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“The mug’s hot. The coffee, well, not so much. Did you focus on the liquid?”
“Yeah, I did. That was the main thing. The outside was just to keep it warm longer. It was an idea I had.”
“That’s a good idea,” Owen put in encouragingly.
“It didn’t work, though?” I asked. That was supposed to be an easy spell, the kind of thing they taught kids as soon as they were old enough not to burn themselves.
“Maybe you just aimed wrong,” Rod said. “Both spells seem to have hit the mug, not the coffee.” He put the mug down. “Get a little closer and try again.”
This time, I wasn’t quite so sure of myself, so the magic felt sluggish. If it had been visible, it would have swirled around the mug, dipping toward it but missing a few times. Finally, I got it inside and kept it steady long enough that I thought I’d done the trick. “Try it now,” I said, panting ever so slightly.
Rod picked it up, took a sip, then grinned. “There you go! Good work.”
I sighed in relief, but I wasn’t sure it counted as good work if doing such an elementary task wore me out that badly. Wasn’t this supposed to get easier along the way? I’d seen enough eighties movies with training montages to know how it should work. I was supposed to start out struggling, but I’d keep at it and finally have the big breakthrough that would have my trainer grinning until I totally surprised him by outdoing him, and then it would be time for the big competition. Maybe what I was missing was the inspirational power ballad.
*
I was so frustrated by my magical failures that I barely remembered to be worried on the way home from work. I was too busy griping to Owen about how difficult magic had become for me. “Maybe it was just beginner’s luck and I really am not cut out to be a wizard,” I said. “There’s a reason I didn’t get an owl when I turned eleven.”
It took him a second to catch the reference because he didn’t think in pop culture terms, but then he grinned and said, “You weren’t magical when you were eleven. You are now, and there are always ups and downs when you’re learning something new. But if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll run some tests tomorrow. It’s possible that something’s blocking you.”
“You mean the elves might have done something to me?”
“I doubt it because I’d hope I’d be able to sense it, but our enemies have tampered with your abilities in the past.”
Fortunately, no elves attacked us during our commute, which confirmed my theory that they’d set us up so wizards could be blamed. If the elves were really after Owen, things would be very different.
I didn’t even notice that instead of inviting me over for dinner, Owen merely steered us straight to his place. It was becoming such a habit that an invitation wasn’t really necessary, and I didn’t blame him for wanting to minimize the amount of time he had to spend alone with Granny. I wondered if there was a polite way to ask her how long she planned to stay. Owen kept insisting that he didn’t mind, and he seemed to be telling the truth. He’d never known his own grandparents, so maybe he was enjoying having a grandmother fuss over him.
I, on the other hand, had nearly reached my limit. I’d moved to New York in part to get away from my crazy family. If they followed me here, I’d have to move back home to get away from them again.
As we finished up the last bites of apple pie, Granny fixed me with her steely gaze and said, “So, what’s the problem?”
“Problem?” I asked, blushing at the thought she might have picked up on my desire for her to leave.
“Did you hit a snag with your training?”
How did she know this stuff? “I was tired yesterday, so it didn’t go so well.”
“You did better today, though,” Owen hurried to add.
It didn’t fool Granny. “Okay, honey, out with it,” she said.
I glanced at Owen before saying, “I started off so well. It was easy. And now, it seems like it’s more of a struggle.”
“Well, you’ve moved beyond the basics. It’s going to be harder. Anything worth doing takes time and effort to learn.”
“But that’s the thing—it is the basics I’m having trouble with now.” I heard the frustration in my own voice. “The things that were easy earlier in the week are a lot harder now, if I can even do them at all. I think I’m losing my touch,” I finally admitted. Owen’s expression was both shocked and concerned.
“Let’s see what we can do about that—after we do the dishes, of course,” Granny said matter-of-factly.
The dishes went quickly with all three of us working, and then we adjourned to the living room. Owen took a seat to the side so he could observe. His worried look unsettled me. “I’m not going to spontaneously turn into a frog, or anything like that, am I?” I asked him.
He quickly adjusted his expression as he said, “I can’t think of any reason you should.”
“There is precedent in your department.”
“He was meddling with dangerous spells. You’re doing the basics.”
