Page 59 of The Lost Art of Revealing Hidden Truths (The Lost Arts #3)

“I’m sure we can come up with something,” Brannal agreed. He tugged Perian even closer, his arms tightening around him. “Thank you for letting me back into your bed. And heart.”

“My bed,” Perian corrected. “You never left my heart.”

Brannal kissed him for that, and then rearranged them so that Perian’s back was pressed up against Brannal’s front, pretty much as close as they could get if they weren’t having sex. Perian loved it.

Brannal told him, “You never left mine, either. I’ll work on being much better about expressing it, all right?”

“This is pretty good,” Perian said, surprising himself with a yawn.

Brannal grinned, and he sounded proud when he said, “I tired you out. ”

Perian thought that perhaps the sleepless nights had more to do with it, but he didn’t want to bring the mood down by saying so. He’d certainly enjoyed the workout.

“So good,” he hummed again.

Brannal managed to pull him a little bit closer, plastering them together, and pressed a kiss to the sensitive skin behind his ear.

“So very good. I love you, Perian.”

“I love you, too.”

For the first time in more than three weeks, Perian slept properly.

Waking up was the best , because Perian was perfectly warm and cozy.

At first, he couldn’t figure out why, and then he had a moment of heart-stopping terror that it had all been a dream, but when he opened his eyes, Brannal was right there— and he was more than willing to show Perian that he was here, happy, and determined to make Perian feel good.

They got cleaned up in a very leisurely fashion, and by the time they finally made it downstairs, the staff had evidently come to their own conclusions about Perian’s mood and the sudden arrival of a handsome stranger.

He and Brannal were positively lavished with the best food that Stallor could possibly cook with no warning, in a huge enough quantity that he seemed really to think that they had worked up an appetite.

They had, and Perian certainly had more of an appetite than he had in the last three weeks. Brannal always ate a lot, and he seemed to have no complaints about the food, consuming it rapidly and with every evidence of enjoyment.

(And he poured Perian’s tea. Perian told himself that he was definitely not getting teary-eyed over that.)

“Would you like a proper tour?” Perian asked.

“I found the tour of your bedroom very proper,” Brannal said with a leer that made Perian laugh.

Brannal’s smile turned more genuine, and he said, “But yes, I would love a tour.”

So Perian took Brannal on an actual tour of the house, and if Brannal decided to institute a “we should kiss in every room of your house” rule, well, Perian would be rude to reject it, wouldn’t he?

A few of the kisses got quite heated, but the rule actually worked pretty well to keep Perian moving forward, because he knew he would get another kiss in the next room.

Brannal seemed to be having fun coming up with different ways to do it, using different pieces of furniture or pushing Perian up against the wall, or tugging him down to the rug by the fire. He was definitely invested.

Even with the kissing, the tour was over much more quickly than the one of the castle had been. The house was a decent size, certainly more than Perian needed for just himself, but it was epically dwarfed by the castle where Brannal had spent so much of his life.

But at the end of the tour, he smiled widely at Perian.

“It’s lovely! Not so large that you get lost in it, but not so small that you don’t have room to move around.”

Perian nodded.

“Your father had excellent taste.”

Perian smiled softly. “Yes, Father always knew what he wanted, and he had the money to get it.”

“And he put up cottages where the main staff stay,” Brannal said.

Perian nodded again. “I presume, now, that it was to make sure I didn’t accidentally feed from anyone.”

Brannal reached out and twined their fingers together. “Or perhaps he simply enjoyed his privacy.”

“He must have known the truth,” Perian said. “Bringing me to the house of pleasure like he did when I was old enough, telling me I always had a choice about what I did and when I did it, and maybe I would find that I liked to watch as much as participate. But why didn’t he tell me the full truth !”

It would be an eternal frustration.

“Perhaps he meant to,” Brannal said gently. “Perhaps, like me, he was trying to protect you—and then the chance was taken away from him before he could realize the error of his ways.”

Perian had been about to protest until Brannal had finished.

