid the Rot. I'd asked her once how she'd been able to survive so long.
    "Nothing in life can scare me as much as death," she had said.
    She'd borne that out when she had gone screaming from this world, her eyes wide in terror and her voice hoarse. I had made the mistake of being there when it had happened. I had made the mistake of knowing her at all. She'd passed her fear down to me.  
    He was sitting behind his desk. Seventy years old, an expert in his field. Like Sophie, he'd also been born before the change, and that meant he had seen a lot of bad shit in his time on Earth. He had also given this talk, and worse ones, too many times to think about. Even so, it hadn't become rote. He hadn't become hard. His eyes were soft with compassion, and his lip quivered when he answered me.
    "Yes."
    I nodded and pursed my mouth. Rob had been the first person I'd met at the hospital. He was the smartest guy I'd ever known. He had more experience in his pinkie than I had in my whole body.
    "How long?"
    He opened his mouth, and I knew he was going to give me all of the disclaimer bullshit that he had to throw in there, so that the hospital was safe from legal trouble.  
    I put my hand up to cut him off. "How long?"
    "Six months at best. I'm sorry, Conor. In my professional opinion... less than three."
    Three months? Ninety-days? I had been expecting the worst. I had underestimated. I clenched my stomach to keep myself together. I thought about calling Karen. To tell her what? 'Hi honey, I'm going to be dead by Christmas. Now that I've dropped that bomb on you, can you please drive over here without getting into an accident?'
    "Conor?" Rob stood. "Look, I know this is hard..."
    "I know you do," I interrupted. He had told me stories, and it wasn't like I was a novice. I'd made the 'I'm sorry' speech before. I'd lost people in the operating room.  
    "You don't deserve this. You're a good man."
    I sat in silence. Deserve had nothing to do with it. It was just bad luck. He was twice my age, and in three months he would open his eyes, kiss his wife, get out of bed, and come to work. I'd be sucking dirt.
    "If you need