“Hey now, you were supposed to bemygood luck charm today,” Garrett huffed.
Bridgette hummed, her eyes twinkling with amusement. “Guess you’ll have to share, love.”
Arlon couldn’t quite decipher the twin looks that flashed his direction. All he knew was that he left the dungeon feeling lighter than air.
10
Summer crept on, and as the weeks passed, the heat outside drove Bridgette down into the dungeon with Arlon and Garrett more and more often. Her company was welcome, and not just because she was happy to refill their water jugs or fetch towels when they sweated through their clothes. Her presence changed the whole tone of their sparring matches from strenuous lessons to something far more fun.
“C’mon Arlon, you let him have that one!”
Arlon chuckled breathlessly as he lay sprawled on the mat, trying to cool off after the most recent bout. “You want to try and do better?”
Bridgette grinned as she tossed a towel onto his face. “I would, but Garrett doesn’t like how I spar.”
“That’s because your version of ‘sparring’ usually involves putting a finger in me,” Garrett snorted. “And we’re fighting down here, not fucking.”
“Shame,” Bridgette tsked. “Don’t get me wrong, I like watching you two spar, but it would be far more exciting if more fingers went into Garrett.”
Arlon laughed as he rolled onto his front to give his back a chance to cool off. And if it had the added bonus of hiding how his cock had perked up at that idea, he kept that to himself.
Between the three of them, they fell into an easy routine. They’d wake up, get breakfast in the mess hall, and head down to the dungeon together. But that routine was interrupted when they arrived at Fawn’s office one morning and found the door locked.
“Oh, hell,” Arlon muttered. “I forgot Fawn said she would be using the dungeon today.”
“For what?”
“It’s for—uh.” Arlon paused, wracking his memory for the Maeve wizard’s name. “Ivarrian’s mastery petition. I think they’re going for transmutation.”
Garrett’s lips quirked into a grin. “Good for them.”
“So long as Fawn leaves them in one piece, that is,” Bridgette pointed out.
Garrett chuckled. “Less good for us.”
Arlon rubbed his neck. “We could always go back to the evocation yard?”
Garrett made a face at that as Bridgette said, “What if I had a better idea?”
“Yeah?” Arlon asked.
“Dmitry invited me to go into town today with Edrei and Magda, but I turned him down,” Bridgette said. “Since the dungeon’s occupied, why don’t we go join them?”
Arlon crossed his arms over his chest, falling quiet. Beside him, Garrett sighed and said, “I don’t know, Bri. After last night, I was sort of hoping for… less people.”
Bridgette tsked before she turned to Arlon. “What about you?”
Arlon blinked. “What about me?”
She rolled her eyes before saying, “Do you want to come?”
For some reason, the idea that Bridgette might want him to join without Garrett there surprised him. Maybe that’s why he fumbled out an uncertain, “I—yeah, I guess.”
Bridgette beamed at him, and the sight made heat creep up his neck. “Then go get changed. I’ll make sure they haven’t left yet. We’ll wait for you out in the courtyard.”
She hurried off down the hall, and all at once, Arlon realized what he’d agreed to.
“You alright?” Garrett asked.
