Page 107 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong

“Let’s go,” he managed to say, before he got too distracted by that heated look.

He also wanted to show that he could compromise, too, and that he understood the importance of Brannal’s role as Summus.

When they got to the dining hall, Molun and Arvus were already there and waved them over to the usual section where they sat with Onadal, Delana, Bennan, Chamis, and a few of the others that he sort of knew.

Perian was pretty sure there were still a few more stares than yesterday, but he didn’t hear anything outrageously rude. No one close to him brought the matter up, except for obliquely, when Brannal asked how the Princess was today. Perian assumed this was to confirm he was still seeing her, but that was all right, he always liked to talk about Renny, and so he told everyone who might be listening that she was doing quite well, that she’d enjoyedher ride the day before—ha!—and that she was looking forward to riding with him again in the future.

Cormal was not at dinner, Perian noticed, and he wasn’t sure if the man was embarrassed, if he’d decided he’d better sit this out if he couldn’t say anything nice—or if he just had a life that didn’t actually revolve around Perian, and he was off doing his own thing.

At one point, Perian realized that after serving himself and Chamis from a large bowl of mixed vegetables, Bennan was picking all of the green ones off Chamis’s plate and putting them on his own. He must have caught Perian staring.

“He doesn’t like green vegetables, so I eat them for him.”

“What, not anything green?”

Chamis’s ears went red, which hadn’t been Perian’s intention at all, but thankfully, the discussion quickly devolved into a discussion of all the foods that people didn’t eat and why—ranging from very sensible reasons to really completely absurd ones, and it left them all laughing.

Perian gave fond farewells to everyone and then headed back with the Mage Warriors to their corridor. Nisal said farewell first.

And then, proving why Perian loved him, Molun asked, “Do you need a blow-by-blow account of this morning? I have details. Facial expressions. I can share it all!”

Perian laughed. “That’s very generous of you. But Renny filled me in—and it wasdefinitelyblow by blow.”

Molun grinned. “She was the best out of all of us.”

Brannal huffed a laugh, but he was nodding. “She outdid herself. I think we all got a very clear idea of what would happen if anyone tried to take you away from her or thought she was not capable of making her own well-informed decisions. She’s not an adult yet, but she’s not the child she was, either.”

“I’m sad I didn’t get to witness it in person, but I almost feel like I was there,” Perian told them. “So if you don’t mind, I’d rather try to put it behind me and go have sex with my man instead.”

Molun laughed, and Brannal and Arvus looked amused.

“On that note,” Brannal said cheerfully, “goodnight everyone, sleep well, see you tomorrow.”

Molun was still chortling as Perian gave a wink and a little wave, and then he andBrannal were safely inside the room.

“Sex with your man, is it?” Brannal asked.

Perian closed the door with his back to it, leaning against the wood.

“What do you think I’ve been wanting to do since I saw you before dinner?”

“And I delayed it for hours? I’d better make it up to you.”

And he did. Against the wall, then in the armchair by the fire, and finally in bed. It was so worth the wait.

Over the next few weeks, Perian was actually able to ride with Renny three more times, and absolutely nothing untoward happened. Kee continued to accompany Perian while they were with Renny, and although he still said it wasn’t the same, he reiterated how much he appreciated the chance. Perian was happy to do anything he could.

He kept working on his defense, and he helped out the doctor and Nisal when they asked for it. He took Prince Horsey out for longer runs.

He spent a lot of time with Brannal, and that was always awesome.

It had fallen into a bit of a routine, and Perian kind of loved it.

This was, naturally, when he arrived at the stables to go for a ride with Prince Horsey and found that Brannal was there in the stable yard. He had both Warrior and another horse saddled beside him.

“Oh,” Perian said, a bit blankly. “Are you going somewhere?”

They hadn’t talked about this at breakfast.

---