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Tristan and Katie stared at me with wide eyes as we stopped a short distance from the bar.

"What was that about?" Katie asked.

I shrugged. "He was drunk," I said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "He didn't know what he was doing."

"But still..." Katie didn't give up. "What made him want to do that in the first place?"

I shrugged once more. "No clue."

Tristan shook his head. "In any case, what he did was wrong. He is your teacher after all. As far as I know, it is forbidden at Mystic for a teacher to have a relationship with his student."

Katie nodded in agreement. "He should actually face consequences for that. And really bad ones."

"He should be outlawed," Tristan continued.

"Or hanged," Katie interjected. "That's almost the least punishment he should get."

"But stop it." I gave them dark looks. "It's over now, I've let it go."

It was a lie. I was shocked at what Liam had done. I hadn't noticed his true nature. But I tried to look past what happened. For Simon's sake. He wouldn't want to know what happened, especially since he wasn't there to save me. And even if he had been, it was doubtful that he would win. Liam's ability was literally fighting.

Katie suggested that we go home and since they wanted to know what it was like to live outside of Canai, they wanted to come to my house. After much nagging on Katie's part, I agreed.

So we went to the barrier that separated Canai from the regular world. Not many people knew it existed, so when I showed Tristan and Katie they were completely amazed by the discovery.

Katie gaped all the way from the barrier into my house.

When we entered we were all surprised. In front of us was no longer the usual living room I knew, but there were garlands and balloons hanging everywhere. The most surprising thing was that my whole family was there, cousins ​​and all.

"Congratulations!" they exclaimed in chorus.

I was so surprised that I screamed, a shrill scream that I was not happy to utter.

My cousin Nico (the teasing one I talked about earlier) laughed, obviously pleased with my reaction.

I gave him a dark look. "I'm going to kill you," I mimed. He laughed again. Then I added: "I'm not kidding" and then he suddenly turned pale in the face.

I smiled contentedly. I must have scared him still.

Mom came up to me with a smile on her face. "What do you think?" she asked.

I looked at her with raised eyebrows. "It's nice," I said. "When did you fix this?"

She smiled a little. "I've been planning it for weeks. The family was on board."

"How did you manage... in such a short time...?"

She grinned happily. "The time you were out with your friends." She nodded towards Tristan and Katie who had already made themselves at home.

Now all the pieces fell into place. Mom wanted me to go out with Tristan and Katie so she would have time to prepare. So that she could fix this.
She had brought the whole fat family here. I even glimpsed Great Aunt Susie in the crowd.

How we could all fit in our small living room was a wonder. But on the other hand, our house was not exactly normal. It took on a life of its own. It was like a robot, had a consciousness of its own and emotions that it expressed if you didn't like the decor it prepared.

In any case, mother could not have taken that magic away from me.

That magic would never go away.

Time flew by. Before I knew it, mom called out that we were going to have present opening. She prepared a small table in the middle of the room with a chair next to it intended for me to sit on.

As predetermined, I sat down and took out the first present. They were quite few, but unfortunately large—which didn't make me insecure—but it was still difficult.

I took the nearest one. It was from my uncle Danny. His ability was in creating electronic devices, so I wouldn't be surprised if his gift had something to do with that.

With growing eagerness, I tore off the paper only to reveal a shoe box. It actually didn't surprise me. In fact, it was what I had expected. Uncle Danny always used to put his presents in a shoebox, no matter how big or small it was.

While everyone watched with expectant eyes, I opened the lid. In the box was a computer. With the experience I had, I immediately started looking for odd buttons. Finally I saw one. An extra button.

I pressed it and voila, the computer turned into a mobile. As expected. Uncle Danny had added some magic to the item.

He was five years older than mother, but they were both equally gifted when it came to intelligence. There had been a third person in the set of siblings—a younger brother—but he died in a car accident at the age of eighteen when his best friend's older brother had been driving the car after he swore not to be drunk. He had killed both my uncle and his little brother—my uncle's best friend.

A lie.

The big brother had made it and—ironically—he was Liam's father. Uncle Sam had been my favorite uncle. Maybe it was because we were closer in age. He had been ten years older than me.

I went through and opened several of the presents. I got some new clothes from mom, a book about different Mystics that I would learn about in the Mystic lore, and a headband.

Now there was only one present left. A small one. This time I carefully removed the paper. I had a hunch that this package was fragile.
I was right. In it was a bracelet made of large wooden beads.
A letter from uncle Danny was underneath.
Sam's last wish, it said. Take good care of it.

I frowned. Sam's last wish? Had Sam wanted to give me this?

He had died when I was eight. It was five years ago. Had uncle Danny kept this a secret for five years?

Mom gave uncle Danny a black look. She was unhappy.
She pulled uncle Danny away to the kitchen so she could talk undisturbed.

We followed. Me, Tristan and Katie.

"Why did you give her Sam's present?" asked mother.

"That's what he would have wanted," uncle Danny replied calmly.

Suddenly Tristan bumped into a vase that was standing next to us. It fell off, but luckily he caught it before it could fall to the ground.
But it was too late. Mom and uncle Danny had stopped by.

As if she had eyes in the back of her neck, Mom said: "You can come out, Aline. We know you're here."

"

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