Page 77 of House of Malice
“What’s up?” Alecto asked, walking up to sit on the leather couch. “Did Galia bring any news about where the Dean’s artwork might be?”
Val shook her head.
“We’ll need to do the work ourselves,” Jolene said.
“Great,” Alecto murmured and took another sip of her coffee.
Blaze, who sat next to her, placed his palm on her thigh and squeezed it. Since they’d become public about their relationship, he had been so possessive.
A part of her longed to rebel against it, to be assertive about her independence. But another part of her found profound satisfaction in how possessive Blaze was.
She wanted the whole world to know that she belonged to him. Just as he belonged to her.
“Right,” Val said and lit the blunt. She took a long drag and passed it on to Jolene. Exhaling the smoke, she said, “One of the places where the Deans’ art was showcased was a local art gallery here in Darly. Apparently, they are doing weekly painting and drawing lessons, so Jolene and Alecto will go do that.”
Alecto frowned. “And how is that gonna help us?”
“Well, it’s only an excuse. Once you’re there, you can ask around about the Dean’s art and see if they know where it went and why.”
Alecto nodded. “And why is it just the two of us?”
Val took the blunt back. “Rogue will head out to a few of the other galleries around Inathis, and Andro, Blaze, I will head over to Avalon Hills to see if there is anything there.”
Alecto nodded.
“It would be useful to ask Octavia and Rufus to get us exclusive access to the gallery in Avalon Hills, but sadly, that might raise some questions,” Val said.
Andro nodded. “I’m not sure I want to deal with my parents right now anyway.”
Val eyed him with a smirk but didn’t comment.
“Alright, when do we have the art lesson?” Alecto asked.
Val took out a pamphlet from the back pocket of her jeans and handed it to Alecto. “Tomorrow evening. Hope you didn’t have any plans, Black.”
Alecto sighed and shook her head.
Alecto had personally never considered taking art classes at Venefica. Despite wanting to be an actress, she didn’t think she was creative or talented enough for other forms of art.
But as she sat there in front of her canvas, a brush in hand, she had to admit—she loved painting. Even if she wasn’t good at it.
Next to her, Jolene was very concentrated on her canvas. It was painted with soft green, and sage, and sunset orange. A little dash of soft blue and a little bit of purple were also visible.
Alecto’s canvas was much, much darker.
She had chosen to use all the shades of black and grey, with an occasional pop of red. It was a good thing they hadn’t chosen to attend a class where they had to paint fruits or naked people.
This class was all about abstract art. While Alecto didn’t care about the theory, she much enjoyed the practice of painting nothing and everything at the same time.
“That is very interesting,” said a voice from behind Alecto. She looked over her shoulder to find the art teacher inspecting her canvas with intent. He was a real silver fox, and despite being very much into Blaze, Alecto still appreciated having a handsome art teacher. “I see you have a lot of repressed emotions that are just waiting for a way to be released into the world. This is a good start.”
Puzzled, Alecto looked at the brushstrokes on her canvas. How the Hel could he tell that just by looking at this dark mess of nothing?
“Go on,” he urged her. “You’re not done telling your story. Keep going.”
Then he moved on to the next student. Alecto looked at her canvas with her head tilted to the side. She was curious to see what he had seen in her canvas that told him there was a story written somewhere.
“Are you good?” Jolene asked. “This is actually so much more fun than I expected.”
