Their eyes were comically large as they stared at him. Cormal thought briefly about saying something—anything—and decided that really, there was nothing that could possibly help.
“Good night,” he said instead, slowed down by the need to open the cursed door.
“Goodnight, Summus,” Bilorra managed to mutter, but Winroe was still staring at him, eyes as wide as saucers.
Cormal agreed, really.
He closed the door behind him and then shot Kinan a look. He raised his hands and attempted to tack an innocent look on his face.
“Look,” Kinan argued. “You know they were already going to be thinking it when you didn’t come out. I figured I might as well acknowledge it outright.”
Cormal couldn’t exactly fault that logic, given that he’d just agreed that he didn’t mind if people knew. He might not have chosen to go about it quite like that—but he also knew Kinan was sensitive to potential questions about how they could satisfy one another when he was intangible like this.
“I wasn’t planning on being particularly loud tonight,” Cormal said instead.
Kinan’s face lit up. “We could get off right here,” he said, gesturing at the closed door.
Cormal suppressed a smile. “Could we be comfortable in the bedroom instead?”
Like his sister’s room, Kinan’s sported a large sitting room and a lavish bedroom with an attached water closet.
They got cleaned up first—or Cormal did, anyway. Once he was in the water closet, the lure of the bath was strong, and Kinan encouraged him to take one.
“Get properly clean. You’ll feel better,” he added when Cormal hesitated, well aware that there wasn’t anything that Kinan could do but watch. Kinan winked. “You think this isn’t pleasant for me, too, seeing you naked in the water?”
Cormal smirked and filled the tub.
Contrary to what people often assumed about Fire Mages, they didn’t actually hate water. Perhaps it wasn’t the most comfortable sensation, being covered in it, but Cormal vastly preferred a hot bath to a large body of water where he couldn’t necessarily reach fire immediately should he need it. Knowing he could get out easily if he needed to, the hot water relaxing his muscles and getting him clean far outweighed any discomfort.
And true to his word, Kinan watched him avidly. By the time Cormal was thoroughly cleaned, though, the days of traveling had caught up with him, and Kinan cajoled him into bed, where he fell asleep almost immediately.
“Ew, are you sleeping with my brother?”
Cormal’s eyes popped open, and thankfully, his brain seemed to have processed the voice before he could overreact and respond to it as though it were a threat.
He blinked to find the Princess perched on the bottom of the bed, regarding them very judgmentally.
“Renny, is there a reason you’re here this early in the morning?” Kinan interjected, voice scratchy with sleep.
Princess Larenia was not to be deterred, staring fixedly at Cormal.
“Well?” she demanded. “Are you?”
It was one of the first times she’d voluntarily spoken to him since Perian had been banished.
“Yes,” Cormal said, since the evidence kind of spoke for itself. “For reasons best understood by your brother, he’s interested in me. And how could I not be interested in him?”
“Hey!” Kinan protested. “There are so many reasons to be interested in you. And unless you’re really keen on royalty, I don’t see what’s so interesting about me. Unless you like twenty-two-year-olds with a sixteen-year-old’s education who can’t touch anything.”
The Princess made a spluttering noise, and Cormal said heatedly, “Don’t do that! Don’t dismiss yourself like that. You’ve been through something that most people wouldn’t have survived. You loved your sister and protected her so well that not even wraiths could stop you. You came through all of this, and you trusted Perian, and you saw past all my nonsense, and you gave me a chance when I didn’t deserve it. You areremarkable, and I am extraordinarily lucky to have you.”
Kinan sniffed. “I love you, too.”
The Princess let out an annoyed huff, and Cormal turned to look at her. Her expression was very serious.
“If you hurt my brother, I’m going to knock you unconscious, tie rocks around you, and dump you in the moat so you drown.”
“Renny!” Kinan yelped.
