Page 27 of Honorable Convictions
“I like hugs. It seemed appropriate.”
“I know you like hugs,” Pierson said, focusing on the television where they had yet another love story playing. “You’re always touching people.”
“That almost sounds like jealousy, Blondie.”
“It would be ridiculous for me to be jealous of your apparently affectionate nature.”
Mitchell smiled. Pierson hadn’t denied that he was jealous, which meant he was at least somewhat engaged in this matebond process. And, the truth be told, Mitchell made sure he doled out hugs when Pierson was around. If his mate wanted to object and demand the same for himself, Mitchell was happy to oblige. “I can’t help that I’m cuddly.”
“Mmhmm.”
It was a murmur of agreement, but Pierson sounded skeptical. Mitchell didn’t want to fight about it. Although he wanted to show Pierson how affectionate he’d like to be, it was too soon. Pierson was skittish and would probably spout off more separation agreement nonsense if he wasn’t careful.
Mitchell studied Pierson’s profile and decided they needed a change of subject. “How do you think we died?”
His words got Pierson’s attention, and his expression was incredulous. “How would we know? We have no memory of it.”
“We were warriors of some kind. Those are the only kind of people that become fallen knights. The three men who did get their memories back were all murdered. Do you think that happened to us?”
“You probably got us killed somehow.”
“Blondie, I’m hurt. Why would you assume it was my fault?”
“I think we must’ve died together.”
“What evidence do you have of that?”
“No one else but us and the RKs were resurrected together. I think it had to be because of the way our lives ended.”
“Having two examples isn’t much of a precedent, Blondie.”
“Well, the odds of any other fallen knights, including us, regaining any memory are virtually nil. The RKs were a special case as the Arch Lich stole their bodies with the help of the other Council leaders. VK Arvandus was the first fallen knight resurrected after them and regained his memory because his other half survived him and is still alive. He’s vocal now about the things that separated him from the others, and no one has come forward with a similar story.”
“He lacked any sexuality,” Mitchell remarked. “It’s been my experience that most fallen knights are pretty bold about theirs. I’ve been to plenty of parties over the years where I got to witness people hooking up. Therefore, I’m willing to agree with you on the idea that we aren’t likely to find fallen knights with stories like our RKs and VK Arvandus. We aren’t going to ever know how we died, but we can speculate.”
“Unless those people are ones that have yet to be resurrected, you are correct. There’s always the possibility that the future will bring unique cases.”
“This is true, but for the purpose of this discussion, we’ll stick with current information.”
“That’s a pretty formal statement.”
“Well, I am a Juris Knight,” Mitchell said. “I spend a lot of time being paid to argue.”
“It’s funny that you’ll make statements like that and then in the next breath argue that you weren’t supposed to be a Juris Knight.”
Mitchell was taken aback, and he had no idea if Pierson had a point. Was he intended to be a Juris Knight and happened to be good at the physical aspect of training? “You’ve given me something to think about.”
“Good. Put that right under your obligation to seriously assess this matebond and its complete inability to succeed.”
“It’s interesting that your theory is that we died together and yet, we’re somehow not truly intended to be together in this life.”
“Touché.”
“You’re conceding that we made it work at least once.”
“Or maybe we were unhappy together, and our deaths together was a tragic accident.”
“Come on, Blondie. You have to know that’s a weak-ass argument.”
