Page 109 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

Renny made a totally disgusted face that made Perian laugh.

“You’re old,” she said flatly.

Perian laughed harder. “But we’re alone here because your mother has kindly decided to trust me. I don’t want to abuse that trust.”

She huffed out a breath, not looking totally convinced. “I wouldn’t be looking at your body. I can see you’re pretty, butbleh.”

He couldn’t stop grinning at her, which was better than addressing this serious topic in a serious manner. “You wouldn’t be looking at my burn, either. It’s covered in bandages that the doctor already looked at this morning. I’m not undoing all her hard work just so you can see a burn. You know what burns look like, surely?”

Her eyes were still narrowed. “They look like a really good reason to throw someone in the dungeon and throw away the key. Can’t throw fireballs in the dungeon, can you?”

Perian laughed again. “Thank you. That’s very thoughtful of you, but it wouldn’t actually be helpful right now.”

She still looked mutinous, and Perian realized his attempts to humor her out of this weren’t going to work.

“Help me get the blankets set out,” he requested. “Then I’d like to tell you something.”

Still looking suspicious, she nevertheless helped him arrange the blankets and lay out the picnic, and then they sat down across from one another as usual. Perian greeted her brother, who didn’t seem to have anything to share about Perian’s injury. He wasn’t sure if that was because it was only Renny who was so concerned or if she just wasn’t sharing any of his comments because she was so focused on her own feelings.

Once the food was set out, Perian said, “Thank you very much for being upset on my behalf. I really appreciate it. Last night got a bit messy, in part because Brannal was trying to make sure he was acting like Summus and not… overly concerned about me.”

“Nope,” she said firmly, like her utterance on the topic was the be all and end all.

Perian grinned at her. “You’re not wrong. Brannal didn’t realize I’d actually been hurt by Cormal. I’m not totally sure what he thought—I guess that I blocked the fireball and that it didn’t hurt me.” She scoffed. “Yes, well, as dumb as that sounds, firedoesn’thurt Fire Mages, right? And it was chaos in that room, and he evidently didn’t see exactly what happened.”

“Cormal attacked you!” she growled.

“He did,” Perian agreed. “And I’m not delighted by my burned arm, but it’s much better than a burned anything else. I was really upset and kind of hurt last night, and Brannal and I had a gigantic fight.”

Her eyes grew wide. “You didn’t break up, did you? Am I going to need to throwhimin the dungeons too?”

Perian smiled. “No, I’d much rather keep him in bed with me, if it’s all the same to you.”

She managed to look relieved and kind of repulsed at the same time, which just made Perian’s smile widen.

“Leaving aside any of those bits, like I said, we had a proper fight. We were both upset, and we weren’t communicating very well, but Molun and Arvus showed up, and they took care of my burn, which is when Brannal realized I’d been hurt, and do you promise not to say anything to anyone?”

She perked up immediately at the idea of knowing something that was secret. She nodded, then amended, “Well, Kee and I might talk about it, but he’ll hear too.”

Perian nodded. “That’s fair.”

She nodded again and said solemnly, “Promise.”

“Brannal wasreallyupset when he realized I was hurt. Upset enough that it helped get me past my own feelings so we could actually talk about it. He doesn’t want anything to happen to me… and that’s why he set up that whole training exercise so that Cormal could ‘win’ against me.”

Renny looked outraged. “But you got hurt!”

“And Brannal has solemnly sworn not to do anything like that ever again,” Perian continued to explain. “It’s not what he meant to have happen at all. As annoying as it is, we sometimes do things with the best of intentions that have unexpected consequences. And Cormaldidget to win against me in a room full of fellow Mage Warriors and Warriors. He was very triumphant, and hopefully that means it’s less likely I’m ever going to get hit by a fireball in a deserted corridor one day.”

She huffed a breath that sounded a lot like, “Dungeon.”

“I know I can’t tell you what to do,” Perian went on. Perish the thought of trying, really. “But I’d like torequestthat you leave this alone. I really don’t want to go through anything like that again, and if he feels better now, then that’s better for me. As upsetting as it was at the time, and as much as I don’t think he should have used that much force in a training exercise, itwasa training exercise.”

She made another disgruntled sound. “That’s stupid. You could have really been hurt.”

“And that’s why Brannal is talking to Onadal about me training with the Warriors sometimes so that I can learn how to handle myself a bit better. I mean, unless I carry a bucket of water around with me all the time, I’m not really sure what I could do about a fireball, but faster reflexes can never hurt.”

“A big shield?” she suggested.

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