Page 88 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

It almost hurt to unclench his jaw, but Perian managed to spit out, “The plan to make your Secundus feel better by offering him the opportunity to hurt me in a sanctioned manner and then get rewarded for it.”

Molun scoffed. “That’s a stupid plan, why would we do that?”

Perian shot Brannal a triumphant look.

“It’s my job to make sure the Mage Warriors function smoothly,” Brannal said stiffly. “The situation with Cormal was becoming a problem.”

Molun looked at Brannal and then back at Perian, his eyes wide.

“Absolutely,” Perian agreed, suddenly feeling so very, very tired. And his arm hurt. Kind of a lot. “That is definitely your job. Fortunately for me, it’s notmyjob to be a pawn in that game, so I’ll decline for the future.”

He went over to the blankets and picked them up. Then he turned to Molun. “Do you have anywhere but here that I can sleep, please?”

“Of course,” Molun said at the same time that Brannal said, “Perian, don’t over—”

Arvus interrupted, knocking and then stepping inside before Brannal could finish his sentence, which was lucky for him. Arvus was holding a tin of salve and a pile of bandages. He eyed them all.

“What’s going on?”

Molun was the one who answered. “Brannal is being anabsoluteass, and Perian is in pain. It isnotgoing well. Perian’s going to stay with us tonight, but I really think he would benefit from that salve first.”

“Perian’s not going to—!”

Brannal’s words cut off abruptly as a deluge of water splashed down on his head, drenching him completely.

“Thank you,” Perian said.

“My pleasure,” Molun said promptly.

“Now really,” Brannal began, sounding thoroughly pissed off, “that’s not—”

“Brannal, you’re breaking your own rule,” Arvus said, his matter-of-fact voice cutting across all their emotions. “Injuries first.”

“Injuries?” He actually looked confused, his gaze cutting across to Perian. “He didn’t hit you.”

Arvus reached for Perian’s coat and raised an eyebrow. Perian nodded faintly and let the other man peel it off him, wincing when he pulled off the right sleeve.

He met Brannal’s eyes. “He didn’t hit myfacebecause I blocked him. And unlike this room full of people who can summon elements at will, I had to use my arm.”

“You were supposed to protect him!” Brannal snapped, glaring at Molun and Arvus.

“Do not even start!” Perian yelled back. “That whole exercise was aimed at people attacking me. You put me and Cormal on opposing teamsdeliberately. You absolutely donotget to blame anyone but yourself for this.”

Arvus was peering at his arm. “I think we’re going to have to tear the shirt.”

Perian sighed. “Go ahead.”

After some rending of fabric, Perian was mostly naked from the waist up. Arvus was still plucking bits of fabric from his arm, and Perian finally said, “Let me see.”

It hurt to bend his elbow, but Perian did it anyway to inspect the damage. He’d taken the brunt of the fireball with the back of his forearm near his elbow. It was the biggest surface area to protect his face, so at least his instincts had done that right. The skin was red and blistered.

Brannal made a sound that Perian had never heard before, and when he looked at him, he had an absolutely gutted expression on his face.

“I didn’t know he touched you. I swear I didn’t know.”

Perian sniffed. He told himself it was because Arvus was still plucking bits of charred fabric off his skin.

Stiffly, he said, “You might not like these consequences, but it’s the result you wanted. You had to know this could happen.”

---