coming 2027
As a custodian in a gallery for magical paintings, she watches over countless moving landscapes, fantastical creatures, and curious portraits. One of them, especially, has captured Elsie's interest and maybe her heart—Theodore Quill, an enigmatic aristocrat who hides within his paintings from all but her.
But Theo is no mere painting, and when Elsie gets the chance to free him, she discovers more than she bargained for. This very ability might be as dangerous to her person as he is to her heart.​​
Meet the Characters
Elsie Lovelace
a docent in the Sinclair Gallery, home to the most eclectic of magical paintings
​First impressions: ​
Elsie had never been particularly fond of regular paintings. She was, however, very fond of limnings—paintings that had come alive. The Sinclair Gallery, home of hundreds of moving landscapes, and sentient portraits, animals and creatures alike, was her personal sanctuary, and Elsie wouldn’t have it any other way.
Sometimes, she thought she might know the gallery better than she knew herself. She had, after all, spent every free minute studying the intricacies of every single painting, no matter how grand or unassuming, as soon as she was old enough to venture into the heart of the city by herself. Much to her grandmother’s chagrin, Elsie’s love for these masterful pieces of art had only deepened every year.
There had been only one possible future Elsie could imagine for herself. She knew she would walk life’s path as a gallery docent, surrounded by her beloved paintings day after day.
art by Roscheri Art
Theodore Quill
a subject of a magical painting…or is he?
​First impressions: ​
Despite being set on turning in early to get a good night’s rest, Elsie’s feet had a different idea and, before she knew it, she found herself drifting through the music room, then the green room, until she was surrounded by the shimmering silvery white wallpaper once more. Her gaze landed on the large painting across from her, expecting the summer meadow to be deserted still, but movement caught her eye. A dark shape emerged from the quaint cottage, and something eased within her. Her muscles relaxed, and she felt a little lighter as Elsie greeted the portrait of Theodore Quill. “Isn’t it a little early for you to be out?”
“Indeed.” Theo yawned, stretching his long limbs towards the cloudless sky. He ambled closer, running a hand through his perpetually sleep-mussed dark locks, his blue eyes a little unfocused.
art by Roscheri Art
The Siren
a creature yearning to be freed from her painting
​First impressions: ​
Stepping into the wood-paneled room, Elsie spotted the newest addition with ease: a golden frame in which a drowned woman floated, naked, surrounded by pink water lilies in a pond so dark it appeared a bottomless pit. Elsie dropped Selma’s hand to take a closer look.
No. It was no drowned woman. With her webbed fingers elongating into black talons and scales of translucent silver covering the skin along her neck, it was most definitely no woman.
It was a siren.
Transfixed by her haunting beauty, Elsie drifted closer. Her fingers itched, and before she could stop herself, her hand rose. Mere inches from the canvas, the air surrounding the painting dropped in temperature, cold enough she half-expected to feel water rippling around her fingertips at any moment.
art by Roscheri Art
The Siren, Selma Sinclair, Elsie Lovelace, Theodore Quill, Simeon Sinclair