“Nice save,” he said reluctantly .

Brannal smiled at him, affection and ruefulness both in his expression.

“I can see where he was coming from, and I can also see the damage it did. I don’t believe for a moment that it was deliberate. I imagine he thought he would have a lot more time.”

Perian nodded, because that was probably true. “I suppose I was only eighteen. He no doubt still saw me as a child.”

“When did he take you into the city?”

“I was about sixteen.”

“And before then, you wouldn’t have exhibited any evidence of being a carnalion, would you? He may not have been certain before then.”

As he thought about that, Perian had to concede the truth. He’d thought of it like eighteen years of withholding the truth, but maybe it hadn’t been that simple.

“He could have told me sooner. He could have raised me knowing the truth,” he objected.

“Could he?” Brannal asked. “Really? Our society being what it is?”

What would it have been like, raised knowing that you were something that everyone in the country hated and feared?

Perian huffed. “I can’t be happy about being lied to. But I suppose if he had told me, there’s a chance I would never have risked going into the city again. I might never have met you, and that would have been a terrible shame.”

Brannal leaned in to kiss him.

“It most certainly would have been, though I’m truly sorry for everything you’ve been through since we met,” he admitted. “I know it hasn’t been ideal.”

Perian huffed a laugh. “No, it hasn’t. But at the same time, there have been so many good parts, so many things that I’ve loved, you chief among them.”

Brannal kissed him.

With a smile, Perian admitted, “I’d go through it again for you and Renny and Kee—oh, and for all the good things: for Molun and Arvus and Prince Horsey and Nisal and Delana and Onadal and Chamis and Bennan, for that day Renny’s room ‘flooded.’ There are so many good memories, Brannal, even if there are bad ones, too. ”

Brannal nodded. “I’m glad. And, uh, that does remind me that I brought a few things with me. The letters I told you about, and I packed up your things, and, uh, could we go out to the stable?”

Perian blinked at him. “Oh, do you want to see Warrior? I promise, our accommodations might not be as fancy as the castle’s, but we treat the horses right!”

“Can we take some apples and carrots?”

“Of course,” Perian agreed.

He was always ready to give horses treats, which might be why so many of them liked him.

Perian pulled on a coat, Brannal still ready in his Mage Warrior’s garb. Perian wondered if all his muscles kept him warm all the time.

They walked out to the stable, which was a short walk behind the house, and slipped inside.

“Hello, everyone!” Perian said cheerfully, because he always liked to greet all his horses.

And that, of course, was when he heard a very distinctive snorting and stamping of hooves.

He whirled to look at Brannal in shock, and then he ran to the end of the row of stalls and saw that his ears had not been deceiving him.

“Prince Horsey!” he exclaimed. “Oh, Prince Horsey, I didn’t think I was ever going to see you again! But what are you doing here?”

Brannal came up and handed over the apples and carrots which made a lot more sense now, and Perian happily fed them to Prince Horsey, who gobbled them up like he hadn’t eaten in years. Perian didn’t even need Brannal’s laughing protest to know that was a lie.

“Oats every night, I swear,” Brannal grumbled. “Generally fed to him by me, because he turned up his nose at every stable hand we encountered. I swear, the only reason he let me anywhere near him was because I swore to him that we were coming to you.”

Perian turned to him incredulously. “But how is he here ? Why is he here?”

Brannal smiled gently at him. “Because the Prince wished to express his gratitude to you.”

Perian’s jaw dropped. “Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly—”

Brannal reached out and squeezed his hand.

“Prince Kinan wants very much for you to have Prince Horsey, Perian. He can’t ride him, and he knows how close the two of you have become. He would so much rather that you enjoy him than that he stay in the castle stables and mope.”

Perian huffed a wet sound, eyes prickling with tears again. “Oh, well. I guess I could… Maybe I can hold onto him until Kee can ride him. I could… I could do that. ”

“Why don’t you write to the Prince,” Brannal suggested. “We’ve got a whole fake name set up for you in the neighboring village and everything.”

