“And?” Mckenzie whispered.
“I see everything like that when I’m with you,” Raven replied quietly.
And they didn’t.
“And I painted you,” Raven said, nodding toward the draped easel in the corner. “Not your face. The way you feel when you think no one’s watching. The way you hold a brush like it’s the last solid thing in the world.” TadpolexStudio 24 11 12 Mckenzie Mae And Raven ...
Mckenzie took Raven’s hand, paint-stained fingers lacing through silver rings.
Mckenzie laughed, low and warm. “You’ve been staring at that blank canvas for an hour. That’s not calculating. That’s terrified.”
Raven crossed the studio, pulled the cloth off the canvas. It wasn’t a portrait. It was a storm—swirls of violet and gray, a single figure standing in the rain, hands outstretched, catching lightning. The face was blurred, but the stance was unmistakably Mckenzie: fearless, open, waiting to be burned. “And
Raven leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, silver rings glinting on every finger. Her black hair fell in a sharp curtain over one eye. “I don’t brood. I calculate .”
“Raven, you’re brooding again,” she said without turning around. She was mixing a shade of blue that didn’t exist in nature—a color between midnight and a bruise.
Mckenzie’s throat tightened. She set the brush down carefully, then reached out and smudged the blue dot on Raven’s cheek with her thumb. “Show me.” “And I painted you,” Raven said, nodding toward
Raven pushed off the wall, boots silent on the floor. She stopped inches behind Mckenzie, close enough that their shoulders almost touched. “You know why I picked today. 24/11/12. Twenty-four days since we met. Eleven weeks since we kissed for the first time in the back of your van. Twelve hours until the gallery show.”
“Twelve hours,” she said. “Let’s give them a show they won’t forget.”