She hummed cheerily to herself as she approached his door, but she stopped short just before knocking. Her smile faded when she heard the distinct sound of muffled sobs. Her heart twisted as she put her ear closer to the door and listened while the ever-scowling, ever-poised, dark artist cried as if his heart was breaking. She hesitated a moment, uncertain of how to proceed. She knew she couldn’t just walk away and let him cry, but she couldn’t let him know she had been listening, either. She had a feeling that he wouldn’t be very thrilled to be caught in a weakened state.
Evie turned and went back down the hallway. She stopped at the beginning of it, counted to five and kicked the wall hard enough to make a loud noise. “Ow!” she exclaimed, making sure she was loud enough to be heard. That would announce her presence if nothing else. She counted to five again, then headed back to his room. She took a deep breath and knocked.
“Just a moment,” he called from inside, his voice soft, but clear.
She chewed on her bottom lip as she waited, still greatly troubled at the thought of him sobbing alone in his bedroom.
Traevyn opened the door looking no worse for the wear. His eyes were red, but his presence was the same. Calm, aloof, icy. He was good at hiding his emotions. “What is it?”
She plastered a grin on her face. “Seth and I were going to go to Monterey and get pizza tonight.”
He gave a solemn nod. “Very well. I’ll just find something here. Have a good time.” He started to turn away.
“Wait!” she cried. She sighed and took a step in the room. “We wanted you to come with us.”
He stared at her for a moment before his dark brows drew together in an almost confused frown. “Are you out of your mind?”
She arched an eyebrow. “A little. More so since I’ve been living here with you.”
His features softened and his lips turned up slightly. He sighed. “Thank you for the invitation, but you go and have fun with your brother.”
She huffed. “Oh come on!” she exclaimed. “Please? What do you have better to do? Sit in your tower and read?”
He raised his eyebrows. “My tower? Well, yes actually. Perhaps I’ll weave some magic while I’m at it,” he grumbled.
Evie smiled. It was important to her, now more than ever, to get him to go with them. She would have let it go originally, but not now. She couldn’t leave him alone to be at the mercy of his ghosts and demons while she went out and had a good time. She wouldn’t do it.
“Why is it so important to you that I go anyway?” he asked, looking curious.
She met his gaze and folded her arms in determination. “Because I have the feeling that you haven’t gone out just to have fun in eons.”
He gave a sad-sounding sigh. “You’re right. I don’t have fun when I go out.” He shook his head. “Can you honestly picture me sitting in a pizza parlor full of screaming children and loud people? It’s completely out of my element.”
She met his eyes. “Traevyn, sometimes we have to step outside of our element or we forget what life is like.”
He stared at her for a long time. He hated when she did that. There were times when Evie looked at him, or said something that gave him the impression that she saw right through every defense and barrier and could actually gaze upon his inner self whenever she felt like it. It was unnerving and, yet, exhilarating somehow. To think that someone could actually see the small remnants of his shattered soul was terrifying, yet it gave him hope. Hope that perhaps one day he could be whole again. A real man and not just a shadow of one.
He frowned. “Why are you calling me by my first name?” he asked. “I never gave you permission to call me by my first name.”
She huffed in frustration. “Like I care!”
He raised his eyebrows. “Aren’t I, more or less, your teacher? Do you call all your teachers by their first names?”
She scowled. “Well, I don’t see you doing a whole lot of teaching around here. Maybe when you start teaching, I’ll start calling you Mr. Whitelaw again, but until then, it’s silly for me to live here under such formalities.”
“You are very impertinent,” he stated.
She rolled her eyes. “And you are a great big pain in my butt! Now that that’s out of the way, can we move on?”
He gave a small smile in spite of himself.
Evie gave him a warm grin. “Come on, Traevyn, just go with us. I promise you won’t hate it and, if you do, you’ll never have to listen to me again.” She studied him for a moment and her eyes turned soft. “I want to see if I can get you to smile. A real smile and not that quirky thing you do with your lips.” She pointed to him as he half-smiled. “Yeah, that one!”
