Chapter 23
Persy
“It’s not right!” I heard Penn yell from outside the studio. “Something isn’t right!”
“I understand what you’re feeling,” Sebastian said calmly, the low rumble of his voice sending shivers down my spine, even through a wooden door. “But I’m having a hard time understanding what you mean. Can you try to explain it to me?”
A heavy weight fell on my chest. Not in dread, no, but something else. Sebastian could have easily dismissed Penn’s energy as high-strung or confusing, but he simply allowed him to process what he was feeling at his own pace, seeking to understand him.
After a moment, I heard Penn’s voice again, considerably lower in volume. “It doesn’t feel right. It’s like what’s in my head doesn’t match what’s on the canvas.”
Sebastian’s answering hum shot right through me. “I understand. Is it the way the colors meld or is it the form? Like the person’s features don’t reflect what you want them to?”
“The last one,” Penn responded. “That’s what’s wrong. Maybe the nose and chin?”
I pressed closer to the door, like my body couldn’t do anything but draw as close to Sebastian as possible. “Start smaller with the shading,” Sebastian said. “If you go too high contrast too soon it will look wrong.”
My hand was on the door knob and pushing through before my mind realized what was happening. Sebastian and Penn turned towards me. Penn’s expression lit up, which warmed my heart considerably, while Sebastian’s lips quirked in a grin. “Persephone,” he greeted, his voice rumbling over my skin.
He hadn’t called me that in a long time. I shouldn’t have missed it, but I did. “How is everything?” I asked, stepping fully into the studio I’d set up years ago, pleased that it looked well-used and full of works in progress.
Sebastian turned to Penn, letting him answer. Penn looked at the painting he was working on, which to me, looked like an amazing rendition of an older woman. His mother, if I remembered correctly. Penn opened his mouth, like he was jumping into a string of critiques, but then took a breath and restarted. “It’s going well. I’m learning.”
I smiled despite myself. Penn was giving himself some much needed grace. I turned to Sebastian, remembering why I’d come. He’d filled me in on the Council meeting, though I wasn’t going to tell him that my brother had sent me a debrief of his own.
My brother’s note had seemed fairly pleased with how the meeting went. An appropriate amount of teasing regarding Sebastian’s sins, he’d said. It wasn’t my place to intrude, but part of me wished I’d been there to see it.
Regardless, I’d been given another task. Well, Sebastian had, but I assumed I should be tagging along since I was still technically required to be monitoring any attempts to restart his plan against Adrian. We needed to go out in public more, hoping to draw out any more of Sebastian’s family members that still clung to their hopes of fame and power if Sebastian took my brother’s role as king of the gods.
Sebastian told me he had a place in mind, but hadn’t shared any more details. “Sebastian,” I greeted in return. “Penn,” I added with a smile. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
Penn shook his head, though he fiddled a bit with the paintbrush in his hand. “No. I should probably stop for the day before I start hyper-analyzing this, anyway.”
“Need something, love?” Sebastian had taken to calling me that in front of other people. Nikolas, Kostas, and Penn, at least. I probably should correct him, but I still hadn’t. It was selfish of me to hang on to little pieces of him like that, but if that was all I could take from him…
“I was wondering if you had a free afternoon. To…” I trailed off, not quite sure how much Sebastian wanted to talk about this in front of Penn.
Sebastian nodded, catching onto my meaning. Though he looked pensive, like he was considering another option. After a moment, he turned to Penn. “Fancy a field trip? If it’s alright with Persy, of course.”
Penn’s face lit up so brightly, I’d be cruel to deny him. Still, I asked Sebastian, “Where to?”
“The Olympian,” Sebastian said, and my breath caught in my throat. The Olympian was by far the most important museum in the entire Mediterranean. It cared for and housed some of the gods most precious artifacts, and the human pieces that were honored there were among the most lauded in our history.
It also happened to house some of Sebastian’s most famous paintings. Including—
“PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU!” Penn shouted, jumping up and down excitedly. After a second, he blinked, realizing that he’d spoken rather loudly and settled down a bit. I was planning on letting him be as excited as he wanted, but it was a testament to his growth that he did that himself. He turned to Sebastian, a pleading look in his eyes. “Sunlight Incarnate is there right?”
Sebastian’s eyes slid to me for a quick beat, holding some foreign expression in them. “It is. Among others.”
