28. Gifts and curses

                                    

                                          

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ADELA
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"Zestasiá," Adela whispered.
It was meant to be an enchantment to warm things up. That's what Chiron had told Adela the Greek meant, anyway. To her, it sounded like she was calling forth the great and mighty power of lemon zest.
Adela was practicing on a shallow bowl of milk. When she'd first tried this, it had bubbled but the temperature hadn't changed. The next time, the milk had gone ice cold. But Chiron said that three was a powerful number, right? It appeared all over the old stories. Three separate forms of Hekate, three parts of the underworld, three fates. Maybe the third time would be lucky. Adela peered down at the milk.
Oh, great. It had congealed.
"This is useless!" Adela snapped. "I've been trying for two hours."
"Patience, child," Chiron advised. "Many of most powerful sorcerers I have ever trained spent days perfecting their enchantments."
"And did any of them have trouble heating up a simple bowl of milk?"
Gladys yowled on Adela's lap, fluffy head peeking out from a blanket. Disgusting as it was, the growth tonic Chiron had given Adela the recipe for was working. Slowly. Before, the tiny little thing was barely big enough to fit in Adela's left hand. Adela needed both hands to hold Gladys now, but the kitten was still tiny. Chiron guessed that in about six months, the thing would be around two weeks old.
"Lo siento, lo siento!" Adela whispered. "I was just trying to heat your food up."
"Would you like me to boil the milk?" Chiron asked.
Adela nodded. She felt like a failure.
Chiron took the milk away, and Adela hung her head, letting it fall into the table. What kind of sorceress couldn't even get a simple heating enchantment right? Her free hand gently stroked Gladys's soft fur, but that didn't make Adela feel any better either. Only one person had ever really made her feel better.
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"Cariño," her father soothed. "Adela, you need to let go. I have a meeting. We have all the time in the world to play after that, I promise. But I have to go now. I'm already late."
"¡No!" Adela whined. "¡Sin reunión!"
"I can't cancel so last minute. It doesn't work that way, Mijita. It's only an hour. I'll be back before you have time to miss me."
Her father tried to get up from the couch, but Adela wound her arms around his shoulders and locked her hands together like a manacle, clinging on for dear life with all of her four-year-old might.
"¡Uy, Adela!"
Her father gasped at the sudden weight, and grabbed her so she wouldn't fall to the ground.
"You're so strong! Bueno, claro que sí..." Her father sighed. "Alright, you can come with me if you promise to be very quiet. Can you do that?"
"Sí, papa." Adela nodded into her father's suit jacket.
"Alright then." Her father adjusted her so that she wasn't clinging to him anymore, grinning and tickling her shoulders as he did so. "¡Vamos!"
Her father's shoes clicked against the hardwood floors as he walked from the private part of their penthouse into his office. There was a tall man in a grey pressed suit waiting for them.