Page 49 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong

Perian nodded. “Which is embarrassing, since we didn’t even go for a big run.”

He barely remembered to feed Prince Horsey an apple and a couple of carrots, then he waved goodbye and headed for his bed. He definitely needed a nap.

Thankfully, it seemed he was not as tired as yesterday, because he woke on his own and found he’d only slept for a little over an hour and was in good time to get ready for dinner.

He cleaned up, having neglected to do so before he fell into bed, carefully dressed in clean clothes, and was waiting in the sitting room when Molun and Arvus arrived with Nisal.

“Look who we found,” Molun said cheerfully. “More company!”

“The more, the merrier,” Perian agreed. “How much of a buffer do you think I need?”

“As long as you don’t mind loud and boisterous, you’ll be fine,” Molun told him.

“And we’ve seen you in a pub, remember,” Nisal pointed out.

Perian grinned at them. “True.”

In truth, he was a little nervous, and he was thankful for the company. In a pub, he was surrounded by strangers, and he didn’t really care what they thought of him. He had a vested interest here in these Warriors and Mage Warriors liking him at least enough not to cause trouble for Brannal and their friends. Most people in the room had probably heard about his injury because it had resulted in one of their own being expelled. Onadal was the one who had invited him, and Perian trusted the man wouldn’t let anything get truly out of hand, but he didn’t actually know how people were going to react.

Going in with three people at his side definitely helped. The room was full of Warriors, noisy chatter, and the sounds of many people eating. But his friends clearly did this regularly, because they just nodded and waved, calling out greetings and smiling as they moved through the room toward Onadal, who waved them over.

“Glad to see you,” he said to Perian, nodding at the others. “Thank you forjoining us.”

They all squished in along the benches, people shuffling until there was room for everyone. Nisal ended up between Onadal and Perian, and Arvus and Molun were on Perian’s other side, like they really were buffering him. Bennan was already seated on the other side of Onadal. He grinned at Perian.

“There you are. How’s it going?”

Perian smiled back. “Good, thank you. No new injuries or trips to the doctor today.”

The smile deepened, revealing an actual dimple. He was almost breathtakingly handsome… and Perian would have cared a lot more if he didn’t have Brannal.

Bennan said, “I’m glad to hear it. It would obviously have been an inferior experience since you wouldn’t have had the best escort ever.”

Perian laughed. “That’s very true. The abs alone almost made the journey worthwhile.”

Bennan and Nisal laughed, Arvus snorted, and Molun looked confused.

“Why exactly was it necessary for him to show you his abs as he was escorting you to the doctor while you were injured?”

“I mean, I can enjoy the abs through clothing as well as when they’re on full display,” Perian told Molun.

Molun’s lips tipped up. “All right, yes, that’s true.”

“The full display was actually today. Someone stripped off their shirt a lot more slowly than I think wasstrictlynecessary.”

Bennan tried and failed to adopt an innocent expression. “It’s always safer to do it slowly. I mean, imagine if I whipped it off and got tangled with my shirt over my head. Think how embarrassing that would be.”

“We would be staring at your abs and wouldn’t notice,” Perian assured him.

Everyone laughed.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Bennan said, grinning.

His eyes strayed, just a little, down the table, and Perian knew what he was going to see if he looked there. Since it was on the same side as him, he played it cool and waited until he was reaching for some food before he peered to his right. Sure enough, the big redhead was a handful of seats down the table.

Perian sat back with a satisfied smile on his face.

Molun nudged him in the side and said quietly, “What’sthatsmile for? I’ve never seenanyone look so happy about their potatoes.”

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