“I know, but that one is…” Penn let his hands finish his sentences, widening them as far as his body would let him. Equally to communicate how large the piece was and how famous. “Is it true it took you over a year to finish?”
Sebastian’s grin quirked, as if the memory was fond. “It did. I kept tweaking it, but I’m happy with the final product.” This time, he turned fully to me, giving me the full, heady weight of his attention. “Up to you, love. Can Penn join?”
Who was I to deny either of them? Not when Penn’s eyes were rounded like a puppy’s and Sebastian’s bright eyes were burning into my skin. “Of course.”
Penn’s shriek covered up the sound of Sebastian’s laugh. Not enough to stop a considerable shiver shooting down my spine, though. My power swelled in response, electricity flickering like a light bulb on the last legs of life. Seemingly without my control, a portal cracked open behind me.
“Well, this is as good a time as any,” Sebastian said, a laugh in his voice. I let him think I was just eager to go, rather than my power flaring slightly out of control. That was always an issue my brother had, not me.
Penn’s eyes went wide when he realized what was happening. It was rare humans ever used portals, and he was about to join a very, very small group of lucky individuals, which I suspected only really included my sister-in-law.
Before I could even utter a warning, Penn ran up to the portal and jumped through like he was flying off a cliff into the ocean. I stepped through after him hurriedly, worried my power would flare and leave him stranded. Sebastian was right behind me, stepping through space casually.
It seemed I’d popped us into the middle of the museum, like my body just instinctually knew the way to go, even though I’d never been to this wing before. It was one of the most heavily guarded parts of the museum, protecting sculptures and other precious artifacts.
A fact that became explicitly clear when three poor guards damn near fell over when they saw us. Penn was blissfully unaware of how close he was to being tackled, staring in awe at a sculpture that depicted a woman slowly turning into a tree.
Sebastian gave them a slight nod, silently communicating that this was okay. One of the guards split off, presumably to let others know that there were gods present, not that most didn’t walk around like humans.
“Where is it?” Penn asked, his body practically shaking with excitement.
Sebastian smiled, so honest it made my heart clench. “At the far end of this hallway,” he said, jerking his chin in the right direction. “Can’t miss it.”
Without another word, Penn took off down the hall in a near sprint, almost clipping one of the guards in the shoulder as he did. I took a step to follow, but was interrupted by Sebastian’s body.
He stepped in front of me, looking down at me with that observant gaze that warmed my skin.
“Come on,” Sebastian said, extending his hand to me. I fought the urge to blink at it like I’d never seen it before. “Penn has some legs on him. Don’t want to lose you.”
Please mean that. For more than just right now.
Pushing away that thought, and the force with which it hit me, I took his hand.
My hand slipped into his, the warmth of his skin heating mine like the summer sun. Once my hand was fully covered by his, he sighed deeply, sounding almost … relieved.
I wouldn’t—couldn’t—be the one to say that I’d felt relief too, felt that heavy exhale right in my chest.
All I could do was let him drag me down the hallway, resisting the urge to run my thumb over the back of his hand to feel the grooves in between the strong tendons there.
He was right, we had to move at a breakneck pace to keep up with Penn’s excitement, close to a full blown jog down the hallway.
I’d heard a lot about this particular painting of Sebastian’s and had seen it in a few photos, but I’d never seen it in person. I’d heard two people arguing over whether he’d used gold paint or simply created the illusion of that metallic from a combination of other colors.
Everyone seemed to walk away from it in awe of his talent, each with a different fact about the masterpiece they found interesting.
It was finally my turn to see it. And with the artist himself. Maybe he would give me something special to take away from it.
As we moved down the hallway, my gaze snagged on a few pieces that I was sure belonged to him. He had created so much in his short life, which made me realize how starved we’d been in the past couple of years.
I remembered him explaining it to one reporter as an artistic block, and telling another it took time to create pieces everyone loved, specifically citing Sunlight Incarnate. Now, I knew that he simply wasn’t painting.
It made me happier than I would ever admit that he was back to that. That I got to see him return to the house every morning with paint splattering his clothes. He’d even started rolling up his sleeves, the specks of paint dotting the thin black lines tattooed into his skin.
Right as we were nearing the end of the hallway, I heard Penn yell, “It’s so big!” from behind a wall that clearly housed the painting we’d come to visit.