He gave a soft chuckle. He didn’t understand Evie. It seemed the more he tried to get her to leave him alone, the more she bothered him. His cold demeanor had successfully kept everyone else at bay, but she ignored it. She challenged him in the most unabashed way. It was strange for him to be around someone so open, so fearless.
He looked at her. She stood with her arms folded, waiting. She was so tiny. She only came up to his chest. A tiny, little powder keg. She was not what he had expected the day he’d so rudely accepted her into his home. She had stayed in her room for an entire week. He had barely seen or heard her. Then, when she’d had enough, she’d sought him out with boldness and voiced her opinion of him. She had been continuing to voice that opinion ever since. He was coming to realize that she had many opinions. Their discussions on literature had proven that.
With a sigh, he turned away from her and toward the French doors. He admired Evie for the courageous way she seemed to stride through life, but he couldn’t be like her. Not anymore. His time had passed. He glanced back at her over his shoulder and opened his mouth to speak.
“A compromise then,” Evie announced, stepping toward him. “We’ll get the pizza to go, but we’ll eat it down on the beach, away from people. You can read or draw if you want. You don’t even have to talk to us. Seth and I can entertain ourselves.”
He frowned and turned back to face her. ”You want me to go and just sit there like a bump on a log?”
She shrugged. “That’s entirely up to you. Do whatever makes you feel comfortable. Just go with us, okay?”
He gazed down into her hazel eyes and had to look away. She had sensed what he was going to say before he’d even said it. She had known he would refuse and she sought to change her plans to make him comfortable. Why? He was nothing to her, no one. Yet, all she seemed to care about was getting him to have fun, getting him outside of himself, getting him to smile. Smiling… Just a moment ago he had been sobbing. If only she knew the sorrow he carried within him every day…He sighed in defeat and nodded slowly. “All right,” he murmured.
Evie blinked, as if wondering if she’d heard him right. “All right?” When he nodded again, she grinned and jumped, clapping her hands together. “Woo hoo! All right, come on then. We’ll leave soon.”
He smiled at her obvious enthusiasm. “Give me just a moment. I wish to take a small canvas and my oil pastels.”
She nodded. “Just meet us downstairs when you’re ready.” She met his eyes and flashed him a delighted smile before leaving the room.
Traevyn watched her go and sighed. The acute pain he had been feeling moments ago returned. The shadows beckoned him, waited in the darkness to consume any light his soul might hope to steal. He closed his eyes and turned his back on them. Not now. He would not return to them now. They would be waiting for him later like they always were. For now, he would try to pretend. Pretend he was human. Pretend he was whole. He would fail, he knew, but he would try. Evie’s kindness deserved at least that much.
Chapter Seven
There was nothing more beautiful than a sunset over the water. Traevyn watched as the sunlight sparkled across the rippling waves and he sighed. It was fog free at the moment, and he relished in the splendor of nature’s art. He heard Evie’s laughter ring out. It diverted his attention from the sunset to her
and Seth. They were down by the shore hitting a volleyball back and forth. The sunlight glinted off of the blonde streaks in her hair and highlighted the brown so it looked bronzed. She screamed as Seth hit the ball too fast at her, and she had to flail her arms erratically to hit it in time. It shot off into the waves as she accidentally punched it at a funny angle.
Seth gave Evie an exasperated look, and she dissolved into giggles. Traevyn looked back down at the drawing he was working on. He continued to add colors and lines, making it come alive, adding dimension.
Evie glanced over at Traevyn as she waited for Seth to retrieve the ball. He was drawing still. It was what he had been doing for the past hour. They had eaten their pizza with Seth and her exchanging most of the conversation. Traevyn had listened quietly, had thrown in a comment now and then. He hadn’t been rude or unpleasant, just quiet and reserved. He’d eaten, then started drawing, and that’s what he had been doing ever since.
