Quentin, however, had me beat. I caught him checking me out as I approached, his eyes roaming up and down my legs.
I was surprised he’d even bother. “Stop that, you skeez,” I said.
He blinked and shook his head. “I’m not used to the way people dress these days.”
“This is yoga gear,” I said. “And it’s perfectly acceptable for outdoors.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
Quentin might not have been kidding about lacking a sartorial sense. He was still in his school uniform, the only concession being his sleeves rolled up for our “training” session.
Guh. His forearms were like bridge cables. My spine twitched at the sight of them flexing in the breeze.
I blinked and shook my head. “You said you were going to teach me how to manage my limbs so they don’t go wonky again.”
“It would be a crime if that were the only thing I taught you,” he said. “You have abilities that most people couldn’t begin to imagine. Sit.”
I lowered myself down, cringing at the dew on the grass. “I don’t want superpowers,” I said. “I want control.”
“You’ll get it, trust me.” Quentin took the spot in front of me, the guru before his disciple. I had to admit it wasn’t a bad look on him.
“Do you remember when we first laid eyes on each other?” he asked.
I nodded. “You were just about where we are now.”
“And you were all the way over there,” he said, pointing over my shoulder far down the park. “You were more than three hundred feet away from me, Genie. You threw your bag farther than an entire American football field.”
“That’s impossible. I could see you right nearby, plain as day. And there’s no way I’m that strong.”
“Your sight works beyond human limits,” he countered. “Your strength is enough to challenge the gods. And, as you’ve clearly seen, y
our true reach knows no bounds.”
I looked at my hands and clenched my fingers. That time when I blocked Maxine into next week. Had I accidentally stretched myself without anyone noticing?
“Close your eyes,” Quentin said. He shut his own and rolled his shoulders a few times.
“Are we meditating?”
“Yes. Close your eyes.”
“Is this the single step that the journey of a thousand miles begins with?”
“Close your eyes.”
I did as he told. And then I cheated. I kept one lid open a crack so I could watch Quentin breathe deeply in and out. Watch him settle his mind. I was only doing it so I could crib his technique.
But damn it if he wasn’t beautiful right then.
This was a completely different side to him. I mean, Monkey King or not, most times he acted like the worst kind of bro. But here, I was looking at a master of the universe. He radiated calm and tranquility, becoming so still that the Earth seemed to rotate behind him like a time-lapse video.
“Truth and spells, revealing all,” Quentin chanted, his voice echoing off I’m not sure what.
“They come from vapor, essence, and spirit.
Stored in the body, never to be revealed
A radiant moon shining on a tower of quicksilver