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I watched Dante bound from one edge of the cliff to the other side, a distance of twenty or thirty feet, and it seemed so graceful and effortless that I was jealous for a minute.
“How is he?” Celia asked.
I was chewing on a burger and gestured to Dante who was laughing hysterically. He had been like that since we informed him of his new nature, his new strength, and the whole package deal.
“Hm,” she said.
I offered her my fries and she chewed on them thoughtfully while we both watched Dante. He caught sight of Celia and waved. She waved back.
I snorted.
He paused by a tree and looked over to us. “Do you think I could pull this up from the ground?”
“Yes. Please don’t,” Celia said.
Eager to please, Dante left the tree without a backward glance and ran over to us. I braced myself for impact, as he had already knocked me over more than once. I was beginning to feel like a father to a superhero giant that could easily take me out with one mistake.
He skidded to a halt a few feet in front of us.
“Remember, the land feeds us. It feeds the magic inside you,” Celia said and tapped Dante’s chest.
He nodded.
“We have to respect it and keep it safe. Without it, we wouldn’t be here.”
“Okay. Sorry,” he said.
“It’s fine. You’re still learning,” Celia said.
Dante nodded. I handed him a bottle of water and his own bag of food. The kid was going through food at an impossible rate and I could have been imagining things, but already he looked bigger, thicker like he was packing on more muscle in the past two days alone.
“Thank you, really, so much. For everything. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been here to help me,” Dante said to me.
I shifted uncomfortably. Celia liked to say that it was genetic, encoded deep in the beta part of me, to be embarrassed by praise.
“It’s fine. You probably would have torn down a building so really, it was in everyone’s best interest,” I finally managed.
“How’s Lou?” Dante asked as he started in on his second burger.
“He’s awake. I left him with Artie,” Celia said.
“Is that a good idea?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“Artie made it pretty clear he wanted me gone. Said they had to talk about magic stuff,” Celia said softly and her eyes were distant.
“What?” I said and straightened up. Celia had the misfortune of having senses that could reach farther than mine.
“Keep an eye on him. Keep him away from town. If you see Artie and Lou before I do, tell them the same,” she ordered.
She spun on her heel and headed for her car, left to her by our dad. Cherry red, 1968 Shelby Mustang.
“Should we be worried?” Dante asked.
I shrugged. “Pretty much always, yeah.”