“What are you looking at?” Seth asked, coming up next to Evie as he tried to dust the wet sand off of the volleyball.
“Traevyn,” she replied softly. Seth glanced over at him and Evie sighed. “Right before I went to ask him if he wanted to come eat with us I heard him in his bedroom sobbing. I mean really sobbing, Seth. Crying like his heart was shattering.”
Seth frowned. “Are you serious?”
She nodded. “It was horrible.” She continued to let her gaze roam over him. He had his knees up, the canvas balanced on them as he drew. He had a slight frown of concentration on his face and his ebony hair spilled all around him, glistening in the light from the setting sun.
“Why don’t you go talk to him?” Seth suggested.
Evie stared at her brother in confusion. Seth was not known to be all that empathetic.
He shrugged. “Maybe he could use some company.”
She sighed as she glanced back at Traevyn. “Just put the volleyball back in the trunk when you’re done.” She headed up the beach and sat down next to Traevyn. “What are you working on?”
He gazed at his drawing for a moment, then glanced up at her. “Tell me what you see.”
She studied the drawing. It was a rough sketch of the ocean, the waves large and chaotic, yet serene somehow. The sky was gray with fog, and the tendrils of it were reaching out and curling around the silhouette of a man with long hair. Through the gray covering was a thin shaft of sunlight, enough to give the silhouette a shadow. The shadow was a misshapen heart that was rent in two and looked like it was bleeding. Evie’s heart twisted painfully at the image, but she tried to keep it professional. She didn’t want Traevyn to know she suspected anything. He didn’t know she had heard him crying. “This person is staring out at the ocean because it is peaceful to him,” she said. “The fog represents darkness reaching out its fingers to grasp him. The shaft of light shows that he sees just enough light and beauty in the world to remind him of what hurts him the most, which is symbolized by the shadow.” She looked up at him to see if she had come anywhere close to the mark.
“Very good,” he said, his voice hushed.
Evie pointed to the still blank fourth of the canvas. “It isn’t finished yet.”
He gave a thoughtful frown. “You finish it.”
She looked up at him in surprise.
“I want to see how you would complete it,” he said, setting the canvas aside. “Do it whenever you like and let me know when you have finished.”
She blinked in bewilderment. “A—All right.” Her? Finish his own work? How could she even hope to create anything that would complement his extraordinary talent? She was an amateur and he was a master.
He leaned back on his elbows with a sigh; Evie looked away from the drawing and over at him. “Are you happy you came with us? Or are you just humoring me?”
He met her eyes and his lips turned up into a small smile. “I am glad I came. It’s very nice out here. Peaceful. The ocean brings such peace to me.” He turned his gaze back to the setting sun. “Evie, thank you for inviting me… And changing your plans to make me comfortable. It was very thoughtful of you.” His dark brows drew together. “May I ask you a question?”
She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. “Go ahead.”
“Why do you pursue me the way you do?”
She frowned. “Pursue you?”
He nodded. “I was anything but polite to you on your arrival and have been nothing short of a complete ogre. Why do you still seek to include me? To talk to me? To give me your kindness?”
Evie blinked. “Well, because, Traevyn…” She shrugged helplessly. “I’m living in your home. It’s not in my nature to be rude even if it’s in yours.” She gave him a teasing smile, then sobered and shook her head. “You really are my favorite artist. I’ve always been drawn to your work. When Professor Roth told me about the opportunity to be your apprentice, I was excited to think I’d finally get to see what the man behind the art was like. I’m coming to realize that you are just as intriguing and complex as your work. So, I guess you could say I’m drawn to you as well.”
He sat up and met her eyes again with a kind of befuddled wonder.
Evie blushed and looked down. “Sorry, that kind of sounded like I was hitting on you. I wasn’t.” She tucked her hair behind her ears in her telltale nervous gesture.
He smiled at her obvious embarrassment. “You’re drawn to my work, you say?”
