Page 39 of The Lost Art of Revealing Hidden Truths (The Lost Arts #3)

Chapter Seventeen

W hen Perian woke up, he was a bit cold but also cozy, which was nice. He just lay there for a moment, trying to figure out why he wouldn’t feel cozy when he woke up. Why did he feel a bit weird?

Memories rushed back, and he snapped upright, groaning as that made the world tilt and whirl.

“Careful.”

Renny was sitting by the bed? Perian peered at her in confusion, then looked to his left and let out a sigh of relief. There was Molun, just like the doctor had promised, bundled up in bed with Perian.

With a hand that trembled a little, he reached out and felt Molun’s forehead.

He was a little cool to the touch, but Perian could see the rise and fall of his chest, and he could feel the slight hush of breath against his hand when he held it out over Molun’s mouth. It was all right. It was all right. It was all right.

He flopped back onto the bed like he was a puppet whose strings had been cut.

“He’s all right, Perian,” Renny assured him.

This felt like a major role reversal, but Perian supposed he was the one in the bed at the moment, even if he wasn’t injured.

“What time is it?” he asked, throat thick and scratchy.

She handed him a glass of water, and he sat up enough that he could actually drink it. Oh, that felt good.

“You’ve been asleep for almost eight hours.”

“The others!” Perian said with alarm.

“No one else was hurt. Cormal went out with other Mage Warriors and Warriors as reinforcement, and he sent a runner back to update us. There were more lesser demons and wraiths and nightmares, too, apparently, and they’re all being hunted down. They’ll be back just as soon as they can.”

Perian couldn’t blame them for wanting to make sure that the threat was eliminated, especially when it was so close to the city and castle.

He was relieved to know they were all right, or at least had been when the runner left them.

But there were lots more of them now, so they were surely still all fine. Right?

He could already feel sleep pulling at him again, like it was reaching out and grabbing at him.

“Wasn’t I just sleeping?”

“Rest,” Renny said gently. “You’ve been through a lot.”

Perian took up Molun’s hand again, and it was still lax, but he reminded himself that it was with sleep now, and that was so much better than unconsciousness.

It was nice and warm, because they were tucked up in bed, and that was so much better than in a forest or even on the best horse in the world.

“You’re going to be fine,” Perian mumbled. “Just fine.”

He slept.

Perian was roused a few times but it was interspersed with heavy sleep.

The doctor was back, and she was checking the wound again.

She said that nothing had gone wrong, but it was still dangerous.

Perian told Molun that was doctor-speak for everything was going well, and he didn’t need to worry about anything…

He woke again when someone else climbed into the bed, and he saw that Arvus was back.

He wondered if this meant that maybe he should get out of the bed, but Arvus curled up on the other side of Molun and pressed his face into Molun’s neck.

He was clinging to him, and Perian thought that maybe he was crying, and it would probably be more disruptive at this point to get out of the bed, so he would just close his eyes…

Perian woke again when someone else climbed into the bed, and this person smelled like the best person ever. Perian sagged back into him with relief. Brannal pressed a kiss to the side of his neck.

“It’s all right, dear heart,” he said. “We’re all back, and we’re fine. Just sleep.”

Perian did exactly that, and was woken next by the sort of whispered argument that you had when you were trying not to wake people.

“Is this really the best use of your time?”

Ugh. Perian’s least favorite person. All right, not his least favorite, since those had been banned from the castle. But right up there in his not preferred person category.

Brannal was practically hissing. “Being here for my friends and colleagues? Yes, I rather think it is.”

“All cozy in bed together? It’s absurd! It’s not appropriate!” Cormal spluttered.

Brannal’s voice went cold. “I rather think that it is exactly what everyone needs right now. I would really appreciate it if you took your moralizing somewhere else.”

“It’s a sick room!”

“Where everyone is getting what they need to get well!”

The sound of footsteps angrily stamped away, and Perian sighed. Brannal pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Don’t worry about him.”

Perian was too tired to give this much thought.

Another conversation that Perian was pretty sure he’d woken up in the middle of, and he didn’t really understand what was going on.

“Look, I know it sounds ridiculous, but I promise it will help,” Brannal said softly.

A pause, and then Arvus’s deep rumble. “Are you sure? It doesn’t exactly seem appropriate.”

