Page 91 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

Perian’s heart lurched, and he crossed the room before he even realized he’d thought about moving. He went to his knees beside the other man and laid a hand on his back.

“Hey, it’s all right.”

Brannal looked up at him, and that was when Perian saw he had one of Perian’s shirts in his lap and had buried his face in it. His red-eyed, tear-streaked face. Given that he was still wet from where Molun had drenched him, he was the most bedraggled, most pathetic version of himself Perian had ever seen.

Perian’s heart twinged again.

“I’m so sorry,” Brannal said, voice rough. “I should have been paying more attention. I shouldn’t have come up with that stupid idea to begin with. I didn’t know he burned you, I swear. I didn’t want anything to happen to you.”

Perian blew out a breath.

“I believe you,” Perian told him. “I understand what you were thinking, logically. And itisyour job to make sure the Mage Warriors function.”

Brannal flinched like Perian had hit him. Perian reached out and tangled their fingers together where Brannal still had them clutched against his knees, buried in Perian’s shirt.

Reflectively, Perian said, “I even understand that it probably seemed like a good idea, and also like something I’d be willing to do after the training session with Molun. This was a bit more of a free-for-all, and it was with the express intent of capturing me when I didn’t have any good tools to defend myself. That was, um, harder for me to experience than I thought it would be.”

Brannal made a scoffing sound. “I didn’t even ask you if you wanted to do it.”

“Well, to be fair,” Perian conceded, “youdidask me about the training this morning. I think we can both agree the format and details turned out to be important, and knowing about it and consenting to it in advance would have been helpful. I mean, I could have said no when you announced what was happening, but—”

Brannal was already shaking his head. “That wasnota fair opportunity to refuse.”

“Truly, though,” Perian admitted, “it’s the sort of thing I probablywouldagree to. If you’d asked, I probably would even have agreed to this one, without realizing it would be harder than I thought to have all those people coming after me.”

“I should have thought of that,” Brannal said, face a mask of self-recrimination.

“ButIdidn’t even think of it,” Perian pointed out. “Are you saying you’re smarter than me?”

Brannal opened his mouth, stared at Perian, and then closed it again.

“Good answer,” Perian said, smiling faintly. He sighed and grew more serious again. Quietly, he admitted, “It felt a lot like you set me up. That was not a nice feeling.”

Wincing again, Brannal nodded. “That’s because Ididset you up. I didn’t think of it like that, but it’s I was doing. I thought I had a good idea, and I thought I could execute it without anyone getting hurt. I should have asked for your involvement.”

“That would have been better,” Perian agreed.

Brannal blew out a breath. “I’m not planning on doing anything like that ever again, I swear, but I will definitely, absolutely talk to you first should anything remotely similar reoccur.”

“Thank you,” Perian said quietly.

The other man still looked like he was beating himself up, and it was hard to watch.

“Listen,” Perian said, “I’m still a bit upset, but it’s not entirely at you. I think I had every right to be upset, and your attitude was not helping, but—”

Brannal groaned. “I was an ass.”

“Yes, you really were,” Perian agreed.

That was not at all what he’d been intending to say, but he couldn’t help but agree when it was brought up. He hesitated for a moment, and then decided it was mostly out there already.

“Why were you?”

Brannal was silent for a long moment, and then the words spilled out of him.

“A lot of reasons. None of them particularly good. I’ve never been in a relationship before, and navigating it has proved more challenging than I anticipated. Cormal has already accused me of letting my feelings get in the way of my judgment when it comes to you. I was trying to make sure they didn’t, with the result that I overcompensated drastically. I really did think I’d come up with a clever way to get Cormal off your back, and instead, you got hurt, and you were so upset. It turns out I really don’t like it when you’re angry with me, and I didn’t deal with it very well.” He scrubbed at his face. “And I already missed you and was worried you were going to decide I wasn’t worth it, and then of all the ways you could get hurt, you were burned, the one thing that a Fire Mage most worries they can do, the one thing that most scares people about Fire Mages. I mean, you can hurt someone with any of the elements, but the idea that someone can conjure fire in their bare hands andburnyou—”

Perian reached out and cupped Brannal’s face with his hands. He sucked in an unsteady breath.

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