Page 69 of Guiding Desire
“Oh, fine,” Taros said. “But just because we’ll be mission buddies.”
He left the remaining drinks with Vin and Karmine respectively and wandered back into the crowd.
Senlas, instead of letting Orrey sit like a normal person, had him lean against his front as if he were afraid someone might come by and snatch Orrey from his grasp.
“I’m sure all that came as a shock,” Senlas said.
Orrey watched Karmine, who sculpted his fireball into a ring, then a star, then a cube. “You always sound different when you talk to a Conduit, especially your Conduit, you know that, right?” Karmine said to Senlas. He twirled his fire, looked at Orrey. “He usually tells me to complain less and shut up more.”
“That mouth,” Senlas said.
Orrey sighed. Exhaustion was pulling him under, mixing with the confusion, the way reality seemed less solid, just like the city walls seemed less solid, less serving their purpose. And he didn’t want to think about it any longer. “What’s really weird,” he said, “is that you all have a hedge maze designed for fucking.”
Karmine burst out laughing. “Hounds! Spoken like a man who’s never been shown a good time in said hedge maze.”
Senlas, either getting Orrey’s mood or uncertain of how to deal with him, simply stroked his arm. It relaxed Orrey more than he wanted to admit.
“I side with my little brother on the issue of fucking in a garden,” Col said and downed his second drink. “Now, where’s the food? Karmine, you’d better have brought food to cook over that fire.”
Karmine patted the backpack he’d been leaning against. “I even brought candied nalang peel, just for you.”
“Kitten?” Senlas said, his breath tickling warmly against the shell of Orrey’s ear.
“Hmm?”
“We can leave at any time. You just let me know.”
Orrey craned his neck, looking up into the golden leaves. The sky wasn’t visible at all, the tree’s trunk easily large enough for two groups their size to hide behind.
“I don’t think I’ve even seen a tree this size, let alone have a meal under it. I want to stay.”Do people outside the wall eat under trees all the time?he wondered.
“Then we’ll do that. Whatever you want.”
17
SENLAS
Itwasdifficulttostay mad at Col. Mostly. Senlas should have chewed Col out right then and there, because sustaining anger was near impossible when it came to the Conduit. But more importantly, Senlas understood. He could see why Col especially would have wanted to see Orrey’s reaction in a space that could be controlled, and Senlas had no doubt Col had been prepared to mitigate whatever reaction Orrey had had. That they were now all sitting around Karmine’s bonfire laughing and talking was actually a relief.
A relief with some downsides,Senlas thought when he spotted the third member of Team One casually walking past them and looking over with just a touch too much interest. He was just a C-classer, and Senlas wouldn’t get worked up over a C-classer looking at what was his, but it was fucking annoying.
“Will youMovethe skewers?” Karmine said.
“How should I know when to do that?” Senlas said, turning his head back to the fire but still leaving the C-classer in the corner of his eye. He focused on Karmine’s sweet and salty and just plain salty skewers,Turnedthem above the flames.
“It’s like working with half-brained imbeciles who assume food comes from boxes,” Karmine mumbled.
“How many things can you levitate at once?” Orrey asked, which all of a sudden made Senlas focus very hard on lining the skewers up neatly.
“It’s less a question of how many and more a question of how big are all the things you want me to levitate, how distant.” Orrey shifted. He wasn’t quite leaning against Senlas, almost like he wasn’t sure he should. Senlas frowned, then remembered that Orrey still wasn’t thinking like a Conduit who was with his Guardian but like a regular who had—what would a regular man think they’d had?
With a pang, Senlas realized he had precious little idea what expectations Orrey would have brought to a potential dating scenario, and it was upsetting. The lacking clarity bothered Senlas, and he had half a mind to sling Orrey over his shoulder, find a quiet corner, and make him tell everything that was on his mind so Senlas could clear up any confusion.
This would be an overreaction. He’s not yet comfortable leaning against me, that’s no reason to interrogate him about his expectations as far as romance is concerned.
The fingers of his right hand jerked, but Col being Col saw or sensed it with his heightened Conduit radar.
He kicked Senlas in the side. “You should levitate Orrey.”