Brannal’s voice was full of entreaty. “It’s exactly what they need. Just trust me, please.”

“If you say so.” Arvus sounded doubtful but agreeable.

And then there were the soft sounds of skin against skin, and Perian breathed in the sweet scent of slowly growing arousal. He let out a pleased huff of breath. Yes, yes, that was definitely what he needed. That was so much nicer than all the worry and injuries.

It was a hand, he thought, a hand moving along a hard cock, and it was moving faster now, blurring up and down, and there was a twist, just the way Arvus liked, and a soft gasp, and he was coming.

Perian drew in a deep breath. It felt like the first deep breath he’d taken in a while, as warmth uncurled inside of him.

A kiss was pressed to his cheek, and Brannal said, “I’ve got you.”

And then there was a hand stroking him, a hard cock grinding against him, and Perian leaned back into it and let the feelings roll over him, let the energy flow into him, where it felt like it was filling him up.

Brannal stiffened against him, and Perian smiled sleepily.

Yes, that was exactly what he needed. It was always the best feeling.

He slept again, because he apparently had the worst manners ever.

He didn’t even manage to say thank you or let Brannal know that had been really good.

There was a lot of sleeping, so much sleeping, interspersed with some jerking off, which was maybe a little weird in bed with Molun when he couldn’t participate yet, but Brannal took such good care of Perian, and he didn’t really think that Molun would mind—apart from feeling left out.

And finally came the time that Perian woke to the sound of another voice, the other voice.

“We should wake up like this more often!”

Perian blinked open his eyes, turning to see that yes, Molun was awake. His face was a little creased with pain, but he was awake and he had spoken words , and Perian was so happy, he burst into tears .

Molun’s face immediately crumpled. “No, hey, why is there crying in my bed? This should be a place for all the happy things.”

He tried to move, but let out a hiss of pain, and then said, “C’mere, c’mere.”

Perian somehow managed to drape himself over the man in a way that was hopefully not making him hurt more, and Molun was patting his back and telling him that everything was fine. Hadn’t Perian been telling him that everything would be fine?

For a few minutes, Perian could only cry harder, which he knew wasn’t fair. This was probably supposed to be Arvus’s thing, but he couldn’t help it, and he couldn’t seem to stop.

Brannal was there, too, cuddling up behind him, and Arvus had reached out a long arm— he was still tucked up beside Molun on the other side—and this was just the best. Gradually, Perian managed to calm down a little, the crying slowly tapering off until he was just lying against Molun’s chest, breath hitching periodically.

“I’m sorry,” Perian said, sniffling. “That was probably the worst way to wake up. I’m just so glad you’re all right.”

He caught himself on another sob, and Brannal leaned in and kissed the top of his head.

“He’s all right thanks to you. He’s going to be fine, Perian.”

Perian sniffed again, and tried really hard not to burst into tears once more.

He blew out a breath that only stuttered a little. “I’m so glad. So, so glad. You don’t know how glad.”

They all hugged him, and Perian closed his eyes for a moment and tried to bask in the presence of all of them here. They were all conscious and well—or at least on their way to well.

It felt like he’d put a ton of energy into denying any other possibility, and his body was kind of reeling from it.

“What happened?” Molun asked. “One minute, victory was in our grasp, the next—” His face squinched up. “Demon?”

“Demon,” the other three answered, and then they took him through everything that had happened.

As terrifying as it had been—and there was part of Perian that didn’t ever want to think about it again—it was already better now that Molun was better. And Molun deserved to know what had happened.

Perian was even able to laugh a little when Molun immediately declared that the demons had cheated, and his team should definitely be declared the winners of the training exercise.

Perian had to tell large chunks of the story, and he tried to skip over some of the worst bits and play up the wonderful parts like Nisal coming in the nick of time, Prince Horsey arriving, Perian having the tonic, and everyone getting naked so that Molun had bandages.

(This made him smile, just like Perian had known it would.)

“You got to partake in the fastest that Prince Horsey has ever run,” Perian assured him. “It’s like he decided to outrun every run that we’ve ever been on. He got even faster when we saw the castle, like he knew just how important it was to get you to the doctor. He was such a hero.”

“I’m astonished that he let me ride him at all,” Molun said, a smile on his face, but eyes more serious. “I assume this was my one and only chance?”