Page 42 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

Once Brannal was back from the water closet, they had an entirely enjoyable lunch, laughing over the plot of Perian’s book—despite Brannal’s scoffing at Perian reading it, he didn’t seem to mind hearing about it—and discussing Brannal’s reading of reports from the traveling Mage Warriors and Warriors. Later this afternoon, he had to report to the Queen and then the Council.

“Better you than me,” Perian told him cheerfully, and Brannal laughed.

They ate a leisurely meal, and it felt a lot like it had before whatever had happened yesterday evening. Perian began to think that he really had blown things out of proportion. Maybe it had nothing to do with him at all, or maybe Brannal had wanted one evening without Perian. He’d taken the time to make sure someone let Perian know he wasn’t available, so it wasn’t like he’d left him languishing alone and confused.

Yes, Perian had been making a mountain out of a molehill.

He was looking forward to this afternoon, when Brannalhaddecided to spend time with him. That was going to be enjoyable even if Perian was supposed to be learning defense. Brannal hurried them along a little at the end, which Perian thought was odd—until they got to the training room, and he realized that Brannal simply hadn’t wanted to belate.

Because all those images Perian had had of the two of them grappling together leading to something even more fun?

Not a chance. They weren’t doing this by themselves.

The saving grace was that Cormal wasn’t there. But Molun, Delana,andNisal were, as well as the man who had been with Molun in the corridor on that first morning, who was apparently named Arvus. That was about as not alone as you could get, and Brannal, who evidently hadn’t been envisioning any of the fun things Perian had, casually explained that he’d asked these Mage Warriors to forgo their usual training session in order to help Perian instead.

He felt a little deflated to realize he’d gotten the idea for this session completely wrong, but it actually turned out to be relatively fun, leaving aside the fact that everyone could beat Perian practically without effort—and that was without resorting to the Mage part of the Mage Warrior.

But he’d known going in that he wasn’t a Warrior of any sort, and while he’d thought he was going to be demonstrating his ineptitude only to one person, they had surely all already been aware he couldn’t match any of them when it came to force.

First, Perian learned how to fall correctly so he was less likely to injure himself if someone brought him to the ground. They’d started in the training room because it had mats on the floor to lessen the impact.

Then he watched the others demonstrate a number of different holds and defenses. It now made more sense that multiple people were there because where you hurt people was different depending on what body parts they had and their relative height and strength. It was actually rather heartening to watch Nisal get away from Arvus, given that he was practically twice their size.

“You’re sure you’re not using air to do that?” Perian asked.

Nisal eyed him. “If I was using air, I’d’ve done this.”

And with a rushing gust of wind, Molun and Delana were both knocked to the ground next to Arvus without Nisal needing to move at all.

“You are my hero,” Perian told them seriously.

Nisal laughed.

He wasn’t sure if they’d tried and failed to pull down Brannal or if they hadn’t thought it was worth the attempt.

Everyone climbed back to their feet, and they kept working with Perian to get the form down so that he, too, would be capable of flipping people bigger than he was. He wasn’t as small as Nisal, but they were strong and trained.

It was more useful than he’d thought it would be to watch other people demonstrate the move for him, especially when they were willing to let him watch closely and slow it down. As much as he was likely to be sore later, Perian wasn’t about to complain about a number of fit people pinning him with their bodies, especially when he then had to squirm around to try to get free.

“You know, I can see why you all enjoy this,” Perian announced as Arvus pinned him.

Brannal pulled Perian to his feet, and Molun laughed when Brannal was the one who paired with him next. Perian hadn’t been trying to make him jealous, but being pinned to the ground by Brannal was hismostfavorite, so he really didn’t mind the results.

Brannal was an exacting teacher, correcting Perian’s stance and efforts, but it was clearly with the goal of making him better at it. This might not be his favorite way to get sweaty, but by the end of the session, he was out of breath, definitely sweaty, and had succeeded not only in getting away from each of them, but he’d even managed to bring them down at least once as well. Admittedly, they’d been teaching him how to do it rather than exerting their full force or actually making an effort tostophim, but Perian was still proud of himself.

Being able to pin Brannal to the floor was a highlight. And despite the room of onlookers, Perian didn’t have the slightest bit of hesitation about grinding down on top of him.

“Oh, yes, I can definitely see why you enjoy this,” he murmured.

Brannal’s eyes went dark and intense, just the way Perian preferred.

“And on that note,” Delana declared, “we’ll be going.”

Perian wasn’t listening.

“Can’t we—” Molun started.

“No,” Nisal said firmly. “They don’t want an audience.”

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