Chapter One
Onadal, the captain of the Warriors, was a firm taskmaster. Perian was never going to be a Warrior, but he’d been granted special permission to train with the novices so he could learn to better defend himself. He was therefore spending three or four of his mornings with the Warriors and getting much better about blockingandhitting back, if the situation called for it.
Plus, he got to spend a lot of time with fit, sweaty people. It wasnota hardship.
Well, not in that way, anyway.
Perian was at least able to demonstrate he was already able to fall, thanks to a previous lesson with Brannal and some of his fellow Mage Warriors.
“So you’re only mostly useless,” Onadal said, looking incredibly tall as he stared down at Perian with his stern, dark eyes.
His hair was just starting to go a bit gray at his temples, making him look very distinguished and even fiercer.
Perian nodded, flat on his back on the dirt ground of the training yard in the castle’s quadrangle. He was a bit winded. “That’s why I’m here to learn. Unless you want me to fall over or knee someone in the balls, I’m kind of out of luck.”
This caused a general round of laughter, and even Onadal looked ever-so-slightly amused as he reached down and clasped Perian’s arm to help haul him up.Everyonein the castle had heard how Perian had taught the 12-year-old princess—who he hadn’t known was a princess at the time—how to knee someone in the groin.
Perian definitely didn’t have the expertise of the Warriors, and he knew it. He didn’twanttheir expertise, to be perfectly frank. Warriors and Mage Warriors didn’t just keep the castle and its inhabitants safe, they fought demons to keep the whole country safe. Perian just wanted to be a little safer against other humans since he’d been attacked leaving a pub during his stay here in the royal city. Thankfully, Brannal had not only rescued him, he’d brought Perian here to heal and then asked him to stay for a while. So here he was, trying to become a little more self-sufficient amidst having lots of sex and cuddles with Brannal and going on picnics with princesses.
Although there wasn’t quite one body type when it came to Warriors, big and strong was the prevailing trend. As a result, there were some Warriors who didn’t seem to think much of tall, slender Perian being there. Thankfully, they appeared to be in the minority. (And while Perian didn’t like to make assumptions based on gender, he couldn’t help but notice that most of them wore the round beads in their hair that marked them as male. What was it about Perian’s presence that could possibly threaten them?)
The remaining Warriors divided into three groups: the ones who shrugged him off and let him go about his business while they went about theirs, the friendly group who supported him regardless of what he looked like… and the group who seemed to find him highly attractive, either because they weren’t attracted to people as well-muscled as themselves or because their desires were diverse.
Perian, likewise, was very happy to enjoy the view of anyone who didn’t mind being appreciatively stared at. Spending time with Brannal was always his most favorite activity, but that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy looking at other attractive people. Plus, he had to admit the more recent additions to his schedule—defense and dinner with Molun and Arvus—made him feel a lot more included in the castle as a whole. He was never going to know everyone, but this connected him to more people directly.
There was less than a week until Brannal had to head off on a patrol that would take him away from the castle and Perian, and Perian wanted to maximize their time together. He didn’t get to see much of Brannal during the day, since the man was busy completingall the many duties required of Summus, the head of the Mage Warriors. But they were often able to meet in the late afternoon, or at least for dinner.
That evening, after Perian had completed his training, had lunch with Renny, and gone for a ride, he asked Brannal on the way to dinner in the dining hall if he’d like to go out to the pub—only he’d foolishly not taken into account that Molun was nearby, and before they knew it, Brannal’s enthusiastic best friend had ensured that half of the Mage Warriors were going out with them as soon as dinner ended. They all trooped from the castle down the cobblestone streets to the pub in one large, chattering, and rather intimidating group. Also an extremely attractive group: all those muscles and all that leather armor were hard to ignore.
And of course, as far as Perian was concerned, Brannal was the best-muscled and most handsome of the lot. He was tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed, and basically made of muscle. He filled out his leather armor better than anyone Perian had ever seen.
Brannal looked more bemused about the outing than anything, but he’d allowed himself to be persuaded along.
“Did you not do things like this before?” Perian asked, trying to figure out the dynamic.
“Not often,” Brannal admitted, shrugging. “As Summus, I strive to be present but always a good example, someone the other Mage Warriors can look up to. Dinner with everyone at the castle, yes. Outings with Molun and Arvus or a few of the others, from time to time. But not events on a larger scale unless Molun drags me, which he’s been doing less since he and Arvus got together.” Brannal shrugged. “I often stay behind to make sure the castle is safe.”
Yeah, it wasn’t as though all the Warriors and Mage Warriors could ever leave at once, but while Brannal might be in charge of the Mage Warriors, he didn’t—and couldn’t—protect the whole castle singlehandedly. Perian was glad Molun had been able to get Brannal to come out at least occasionally.
Perian would have preferred if Cormal was one of the ones who couldn’t make it—wouldn’t that make sense, if Brannal came out, then his second-in-command stayed behind?—but he resolved to have nothing to do with him and leave it at that. (Since the incident where Cormal had thrown a fireball at Perian and burned him in the training exercise with the Mage Warriors, they’d mostly taken to ignoring one another. That seemed best foreveryone.)
They streamed into the pub, virtually everyone went for pints, and it wasn’t long before Molun and Arvus were leading the charge out to the dance floor.
“Dance?” Perian asked.
But Brannal shook his head. “You go ahead.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” Brannal agreed, eyes clear and expression fond. “Please go enjoy yourself.”
So Perian headed out to the dance floor and tried to settle into his usual rhythm, moving to the strong beat of the drums as he listened to the strings and pipes and scanned the crowd. There was no shortage of prospective partners, more than one approaching him, but he was trying to find someone hewantedto dance with. Molun and Arvus looked entirely wrapped up in one another, and Perian was steering clear of the other Warriors and Mage Warriors. Even so, there were plenty of pretty people who seemed to be attracted to him, but they weren’t quite right, more handsy than Perian remembered—or maybe the problem was that he’d not objected to the hands previously, whereas now it wasn’t precisely what he wanted.
Before he’d met Brannal, dancing was often a prelude for more. Perian would keep an eye out for an attractive man he was hoping might take him home—or at least out back behind the pub. Now, he didn’t want any of that. There was still a buzz of pleasure, of course, but it wasn’t the buzz he wanted.
Had Brannal ruined him for everyone else? That wasn’t a concern as long as they were together, but Perian knew it couldn’t last forever. What happened afterwards?
He really didn’t want to think about it.
