A Court of Death and Retribution

paint

"Who did these?" I asked in awe as Maeve and I strolled through the River House.

A small laugh escaped her, then she pointed at a beautiful painting of Velaris. "Nyx did that one." Then her finger moved to point at another picture. This one portrayed Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel as they touched some stone at the top of a mountain. The painting didn't have the extreme attention to detail that Nyx's had, but it was still decent. "Feyre did this one."

I smiled at Maeve. "I bet I could do better."

She snorted. "Oh yeah? Feyre has an art studio in Velaris, what do you say we make this a little competition?" She raised her eyebrow at me and crossed her arms, daring me to take the bait.

An evil smile grew on my face as I narrowed my eyes at her. "You're on."

Maeve flew us to Feyre's art studio and set up easels with canvases and paint for the two of us. Then, we threw on two smocks and tied our hair back in messy buns.

Maeve and I sat across across from each other so we couldn't see what we made. But before we started, she looked over at me. "We have one hour to paint whatever we want. The loser has to..." she thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up with mischief. "The loser has to wash the others' training leathers for a month."

"Deal." I said with a laugh, then got to work mixing paints.

I knew exactly what I would paint. As I swirled the brush along the canvas, I chuckled to myself at how bad it was. I've never painted a day in my life, but the competition was fun. Occasionally I would look over to see Maeve hunched over with furrowed eyebrows, concentrating completely on her painting. I snickered to myself, then wiped my brow with the back of my hand before continuing with my painting.

As I dipped my brush in green and flicked the paint carefully over the canvas, I smiled at the memory of the first time Rhys had trained me in that forest. I was so scared of myself for destroying that grass, but now I had full control over my powers. I no longer had to worry if they would suddenly escape me if I grew frustrated. It was like an on and off switch in my brain. Except when my powers were on, I decided how much I would use and with little effort.

When I painted the blue sky, I smiled remembering how often my mother and I would lay on our backs and point out clouds that looked like everyday objects.

When I finally got to the people, my heart tugged with every memory associated with them. How each and every one of them helped piece me back together and helped me believe in myself.

"Time's up!" Maeve called out as she put her paintbrush down.

I laughed at my painting, then put my brush in my water cup. The door to the studio opened to reveal Adira and Cal carrying large boxes of art supplies. "Hey, what are you two doing?" Adira let out a tired breath as she set her box on the floor next to Cal's.

"Perfect timing! Bella and I were having a painting competition. You two can be the judges." Maeve gave them a bright smile, no doubt trying to win them over already.

I chuckled when I looked at my painting again, then back to them. "It'll be an easy judgement, don't worry."

Cal raised his eyebrow and came to stand behind me to observe my painting. Then, he let out a howling laugh. "Bella this is shit!"

I let out my own laugh as I nodded my head. "I'm fully aware."

Adira and Maeve quickly came over, then they too started laughing. When Maeve caught her breath, she spoke. "You painted stick-figure versions of all of us?"

I hummed in approval as I held back more laughter. "Let's see what you did."

Maeve strolled over and held up her painting. Everyone instantly broke out into outrageous laughter as we saw a very childish drawing of a penis staring back at us. "Maeve! It's—it's beautiful." Adira managed to speak between laughs.

"You spent an hour drawing an outline of a dick?" I raised my eyebrows at her as I continued laughing.

She shrugged with a smug expression. "I'm very proud of it."

"As you should be, but I'm afraid my vote goes to the stick figures over here." Cal leaned his elbow on my shoulder and Adira nodded in agreement.

Maeve rolled her eyes and set her painting back down. "Whatever, you two just lack taste."

I smiled over at Maeve, then at my painting. It was incredibly shitty, but on a green hill surrounded by trees stood Nyx, Adira, Maeve, Cal, Rhys, Feyre, Cassian, Nesta, Azriel, Gwyn, Elain, Lucien, Emerie, Mor, And I with smiley faces.