Sebastian chuckled under his breath, and with our hands connected, I could have sworn the vibration traveled straight from his body into mine.
Anticipation started to build in my stomach as we made it to the rounded dome housing this special gallery, with an entire wall dedicated to displaying Sebastian’s painting. My breath was frozen in my lungs as we rounded the corner.
The second my eyes connected with the massive painting, at least twenty feet high, my heart stopped in my chest.
It was beautiful and I should have been happy about it. It was a masterpiece, a painting so large you could fall right into it, spending hours dissecting every little brush stroke and detail added. I could see why people considered this one of the most intricate, stunning paintings of all time.
But, I wasn’t seeing what everyone else had. People commonly referred to this as a scene or even a landscape, depicting the sun shining down so powerfully it was like you were staring through the rays themselves trying to see the hills and scenery behind it.
I didn’t see any of that.
I saw a portrait.
I saw a woman.
And I hated it.
Sebastian had a fucking muse that he’d neglected to tell me about.
It was hard to tell at first, but once you saw it, it was inescapable.
You could see the slope of her shoulder, commonly mistaken as the shadowed curve of a waterfall. You could see her profile, credited as a jutting cliff face rather than features.
It was a painting that had taken him a year to complete and took up an entire wall of the most revered museum in the world and it was a portrait of someone else.
Why hadn’t he mentioned her? Where was she?
You didn’t just leave someone you painted with this much reverence, like they were this ethereal being that could only be captured in abstract swaths of color, painting their essence and spirit more than anything else.
“Sebastian,” I said, careful not to show the utter rage in my tone. Not when Penn had his face as close to the painting as was acceptable, staring in awe at the detail in the greenery. “Who is that?”
He stiffened immediately, his body going rigid. I could have sworn I could feel the heat leave his hand. I stepped around to face him, using that as an excuse to drop his hand.
I didn’t want to lose the connection, but I also wasn’t about to hold his hand while he told me about the woman in that painting. Fuck that, that sounded like torture.
He looked down at me, searching my face for something. He wouldn’t find anything, not when I was clamping down on my anger with all my might. “What makes you think there’s a woman in the painting?”
“I never specified that it was a woman,” I pointed out, voice thin. He’d just admitted that I was right.
Sebastian sighed deeply, looking over my shoulder at the painting. His eyes softened, which made my jaw clench down hard. There was no denying it now. I was painfully, irrevocably jealous.
He’d spent so much time openly mourning Penelope, who had never had anything other than fiery red hair, that I hadn’t considered there was someone else in his past. Besides, there was too much reverence in that painting. That was a lover, not a sibling.
“You’re right, love. That painting is of a woman.” I hated that he called me love while talking about someone else. “You’re the first to get me to admit that it is, though others have guessed.”
Oh, great, so it was clear to others that Sebastian’s most beloved work was about this mystery woman. There was a scoff building in my throat, but I managed to shift it into a humming sound at the last minute. “Who is she?” I asked as carefully as I could. “You haven’t mentioned her.”
Sebastian blinked down at me, like he was seeing me for the first time. “You assume that woman is real? She could just as well be a figment of my imagination. Hell, even a vision from the Oracle.”
I made myself shrug. “You’re talented, Sebastian, but that is clearly a portrait. I don’t think you imagined her.”
Sebastian laughed incredulously. “How wrong you are about that one.”
I blinked at him in confusion, my jealousy muddling my thoughts and stealing my ability to critically think. Just when another question was building in my throat, Penn ran up to us. “Can you tell me the story behind it?” he asked Sebastian.
“Of course,” Sebastian said, before returning his attention to me. It became clear then that while he’d answer Penn, he was speaking to me. “That is what I imagine it would look like to stare through the sun. I would burn up if I got that close in reality, so I painted a woman, instead. Sunlight Incarnate.”
“Is she based off anyone?” Penn asked, stealing the thoughts from my mind. It was all I could do not to beg Sebastian to answer honestly.
He was going to, it seemed. He stared straight at me as he answered, “Yes.”
Right at that moment, a powerful surge of jealousy swelled in my stomach, threatening to steal my breath. It was timed with clouds outside breaking apart, letting the sun stream down through the large windows and hit us in the center of the gallery.
Hit me, more specifically. I had to raise my hand to cover my eyes, though my hair was still picking up a great deal of the light and shining back in my face. The almost unnatural white-blonde color had made me insecure as a child, when I’d only ever wanted to see someone else with the same features to relate to them.