Perian blinked at him, sure that he’d misheard. “You what?”

And Brannal regaled him with the story of how his group of friends—still friends, always friends, apparently—had conspired to make it harder for anyone at the castle to realize that they were all still going to be in constant contact with him.

The doctor was going to bundle and post their letters, because she frequently corresponded with colleagues around the country, and the Mage Warriors were also going to post them if they traveled.

The letters could be picked up with the supplies from town.

It wouldn’t be the same as actually being there , but it seemed he hadn’t lost all his friends after all.

Perian sniffed, blinking rapidly to try to stop the tears.

“Thank you so much.”

Brannal pulled Perian into his arms. “We all love you, dear heart. There’s nothing we won’t do for you.”

And in that moment, it really felt like that was true. They were determined to make this work, to go around Cormal and the Queen, and Perian was touched.

Prince Horsey neighed at him loudly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, am I ignoring you?” Perian said, pulling out of Brannal’s embrace, sniffing again and wiping at his eyes. “That’s so rude of me when you just got here.” He glanced at Brannal. “Would you like a horseback tour of the environs?”

Brannal smiled at him. “I would love that.”

So that’s what they did. Prince Horsey was definitely a bit fractious, and Perian didn’t think he’d been forgiven yet for effectively disappearing. He was pretty sure Prince Horsey didn’t think banishment was an adequate excuse.

But Kee had apparently given Prince Horsey to Perian, and Brannal had brought him all the way here—as well as Warrior, and Perian could only imagine how that had worked.

He was going to have to juggle all his horses and try to figure out how to convince Prince Horsey that it was all right for him to ride all of them.

He couldn’t abandon the others. Maybe they could work up to it in small doses.

None of the rest of his horses were as moody as this one.

He really would write to Kee. If they figured out a way to get Kee a solid body—that was still so weird —then Perian would be happy to give him his horse back. This was a loan .

Prince Horsey was in a better mood once Perian let him run all around the estate, and Brannal and Warrior were in top form, too.

It was a lovely few hours spent on the land that Perian loved with the person that he most loved in the world.

Perian took Brannal all over: the flat areas, the hills, the sand.

They kicked up great clods of sand as they went along the water’s edge. Prince Horsey didn’t seem to be totally sure that he liked it—but he seemed to be equally sure that it was not going to beat him . Perian laughed and laughed.

By the time they got the horses cleaned up, it was well past lunchtime, but Evalon simply agreed that lunch could be served as soon as they cleaned up.

Perian eyed the sweaty, happy Brannal.

“Maybe an hour?” he suggested.

They came close to rolling their eyes, but agreed, “Certainly, Master Perian.”

Doing something that was perilously close to giggling, Perian pulled Brannal up to his bedroom and then into the water closet. They stripped and had a bath together—“Faster that way!”—that was absolutely not faster than bathing separately but was way more fun.

Oh, Perian had missed this so much, missed the shape of the man, missed how well they fit together, missed how Perian could lean back against that solid wall of muscle and Brannal’s warmth would rival the warmth of the water.

They did eventually get properly cleaned up and dressed again, and Perian didn’t think it was too much past an hour when they were seated for their meal.

His housekeeper didn’t bat an eyelash, but Perian was pretty sure that was because they were a professional and not because Perian wasn’t acting like a lovesick teen.

But he didn’t care. He was so happy that Brannal was here, and while he wanted to just…

live in this wonderful, glorious moment as long as he could, he thought maybe he’d better start preparing himself.

And so, once they’d eaten the majority of their meal and then been served tea and an apple tart that made Perian hum with excitement, he asked the question he’d been dreading.

“How long can you stay?”

He’d take anything he could get, he reminded himself. He would enjoy every moment. It would give him so many good memories before he had to figure out how to wait until the next time.

Brannal froze in the act of pouring the tea. After a stilted moment, he finished pouring for both of them, and then he finally spoke.

“About that,” he said, and then stalled, like he didn’t know how to continue.