Chapter 15 #2
“I wouldn't be surprised.”
The bastard.
A laugh escaped me despite myself.
“Fine.”
I crossed my arms dramatically.
“Protect your precious masterpiece.”
“Gladly.”
We exchanged canvases again, and I froze.
Inside my circle, Airis had painted several trees.
Only they weren't entirely solid.
Their outlines blurred softly into the background, as though they existed somewhere between reality and memory.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the faint smile that appeared on Airis's lips as he studied the highlights I'd added to his cloud.
At that moment, he understood something.
And judging by that expression, he liked what he'd discovered.
Our approaches couldn't have been more different.
If I became an observer inside his painting, then Airis became the architect of mine.
In every possible way.
Expressionism suddenly felt painfully fitting for him.
His brushstrokes were gentle.
Yet impossibly certain.
The kind of certainty that never needed to announce itself because everyone around it could feel it anyway.
The complete opposite of abstractionism.
The complete opposite of me.
Or maybe not completely.
Dipping my brush into black paint again, I drew a line across the canvas.
It stretched diagonally from the upper right corner to the lower left.
It didn't touch Airis's trees.
But it changed everything around them.
In this painting, I didn't want to be a spectator.
I wanted to be an equal creator.
An equal voice.
“Ready to switch?” I asked.
Airis nodded and handed me his canvas.
Above the pale cloud, a dark sky had appeared.
Black gradually dissolved into deep blue, creating the impression of approaching night.
I smiled faintly.
Then dipped my brush into white paint.
One star.
Then another.
Then a third.
Scattered carefully through the darkness.
I hoped I wasn't ruining whatever vision Airis originally had.
“I’m ready.”
We exchanged canvases again.
This time I immediately looked at my own.
Ocean waves had appeared in the lower left corner.
Restless.
Wild.
Almost aggressive.
Emotionally, they felt like the complete opposite of the trees.
And because of that, I dipped my brush into black paint and enclosed the waves inside a sharp triangle.
A boundary.
Or maybe a warning.
Even I wasn't entirely sure which.
“You're taking a risk right now,” I said quietly.
To my surprise, Airis didn't argue.
The only sign I'd hit the mark was the tension that appeared along his jaw.
“By letting me interfere, you're surrendering control.”
“I can't think of a better way to earn your trust than lowering my shield.”
A bitter smile touched my lips.
“That's a shame.”
I glanced toward the sea.
“Too bad there isn't a Temple of Nereida here that I could actually trust.”
Silence followed.
But it wasn't uncomfortable.
It felt like the quiet exhale after a wave finally breaks against the shore.
My gaze met Airis's.
For a moment, neither of us looked away.
And suddenly the sound of the sea seemed very far away.
Then he spoke.
“I'm not sorry.”
His voice was calm.
Certain.
Unwavering.
“I know.”
The answer escaped before I could stop it.
And somehow that hurt more than if he'd apologized.
“Nothing in my life was ever simply given to me,” Airis continued.
“Trust included.”
Those words should have made my heart race.
Should have sent butterflies spiraling through my stomach.
Instead, something painfully close to sadness settled in my chest.
Because for the first time, I realized he wasn't asking me to trust him.
He was asking me to believe he'd eventually earn it.
“I don't—”
The words died in my throat.
A dark-blue Audi appeared in the distance.
Instantly, every muscle in my body tightened.
The car was heading toward the others.
Cold rushed beneath my skin.
“Damn it.”
I was on my feet before I even realized I'd moved.
Airis rose a second later.
One look at my face was enough.
He'd already understood.
“Get in the car. We’ll drive over to them.”
I quickly did as he said, gathering our paintings as I went. Before getting into the car, Airis placed Dwayne’s precious easel in the trunk.
“They might be armed,” I said, gripping the edge of my seat as I kept my eyes fixed on the approaching Audi and our friends.
I silently prayed they would notice them in time.
“So are we.”
I was glad that three members of Airis’s squad were with my friends.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t worried.
“Who are they?”
“A group of people we had a falling-out with.” I bit my lip. “One of them stole Dwayne’s idea for a painting, put it up for auction, and claimed it as his own.”
For Dwayne, it had been a blow below the belt. The idea Ethan Larson had stolen came from something deeply personal to him.
She was his light.
That was how Dwayne had described the painting.
“So Gwendolyn and I set fire to the shed where he kept his paintings.”
I wasn’t proud of what we’d done.
Yes, it had been cruel. Maybe even inhumane.
But I didn’t regret it.
Unfortunately.
Airis let out a heavy, almost theatrical sigh.
“We made sure nobody was inside first.”
My eyes remained fixed on the approaching Audi.
“Only the paintings were destroyed.”
“Did you use magic?”
“No.”
The answer came far too quickly.
“Just gasoline and matches.”
Airis went silent.
And I found myself biting the inside of my cheek.
Again.
I hated that.
Hated the fact that I suddenly cared what he thought of me.
Why did I care?
The car continued moving toward our friends.
“So all of this was because of a painting?” Airis asked.
“No.”
The answer left me immediately.
Without hesitation.
Without doubt.
“Because of betrayal.”
Silence settled between us.
This time I felt Airis glance at me.
Really glance at me.
As though he was comparing that answer to everything else he'd learned so far.
Then, from the corner of my eye, I noticed some of the tension leave his shoulders.
A small shift.
Barely visible.
But unmistakable.
As if he'd just found a missing piece of a puzzle.
A piece he'd been searching for without realizing it.
Or maybe a piece of me I hadn't meant to reveal at all.
And somehow, that realization made me more nervous than the approaching car.