Page 74 of The Gods Forbid

Too much harm, far too young.

“And this is what I’m working on now,” Penn said.

“Oh shit,” Nikolas’s voice sounded from behind me, echoed by my own, “Damn.”

“When did you start this?” I asked, pointing at the near-completed wash of color that came together in a haunting, but somehow comforting picture of someone’s blurred face.

Penn cocked his head. “This morning.”

“Penn,” I said, my tone far more serious than I’d used in a while. “This is exceptional.”

Nikolas plopped down in a chair, dramatically whistling. “Told you.”

“You didn’t tell me shit,” I shot at him, sounding annoyingly like I was speaking to a friend.

Nikolas raised his hands, smiling. “I’m sure I did. Maybe your memory is failing you. You’re getting old.”

“I am one month older than you,” I said. When we were younger, he used to hate it when I put him in a headlock. Might as well bring that back.

Nikolas pouted, bringing his hands up over his heart. “You remembered? How sweet.”

“Fuck off,” I gritted out, turning my attention to a giggling Penn. “I don’t think you have much to learn. This could easily end up in a museum as it is.”

Penn immediately started crying.

“Fuck, wait, please just hold on,” I said, while Nikolas tried—poorly, I might add—to smother a laugh behind his hand. “What I mean is, what do you think you want to learn?”

Penn calmed down with a few breaths. “I really want to learn how to use oils. It’s much more precise. Less abstract.”

I nodded, understanding him perfectly. I looked around to some of the other paintings in the studio, his standing out easily. They were really good, but I was holding off on saying so lest he start crying again. I found a painting that clearly belonged to him, one depicting a garden. It would transfer well to oil. I pointed at it. “Let’s start by turning this one into an oil painting,” I said. “We can either do an oil rendition or try to use the oil to replicate the effect of the watercolor, which is more taxing on blending but good practice.”

Penn nodded quickly, running to grab materials before I could even tell him to. Nikolas was chomping away in the corner on a bag of carrots he’d somehow pulled out of nowhere. “You sound like a horse.”

“You sound like a—“ His words were cut off when the door opened. He immediately straightened, pulling his shoulders back and swallowing thickly. “Hi, Kostas.”

I turned to the door to find the infamous Kostas standing in the doorframe. He looked like he just stepped right off a boat, with sun-warmed skin and wind-blown hair to complete the look. Even his smile was one of someone gazing off dazedly into the horizon. Either he was blushing or he had some color from the sun on his cheeks. “Hi, Nikolas,” he said, an airy note to his voice.

Oh. Oh, now everything was coming together. Nikolas had a big fat crush.

“Were you looking for me?” Nikolas asked, a clear note of hope in his voice.

Kostas nodded and I didn’t even have to look at Nikolas to know his smiled widened. “I brought you this,” he said, revealing a glass container behind his back stuffed to the brim with cookies. Kostas looked at me nervously. “I'll find you later. I meant to bring some to Penn and a few others, too.”

“No need,” I said before I could tell myself not to do it. “Penn’s right there,” I said, gesturing to the back of the room. “Might as well stay. Especially if you plan on offering me one.”

Kostas blinked at me, clearly shocked, before coming to. “Yes, yes, of course, yes.” He rushed fully inside, trying to close the door and balance the tray at the same time. Eventually, he handed me a cookie and walked to Penn to hand him one too. Penn ate his in one bite—literally, I thought the kid might choke—then stole another one. Finally, Kostas settled next to Nikolas, sitting so close to him there was no mistaking either of their intentions.

They seemed to suit each other, Nikolas being a fuckhead aside.

I chomped down on the cookie, my brows immediately crunching together. “Shit, that’s good.”

“Really?” Kostas gasped.

I raised an eyebrow. “No need to be humble. I ate your food for a month straight, I know how good it is.”

Nikolas straightened even further, clearly suffering from a small bout of irrational jealousy. Yeah, well I suffered through a month of thinking he was in a relationship with Persy, he could fucking deal with me giving his boyfriend a sterile compliment.

“Your apprentice is waiting,” Nikolas said, gesturing back to Penn. This time, I flipped him off.