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Owen nodded. “It’ll be more difficult to memorize spells without being able to practice them, but the more you know, the more effective use you’ll make of your power when you need to use it.”
“What happens after it’s gone?” I asked. “Will I be immune again, or just normal?”
“I don’t know,” Owen said. “This whole thing has been unprecedented. I should get a good paper out of it.”
“Owen!” I snapped. He was a real sweetheart of a guy, but when he was in intellectual mode he could be totally oblivious to human emotion.
He had the good grace to blush, and he was fair-skinned enough, in spite of his dark hair, to be a world-champion blusher. “Sorry. I know this is difficult for you, but it is interesting. What I suspect will happen is that when your power gets to a certain level, you’ll go through a phase of being nonmagical—enough power for magic to work on you, not enough to do anything. Then after a while even that power will be drained and you’ll be back to your usual state.”
“How much power do I have left?”
“I’d guess you’re down about halfway.”
I thought of all the silly spells I’d done just because I could use magic: the illusions, the coffee, making things fly to me instead of reaching for them. Because of those, would I not be able to defend or shield myself in a real crisis? Or worse, would there be a life I couldn’t save? “I wish I’d known this to start with,” I said with a dejected sigh.
“I should have noticed sooner,” Owen said, looking even more downcast than I felt.
“You just said this was unprecedented,” I pointed out. “How could you have known to look?” Then I forced a huge smile that I didn’t really feel. “On the bright side, once my magic is gone, my grandmother won’t have much reason to stick around. She said she needed to be here to help me learn to use my powers. You’ll have your house back to yourself again.”
I was cheered by that thought, but he didn’t look relieved. Me losing my powers wouldn’t be nearly as bad as him losing his. For me, magic was a novelty. I wouldn’t like it if I got stuck at normal, but I’d spent most of my life thinking I was normal. I understood that intellectually. Emotionally, I wasn’t quite there yet. It might take me awhile before I could be honest when I said it.
The worst thing of all was that I didn’t know what this meant for my future. I’d already been having a career crisis before I got zapped with magical powers. It had been put on hold until they figured out where I fit in magically. If there was an expiration date on my magic, I was in even more of a limbo. I wasn’t useful as a wizard or as a magical immune. Part of me wanted to just go for the gusto and burn through my magic so I could get back to normal, but then there was a big part of me that wasn’t ready to let go of it yet.
I really hoped Granny had made a chocolate cake for dessert.
*
Although getting to send Granny home was the one upside I could see to my situation, I dreaded telling her. Her only other wizard grandchild was my brother Dean, who’d been an idiot about using magic. I knew she’d enjoyed teaching me and being able to pass on everything she knew. She’d be so disappointed to learn it was only temporary. It would be like telling her I was failing out of medical school.
Owen seemed to sense that I’d want to talk to her alone, so after we’d washed the dishes, he said he was going to play squash with Rod and vanished. I was still psyching myself up to raise the subject when Granny turned to me and said, “Now, what’s the problem you wanted to talk to me about?”
“How do you do that?” I blurted.
“It’s not magic. It’s just common sense. Anyone with eyes could tell you were troubled by something, and that boy hightailing it out of here means you need to talk to me. What is it?”
I decided to just blurt it out, like ripping off a bandage. “Well, it turns out I’m not really a wizard. I just got a certain amount of magic, and it’s running out.”
I held my breath, waiting for her reaction, but she just nodded and said, “Hmmm.”
I babbled on to fill what felt like an awkward silence. “Owen ran some tests, and it turns out that’s why it’s been a struggle for me. I haven’t had as much power to work with. I guess I burned through too much of it in the early stages, and I may have overdone the practicing, so now it’s going to run out sooner or later. They want me to stop using magic entirely so I’ll have it if a situation comes up where I really need it.”
“That would be prudent. And I think this is why I got that feeling I needed to come here. I had no fear that you’d use it the wrong way like your idiot brother did. You have good people teaching you. But having magic and not using it, saving your resources for a rainy day, that I can help you with.”
She got up from the sofa and ambled toward the kitchen, muttering to herself. I followed. “I don’t know what ingredients the boy keeps around the house. Other than the books, you’d never know a wizard lived here. But I’ll bet he can get them at work, or Merlin’ll know where to find them. I was traveling light, so I didn’t bring anything with me, and I wasn’t going to trust your mother with that sort of thing when I had her send me some clothes.”
She reached the kitchen, where she dug around in the cabinets, clicking her tongue in disapproval. “No, I’ll have to give him a list to fetch me from work, or I’ll have to go to the market next time it’s open.”
“Granny, what are you doing?” I finally asked when I could get a word in edgewise.
“Why, making you a potion, of course. I know some things that’ll help restore your strength, give you a little more energy. It won’t stop the decline, but it should slow it.”
“But why bother?” I said wearily, leaning against the edge of the countertop. “Why drag this out? I’m pretty much useless as a wizard. I may as well go back to normal. I’m good at that.”
She whirled on me and shook a finger in my face. “Now, how do you know you didn’t get this gift for some purpose, hm? The good Lord knows what He’s doing and has a plan, and that plan bestowed magical powers on you. For all you know, it’s just in time to do something no one else could do, so you’d best be ready to make the most of it, whenever that comes. You are not useless. I don’t know what got into your head to make you think that about yourself. It’s probably your mother’s fault.”
“But I—” I started to protest.
She waved me off. “Oh, I know what you think, that you’re so boring and ordinary that no one would notice you. Well, whose fault is that? And it has nothing to do with how much lipstick you wear, contrary to what that silly daughter of mine tells you. I know that no boring, ordinary girl could have caught that boy’s eye the way you did. He’s no dummy, and he’s certainly not boring. I suggest you start seeing yourself the way he sees you and work on being the best you instead of worrying about what you’re not. At the moment, you’re a wizard with enough resources to make a difference when the time comes. Now, go cut yourself another slice of cake while I make out a shopping list.”