Now, I loved it. Though a part of me wanted to know who this other woman was that seemed to inspire Sebastian to paint the same color. Sebastian’s eyes had dropped to where my hair was pulled in front of my shoulders, picking up the light.
Penn’s sudden gasp drew both our attention, watching as he pointed at me, his finger settled right at the point where the sun was hitting my hair. His eyes drifted back to the painting and to me again, as if to compare the two.
Wait, that couldn’t mean…
“Sebastian Apollo, I know you did not sneak in here without saying hello to me,” a voice interrupted, quite rudely I might add. I was still reeling from the force of my jealousy, so much so I’d decided it was a good idea to point blank ask Sebastian for the name of the woman who inspired him.
Sebastian’s eyes held onto mine for one more moment, something close to a plea in them. Or maybe a dare?
Regardless, he stopped what he was doing and shifted his gaze to the woman who’d interrupted us. I really wasn’t a fan of women in galleries talking to him.
Though this woman, I could tell, was related to him. There was something in her features that reminded me of him.
Sebastian gave her a thin smile, which made me think that she was well aware of his plan against my brother, if not a part of it. “Bianca. I was hoping to make this a quick visit. I meant no offense.”
Bianca nodded, sliding her gaze to me and Penn curiously. “Well, I’m happy to have both of you in my museum.”
This museum wasn’t her anything, but I assumed she worked here. I stepped up to Sebastian, feeling a strong need to protect him from his own family. Bianca’s narrowed eyes didn”t sit right with me, especially when they landed on Penn.
“Hello,” I greeted, keeping my voice calm and extending my hand. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Persy.”
Bianca blinked, obviously placing me. “Ah, the other Jupiter.”
My back heated with the proximity of Sebastian’s body as he stepped closer to me. “The better one, some might say,” I said with a smile, choosing to ignore her blatantly rude tone.
Bianca’s eyes narrowed even further, making her look all the more serpentine. “Right. Well, I just wanted to come say hello to my cousin.”
“You’ve done so,” Sebastian’s voice came from behind me.
Bianca blinked up at him, her head turning slightly in confusion. I understood that reaction. I was sure the last time she’d spoken to Sebastian it had gone very, very differently. “Well,” she said, drawing out the word. “Ariana was asking about you yesterday. I’m glad I have something to tell her.”
Ariana was his aunt. The same one his uncle had said would have a hard time dropping this plan, holding tight to her promise of money and power. Based on the way Sebastian stiffened, I assumed that wasn’t the reaction he wanted. “Tell her if she has something to say to me, she can say it herself.”
Bianca nodded slowly, her reaction stalled before her lips broke into a smile. “Happy to report whatever you wish, Apollo. Especially … this,” she finished, gesturing her hand around to me and Penn.
Oh, that wasn’t wise. Before either Sebastian or I could tell her otherwise, she was turning on her heeled foot and walking away from us.
Right as she walked away, timed with the click of her heels against the floor, my heart started to beat harder in my chest. Painful, loud pumps that constricted my chest and made me feel like I was about to keel over.
It was then that I realized how screwed I was. That level of immediate jealousy, which hadn’t gone anywhere, combined with the protectiveness running rampant through my limbs was bad, bad news.
“I think it’s time we leave,” Sebastian said, his voice thin. All I could do was nod as I tried to get myself together, trying to wrestle my heart into compliance.
Penn seemed as happy as ever, blissfully unaware of the gravity of what just happened. We’d satisfied my brother’s request to get Sebastian out into the world, and it culminated in the one loose end getting an earful from his cousin about us together.
I was in a daze while we walked through the portal and while saying goodbye to Penn, barely making it through his excited hug with a genuine smile on my face. I needed to get out of here, and I knew exactly where to go.
On the silent walk back to my house, though it had felt like companionable silence, I fought the urge to run towards my side of the studio.
I also fought the urge to tell Sebastian to come with me. I had this insane desire to hand over pieces of information about me, parts that I normally kept firmly to myself.
This was one of them. Probably the thing I kept most protected.
Despite that, after a quick excuse about leaving and pointedly avoiding Sebastian’s observant gaze, I walked toward the studio and looked over my shoulder at him. Despite how private I kept this, I left the door open as I walked inside and sat down in search of some peace.