She nodded. “I always have been. The first time I saw your work was when I went to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. My senior art class went there for this end of the year trip in high school. I saw your painting Escape Into Fantasy and I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.”
Traevyn swallowed painfully. That painting had been of his wife. Her golden hair had taken up most of the canvas like an aura, and her deep blue eyes had been beckoning, inviting. That seemed like a lifetime ago…
“I bought a bunch of your postcards in the gift shop,” Evie continued with a giggle. “After that point I kept up constantly with your work. I have all of your prints and your art books.”
He smiled wryly. “I spawned a fan off of that one painting?”
“Well, not just that one. It was Innerworkings of a Creative Soul that really got me hooked. It was such a contrast to the other painting. A lot of your early work had so much vibrance and color, where the work you’ve done within the past three years is so much darker. I admire your diversity.”
He shrugged and a lump formed in his throat. “It’s not talent. I paint what I feel. Simple as that. My life changed, therefore, my work changed.”
She seemed to notice the bitterness his voice carried. “Does it really bother you that I try to be your friend? If it does, I’ll leave you alone. I just…” She worried her bottom lip with her teeth and shrugged.
He sighed. Sometimes he really wondered what was going on inside the woman’s head. He thought of her interpretation of his painting. She was so astute. So astute it was frightening. At times he swore she could read him like an open book and he prided himself on being able to remain aloof and stoic. He didn’t exactly know how to handle her unique ability. It made him uncomfortable and piqued his curiosity all at the same time.
“No Evie, it doesn’t bother me,” he murmured. “Do not take my cold demeanor as annoyance. When you first came here, I resented it because I feared change in a life I was very used to, but I am not irritated by your presence any longer. You are very intelligent and very kind. I do enjoy your company.” Against his better judgment, he had to admit it was true. He had grown to look forward to their discussions. Evie was in a class all of her own. She was not one of the mindless, witless masses. She walked her own path, spoke her mind, and did so with abandon.
Evie looked at him and smiled. She jumped as the volleyball suddenly made contact with the side of her head, sending her glasses flying. Seth’s laughter quickly followed. “Thanks a lot, Seth,” she grumbled.
Traevyn picked up her
glasses with an amused smirk and handed them to Evie, who had just hurled the ball as hard as she could, sending Seth running after it. “You have to love him. He’s your brother,” he stated.
She snorted. “Doesn’t mean I have to like him.” She shoved the glasses back on her face in annoyance.
He smiled. “I have two younger brothers. They used to drive me crazy.”
Evie briefly thought of the pictures she had seen in his office. She wondered if the two men in the photos were his brothers. They had all resembled one another. “What are they like?” she questioned.
He gave a whimsical smile. “Julian works at an animal clinic. He’s an assistant until he finishes school to become a veterinarian. He has a very gentle soul. Talis is a tattoo artist, and he travels with renaissance fairs pretending to be a knight and playing guitar for the belly dancers.”
Evie raised her eyebrows. “That’s an interesting profession.”
He chuckled a little. “Talis is the sort of person who wants to sample as much life as he can.”
She smiled. “Are you close to your brothers?”
“Yes. They are the two stabilizing rocks in my life. They are the support beams on which I stand. They are all I have and everything to me.”
Evie thought of the deBoer family. With the exception of Barrett, that was how they viewed one another. She envied that. She watched as Seth started to walk back up to where they were sitting. She wondered if she would ever be able to view him as a stabilizing rock and support beam. Maybe when he wasn’t seventeen. “My family’s not really close,” she said. “My parents have jobs that keep them away a lot of the time. My friend Meg has this family and circle of friends I’ve always been horribly jealous of. They’re all so close. That’s something I’ve always wanted to have one day.” She stared out at the ocean wistfully and sighed as the last remnants of the sun dipped beneath the horizon line.
“The stars will be out soon,” Traevyn remarked. “If you ever get a clear night, there is nothing more magnificent than the night sky away from city lights.”
Dark Masterpiece (Serendipity Series 3) Page 6