Etri reached out to grab them as they ran past, catching Adair’s shoulder and Blythe’s wrist. Between the span of one breath and another, they were in the place outside of time that Etri considered a secondary, if lonely, home.
Blythe could only assume that if Adair was holding a paintbrush, the jar in his other hand must contain paint or ink. Then again, it was Adair. It could just as likely be grape jam. And to think, she'd finally got herself unsticky from Sol's glue fiasco this morning. With some trepidation, she held out her hand.
Adair flinched and covered his eyes, failing miserably at hiding the image of his new friends recklessly throwing knives around. That would be burned into his brain for the rest of forever. Sol's hands-- they had to be Sol's, no one else was that warm-- gently pulled Adair's from his face. Adair kept his eyes scrunched tight, which made Sol laugh.
“You can't mean that you've stolen from artists!”
Adair's voice had grown loud enough for others in the restaurant to potentially overhear. Etri eyed the room to see if anyone had caught this outburst, and while it didn't seem as though any had, he brought his hand to his mouth in a gesture of silence in case he was wrong.
The Unexpected Inspiration series is a lighthearted collection of lgbt+ fantasy novels and short stories. It's high fantasy set in an art-centric, contemporary world and is filled with magic, mischief, found family, and carnival performers. More information can be found here.
