Page 69 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong

“I know,” Perian said. “And honestly, if I thought no one else would tell you, I might have tried to pass it off as a regular training injury.”

There was a sudden slosh, and then they were both sitting up and Brannal had twisted Perian so they could actually see one another.

“Don’t lie to me,” he said, eyes serious. “You don’t need to lie. Not ever. I’m sorry if I overreacted.”

Oh. Huh. Perian hadn’t expected a reaction as fervent as that, and it made his heart squeeze. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to Brannal’s lips.

“I won’t, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it worse. I expected a bit of a reaction, to be honest. Molun wasn’t much better when he heard the details.”

Brannal relaxed a little again, and Perian was able to go back to lying against him.

“Oh?” he said, tone almost right.

So Perian told him all about Molun’s little spill-over of elements, and Brannal finally chuckled a little.

“So you got me in the middle of a bath and hoped for the best?”

“Pretty much,” Perian said contentedly, delighted that the tension had diminished so much.

“That was actually pretty smart,” Brannal conceded. “I swear I don’t lose my temper as often as it probably seems like I do with you, but the idea of someone hurting you is, uh, not one I can tolerate.”

Perian clasped Brannal’s hand, pulled it up to his lips, and pressed a kiss to it.

“You don’t have to apologize for that. I mean, it wouldn’t have been good if you’d rushed off stark naked to smite someone down… Wait a second, what am I saying, why would I want to stop you from storming through the castle naked?”

Brannal laughed, making Perian jiggle against his chest, and he smiled to himself.

“What about you?” Perian asked. “I got a little weird a few times, convinced something was going to go wrong and you weren’t going to come back. But here you are, and it doesn’t look like anything happened to you. But I know looks can be misleading. Are you all right?”

“Perfectly fine,” Brannal assured him. “Not a scratch on me. In the spirit of honesty—and not wanting Delana or Cormal to rat me out—therewasa nest of wraiths I helped the fourth district watch station take care of. And two lesser demons. Not at the same time. But like I said, not a scratch on me.”

Perian was silent for a moment. “I can’t decide whether I should be more or less panicked now.”

Brannal huffed a laugh and wrapped his arms tighter around Perian. “You do not need to be at all panicked. I’m here, and I’m fine.”

“But is this a demonstration that you can handle anything that’s thrown at you, so I don’t need to worry, or is it an indication that the world is a terrible, dangerous place, and you were only gone for a week and were attacked twice?”

“The former,” Brannal said promptly.

Perian huffed a laugh. “Are you sure?”

“You were attacked, and you didn’t even leave the castle.”

Perian reached behind him and pinched the other man’s side.

“That’s me and not you, and I wasn’tlookingfor trouble. That other is actually your job.”

There was a long moment of silence and then a very careful, “It’s not going to stop being my job.”

Perian twisted around, sloshing water and not caring, so he could climb over Brannal’s legs and settled in his lap where he was facing the other man, because he didn’teverwant to hear him sound like that again thanks to something Perian had said.

Perian cupped his face with his hands. “I know it’s your job. And I’m so proud of what you do.” He leaned in and kissed him softly, and Brannal returned the pressure, his arms coming up to clasp Perian’s hips, thank goodness.

“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s just… I can’t blow up the room to express how much you being in danger upsets me.”

Brannal smiled faintly, more of the tension fading off his face.

Perian continued, “I wouldn’t ever ask you to stop being you, I promise. I just get worried, that’s all. But I learned this past week that I have some really good friends who will help me when that happens. I don’t think I can ever promisenotto worry when it’s possible you could get hurt. But I’ll try really hard not to let it get in our way.”

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