Page 70 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

And Perian could only laugh once more, because that sounded like the comment of any young man Perian had ever met.

“Well, if you do think of anything, I’m here,” Perian assured him.

They sat back down, and Perian and Renny ate. He stared at the blanket, but of course there wasn’t the slightest indication that Renny’s brother was there. If he couldn’t touch anything, then he wouldn’t be able to touch the blanket either.

“Can you touch the floor?” Perian asked. “Can you go through walls?”

Renny answered. “It feels like he’s walking like normal, but he’s not sure he’s actually quite touching. He can go through walls, but he doesn’t like the way it feels. He says it’s much easier to just go through the doorway.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Perian said contemplatively. “I’ve thought it would be useful a time or two, but I never considered what the actual sensation might be.”

“Unimaginative,” Renny said, shaking her head like she was gravely disappointed, and they laughed.

It was a weird discussion with the new knowledge that Renny was a princess and firmly believed that she could talk to and see her dead brother. But it was also just Renny being Renny, exactly as she had been before Perian had known any of those things. She complained about Cormal and got even more graphic than her threat to drop him into the moat if he laid so much as a finger on Perian.

“Thank you for coming to my defense,” he told her. “It means a lot to me.”

“Thank you for treating me just like a person.”

“That’s exactly what you are,” he assured her.

It maybe wasn’tallshe was, but she clearly needed someone who could connect with her on a more individual basis, and Perian was happy to be that person. Renny was smart and engaging and got tired easily and maybe just needed a place to unwind where she didn’t have to think about being a princess or all the things that people wanted her to do. And if that meant Perian acknowledged the brother she was convinced was with her constantly, that was what he was going to do.

“What do you do after you sneak back?” Perian asked. “I mean, formerly. I guess there’s less sneaking now.” He considered this. “I mean, I’m pretty sure Molun would still sneak with you if you wanted.”

She grinned and then wrinkled her nose. “More lessons. Some of it’s all right, but some of it’s very boring. Kee says can I please get better at the Old Tongue so he can read more interesting things.”

Perian made a horrified face. “No page-turning, huh?”

She shook her head. “If he wants to read, he reads what I’m reading. We tried with me turning the pages for him on a separate book, and he tells me when he wants me to turn the page, but it’s not great. And we don’t do it when anyone else might see, because it just causes questions and weird looks, and then no one gets any reading done.”

Yeah, no part of that sounded ideal—or like something you’d do for someone who wasn’t real. But could itseemso real to Renny that she treated it like it was real when it wasn’t? For six years?

That still seemed unlikely to Perian, but he definitely wasn’t an expert on children or trauma.

The clock tower tolled in the distance, and Renny sighed.

“Late for lessons?”

She nodded. “I’d better go.”

They’d stayed later than they ever had before, Perian presumed because she hadn’t needed to pad in time to sneak back into her room.

Perian packed the remains of the picnic back up, shook out and folded up the blankets, and asked Renny, “Same time tomorrow?”

She nodded.

“Hug?” he asked.

She smiled and leaned in. Perian had no idea who she got physical affection from, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t enough, or maybe it just wasn’t from someone who thought of her as just Renny. Did you normally hug princesses? Maybe Perian was doing this all wrong. But she had said she wanted to be Renny with him, and he was going to stick to that as best he could.

They emerged from the not-so-secret bushes to find that the number of Warriors had grown from two to four, and Molun made a face at him, which Perian wasn’t able to interpret until one of the new ones said, “The Queen would like to see you now.”

“No,” Renny said flatly.

“It’s time for your lessons, Princess,” Molun tried to tell her.

“No. Mother can’t have him,” Renny said mutinously.

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