The silence in the art room after Nina stormed out was a heavy, suffocating thing. Jake and Ruby just looked at each other, their expressions a mixture of shock and a deep, profound desire to be anywhere else. Thea had stopped drawing, her pencil held motionless over the page.
Kofi just stood there, replaying the argument in his head. Her words echoed in his ears: 'You're afraid to take a risk.'
Was she right? Was he so focused on protecting their hard-won peace that he was unwilling to let their creation grow, to let it become something more than just a safe, beautiful thing?
He looked at the two potential cover images, which Jake had printed out and pinned to a corkboard. The feather. The portrait. Hope versus truth. Safety versus risk.
He had been wrong. It was not a choice between one or the other. 'The Aviary' was both. It had to be both.
He let out a long, frustrated sigh. He had been an idiot. A stubborn, and deeply stupid, idiot.
