Page 47 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

“I’m such an idiot,” Perian told her. “I was worried I was going to be late, and then I might have sort of been hiding from someone, and I just rushed out here without remembering to go by the kitchen.”

Renny laughed, though this didn’t quite hide that she looked tired, more so than the last couple of days. Perian laid out the blanket, making sure to leave plenty of room so that Renny’s brother could join them, just in case. It was a bit chillier today, but Perian wrapped the second blanket around Renny’s shoulders and promised he’d be right back with the food.

“It’s fine,” she told him. “I’m not very hungry.”

“Well, you may not be hungry,” Perian told her, “but I’m starving. I’ve been waiting since breakfast for this meal! Why don’t you decide what the clouds are doing, and I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. I’ll run, promise.”

He left a giggling Renny lying back on the blanket, and he dashed back into the castle, pelted to the kitchen, and managed a slightly out of breath wish for a basket of food as quickly as they could put it together because he was an idiot and had forgotten to come sooner.

Either they had a lot of idiots stop by or they were just really nice about accommodating everyone’s wants and desires, because it was only a minute or two later later that Perian was rushing back to the garden with the basket in his arms. He plowed back down the path, dodged the bushes that were in the way as he heard the sound of Renny’s voice, and emerged into their secret area to the sound of her bright laughter… and just Renny, lying on the blanket looking up at the sky. For a minute, he had really thought her brother had shown up.

“I come bearing food,” Perian told her triumphantly.

“I’m not sure that should sound like such an accomplishment when you couldn’t actually manage it the first time,” she told him as she sat up.

Perian snorted because that was a fair point.

“I also don’t do anything except go to the kitchen and beg for food. Really, it’s probably the least-impressive accomplishment ever.”

This made her smile. “But no one else has ever brought me a picnic, even if they didn’t make it all themselves. So, thank you.”

“You’re very welcome,” he told her, settling onto the blanket and laying out the food, leaving that conspicuous empty space for her brother.

Maybe he was allowed to sort of… test the waters at this point?

“I hope everything was all right yesterday?”

He started to put together a plate of food as she nodded.

“Oh, it was fine.” Then she made a face because they were never going to be able to say those words to one another with a straight face ever again. After a moment, she admitted, “My mother wanted me to spend some time with her in the evening. There was an, um, event that we needed to attend.” She grimaced. “I needed to take a nap in the afternoon to make sure that I would be functional later.”

She addressed most of this speech to her lap, and Perian could only imagine how frustrating it was when her body didn’t do everything she wanted it to do, especially at her age.

“I could have used a nap yesterday,” Perian told her in as matter-of-fact a voice as he could manage, not wanting her to think he was placating her but not wanting to embarrass her, either. “Brannal decided it would be a good idea for me to start learning some defense moves, and I thought it was going to be just the two of us, but he brought a whole bunch of friends to trounce me!”

Renny laughed at his slightly expurgated version of the attempt to teach him how to defend himself, and then she made him demonstrate how he had learned to fall. It turned out it was definitely a harder landing on the grass and dirt than on the mats, but he did feel as though he’d made progress. He remembered falling when he was attacked, when he hadn’t known how to protect himself at all. He hoped he wouldn’t ever need to put what he was learning to good use, but it was much better to know it and not need it than to find himself lacking.

“Can you teach me?” Renny asked.

“Uh,” Perian looked at her blankly. “I’ve had one day of lessons, and you’re surrounded by Mage Warriors and Warriors.”

“They’re busy.”

They had their duty, sure, but so far, they’d pelted Perian with elements, taught him defense, helped him find blankets, heckled him in hallways, and danced with him in ballrooms. He was pretty sure they could make a bit of time for one little girl.

Renny pouted like she’d read his mind.

“They’re not here,” she pointed out.

Perian laughed. Well,thatwas certainly true.

He looked at her slender form, thought of the admission that she was tired. He wasn’t confident he was the best teacher, and he didn’t want her to hurt herself with falls or anything like that.

But he also couldn’t imagine telling her no.

“All right, how about I teach you the most basic move to defend against a man you need to get away from. Not that a woman or nonbinary person couldn’t ever try to hurt you, but if we’re talking about probability, it, uh…”

And then he trailed off, because he wasn’t sure he was supposed to be saying anything like this to a twelve-year-old.

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