9)

By the end of the summer I could reliably light a candle from across a room, chill a drink in less than a minute, dimly light up a room, dry my hair with a warm breeze, and a few other tricks that my Grandmother and my Aunt called basic magic.

Opening a lock, nope. Can’t see the tumblers. Influence someone’s mind, no idea how to start.

Anything too abstract and I just couldn’t do it. Learning a new way to give myself an ability to do things became a lot easier with Witch training, but I just didn’t have the right mindset to do most of the things in the world around me that Grandma said were within my strength.

At least I didn’t have to train with Great Grandmother. She didn’t consider me worth the effort.

Ami always look tired when she came home from her two weeks in Wisconsin.

“You are so lucky.” My younger sister held up her hands, fingers curled up like claws. “I have to memorize so many plants, what they do, and how to harvest them. Then,” She gave me a horrified look. “I have to learn Latin.”

I did sympathize with her on that. After her first two weeks with Great Grandpa, I had to start learning it too.

My Grandma Brianna had no sympathy. “I think it might help to know what someone is trying to do when they start chanting since they might be trying to do it to you.”

Grandpa encouraged me as well. "It's my understanding that the name Caine is well known and feared. I'm thinking that if you identify yourself as a Caine to someone who means you harm, then point at them and start saying scary stuff in Latin it might be enough to get things done without a fight."

He nodded to himself. “Especially if your sister gets well known. If they see an Asian girl named Caine, it’s not like they'll know which one you are.”

“Why are you looking at me all angry?”

I explained to him that I wanted to be known as me, not Ami Caine’s sister.

He just smiled at me. “I doubt they’ll make the same mistake twice after you get done with them.”

I thought that one over. “Okay, you’re forgiven.”

Three times over the summer I spent two weeks at the Ichiban family estate back in California focusing on my training with my Uncle Dave and up against my cousins.

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I had never noticed it before, but I'm stronger than my cousins, even the older boys.

They don’t like it, especially since the more they get upset, the more Uncle Dave laughed at them. “It’s a teaching moment, aim them at a window next time Sara.”

In the past, I assumed they were stronger them me because they were boys, now I know it was just because I was younger than them, and hadn't come into my power.

I was told by Uncle Dave not to show off any of the tricks I had learned to do with Magic. “It’s real Magic, but..." He shook his head. "It's not combat magic, that's something I’ll have to call a friend to teach you. I’ll make arrangements for that at some point, but your Dad's family is just too strong to teach you what you can do with Magic at your level.”

Not everything was training that summer. We took a family trip to an amusement park called Ceder Point. Which was fun but I felt a little scummy with the VIP experience Grandpa paid for which let us cut in front of several dozen frustrated people waiting in each line at each of the rides.

Ami didn’t care, she was giggling like crazy as she used to do when she was younger, while Aran stuck to the kiddy rides. My parents seemed more than content with the kiddy rides as well, probably since they only had to look after one kid while Grandpa took us two girls on the real ride.

And bought us way too much junk food.

“Really Sara? This is a vacation, calories don’t count.”

I think that he saw that something was going on with me, and reached out to poke the back of my neck with a finger which had become ice cold from his drink. My neck for once wasn’t protected since my hair was bunched up in a ball cap.

He had up until then mainly limited himself to trying to mess with my hair, but the old blue hat I had found in the attic storage room with the Gothic capital D had forced him to get inventive.

I squealed in surprise, which caused him to freeze, giving me time to grab his finger and twist his arm around in a lock and hiss... “Don’t ever do that again”

He winced but was still grinning. “Okay, okay. But what’s really bugging you.”

I let him go while he muttered something about “See what happens the next time you pull my finger...”

“It’s the VIP pass, it doesn't seem right that we’re getting to skip in front of everyone else. Not just because you got money.”

My Grandfather got that faraway look while he thought about that, I had to jerk on his arm with the VIP gesturing at us that it was our turn to get him on the suspended roller coaster.

He somehow kept the same look on his face for the entire ride despite Ami screaming in his ear the entire time.

After getting off the ride he finally was ready to talk. “There are a lot of excuses for me spending the money to do this, which other people don’t have, but I’m going to skip to the heart of the matter.”

“It’s my money.”

I looked at him, and he shrugged. “I earned it by buying a lotto ticket. I may have only won by luck, assisted by your Grandma, but I still risked my own money to buy a ticket. I took the risk, I get to enjoy the rewards.”

“If anyone is in the wrong, blame the park for making cutting line for cash available.”

That didn’t sound entirely right to me. “But couldn’t you use that money to help people?” He sighed at me. “I did, several people I knew are living better lives without having to worry about losing their homes as they get older or get hurt. People who were there for me when I needed help.”

“Outside of them?” He sighed again. “Most charities end up being scams one way or another, but I tell you what.” He looked down at me and gave me a sad smile.

“When I’m gone, you will have a chunk of money coming from me that you can do whatever you want with. Give it away, get something you want that you didn’t want to waste the money you earned working. Whatever ever you think is best, until then don't worry about how I spend it while it's still mine."

“Now let’s get some ice cream”

Ami who had been listening in quietly let out a cheer then began to complain when Grandpa said she had to try something other than chocolate. "How else are you going to find out what else you like, or hate?”

Both of them ignored my complaints that we had just finished off a cone of honey roasted nuts.

Not that I complained too long, it was a vacation.