Page 90 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

“You need anything else?” Arvus asked, nodding at the burn.

Perian shook his head. “No, it’s all right.”

Arvus nodded, but said, “We have more bandages and salve should you need it. I’ll leave this one here. The only ones who don’t get burned around here are the Fire Mages.”

Perian scoffed. “Figures.”

“Doesn’t it?” Arvus said lightly. “So, I think sometimes they forget how much damage it can do.”

Huffing a breath, Perian said, “You are annoyingly sensible, did you know that?”

Molun slipped an arm around Arvus’s waist. “That’s why we love him.”

Perian could only smile at the very real affection between the two of them. Perian wanted that, but he had to admit that he’d only seen the two of them on a handful of public occasions. He hadn’t interacted with them overly much, and he didn’t actually know what they were like when they were alone. Did they fight? You never knew a person just from seeing how they behaved in public—and Perian supposed you didn’t even know a person completely from seeing them in private. It gave you more insight, but what someone was actually thinking and feeling could be hidden and buried. There were certainly times Perian didn’t quite know what he himself was thinking or feeling, so how could he expect to fully understand another person?

But he could try. It took effort, though, because sometimes it was complicated and maybe painful, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth it.

“All right,” Perian said. “Thank you so much for coming to check on me.”

“Of course,” Molun said, like it was a given.

Like they were friends.

“Hey,” Perian added, before he could change his mind. “Did you maybe want to have dinner together? At some point?”

They both smiled at him.

“We’d like that,” Arvus agreed as Molun nodded. “With or without Brannal. We mean that.”

Perian smiled. “Great. Thanks again.”

He was pretty sure it would be awkward without Brannal, but he could imagine Molun just saying ridiculous thing after ridiculous thing until they got over it.

But given a choice, Perian was pretty sure he’d still rather it waswithBrannal.

“We’d better get going,” Arvus said. “But you can come by anytime. You remember which room is ours?”

“Across and to the left?” Perian asked.

“That’s us,” Arvus confirmed.

“Just come on in,” Molun said cheerfully. “Arvus is a heavy sleeper. He might not hear you.”

Perian was totally going to knock. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Molun assured him.

Arvus raised his voice. “Brannal, we’re going.”

“Stop being an idiot!” Molun admonished.

Arvus rolled his eyes, amusement evident, grabbed Molun by the arm, and tugged him out of the room.

Chapter Seventeen

Perianwaitedforamoment, but Brannalstilldidn’t emerge from the bedroom, and now Perian was actually a little bit worried. Unless the other man had gone in there to get Perian a shirt and fallen asleep, there was really no reason for him to be gone this long or ignore his friends leaving.

Perian approached the room, stuck his head cautiously inside, and looked around. For a moment, he couldn’t see Brannal at all, and he had a wild, irreverent thought that maybe the man had gone out the window or through a secret passage… and then Perian spotted where Brannal had slid to the ground next to the wardrobe where Perian’s clothes were, knees pulled up to his chest and face buried in his knees.

---