Page 85 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

Perian made a face and said theatrically, “Ouch.”

This made Renny laugh, and Perian had the feeling the Prince was laughing too. Each day he spent time with them, it seemed more possible that the Prince was really here. Renny’s belief didn’tmakeit true, but the way her belief was sustained through every interaction… well, it was easy for Perian to believe it was possible.

“Do you have horses at home?” Renny asked.

Perian told them all about his stables, which still contained all the horses they’d had when his father was alive. It would probably make more sense to let some of them go now that it was only him, but Perian hadn’t been able to do it.

The expression on Renny’s face said she completely understood. It might have made more sense to get rid of Prince Horsey, after all.

It began to rain, but only speckles. They carefully tugged the blanket a bit off-center so they were no longer directly under the opening at the top of the bush.

“None of my horses are as temperamental as Prince Horsey,” Perian said with a smile. “They’re all quite good-natured. There are several people who will ride them while I’m gone and turn them out into the spring paddock to let them get fat on plenty of grass and oats. We don’t have too complicated a life there.”

“You miss it?” Renny said.

“Sometimes,” Perian admitted, much like he had with Brannal. He wondered if he seemed homesick, that they were both asking that. “There are aspects of it I enjoy very much, but also parts that are lonely and just so very different from here. I would certainly miss the people here if I were there.”

“But it’s your home,” she pointed out.

He nodded. “It is. I have a ton of fond memories, and I really enjoyed the time I spent with my father.”

Renny had lost her father when she was six, he remembered, and maybe this wasn’t the sentiment he should be sharing with her, but she just nodded.

“I’ll never get to make more,” Renny said quietly, “but the memories I do have are mine.”

Perian nodded. “Yes, exactly. Home definitely makes me think of my father, and it’s near trees and water and fields, and oh, it’s just wonderful. I love riding. But feeling at home isn’t just about a place. It’s also about people and maybe how you feel about yourself. I can’t quite envision never going back to it, but it’s also hard to imagine never seeing any of you again and spending the rest of my life there.”

“Does it have to be one or the other?” she asked with a frown.

“I genuinely hope not!” he answered promptly, and she grinned at him.

He continued, “I don’t know what the future will bring. I’m going to enjoy everything I can here, but the rest of my life has taught me that I definitely can’t anticipate what will come.”

She nodded again, that too-wise look in her eyes.

With a sigh, Perian admitted, “But one day, I’m sure I’ll go home again. That’s just how it works, right? And if I’m lucky, I can hopefully keep coming back here to visit.”

Though Perian couldn’t envision facing with any grace the prospect of coming back here at some future point and Brannal being involved with someone else. But hopefully by then, he’d have the distance he needed.

“And maybe we could visit you?” Renny proposed brightly.

“You’re welcome any time,” Perian promised.

He doubted this was a practical invitation, but he meant it. Renny immediately peppered him with more questions, wanting to know exactly what they’d do when they were there and how big the house was and what room she would stay in and what horse she would ride and what food she would eat.

Perian answered as best he could. Renny’s life was very constrained. Even now, there were Warriors right outside the bushes. What was the harm in imagining a rosy future?

She seemed happy, overall, and Perian thought she looked less tired than she had before. She was still too skinny, and she wasn’t exactly brimming full of energy, but it was better. Right now, things were good. The future would come.

Sure enough, it was soon time for Renny to go off to her lessons, and they agreed to meet again tomorrow.

There were no extra Warriors waiting for him when he emerged from the bushes, allowing him to relax, and Renny went off with her escort while Perian ran by the kitchen to return the basket and then up to Brannal’s room to drop off the blankets.

He still had time until he was meant to meet Brannal, so Perian grabbed a book and settled by the fire. He’d thought it would be a good one to learn more about demons, butAmong Us: Carnalions in Our Midstturned out to be a lurid novel with a carnalion who went round seducing and killing people for no discernible reason. The author hadn’t even gone to the trouble of suggesting it was the only way for him to survive. He just seemed to methodically kill people. A flip to the back showed that it ended in flames, and Perian hastily snapped the book shut, feeling a bit queasy. Definitely not.

He still remembered the burnt-out shell of the building where his father had died. It hadn’t made Perian afraid of flames, thank goodness, but it had definitely cured him of any desire to read about gratuitous death by fire. (He was glad his father had been so fond of fires and had often had one crackling in the hearth back home. His father had said as long as you respected it, fire was a wondrous element, and Perian had taken that to heart.)

He was firmly entrenched in the much safer history of the castle when Brannal arrived.

---