"Your Highness," Lucian gets on his knees, holding one of your hands in his and kissing your knuckles, slowly trailing kisses all the way up to your wrist. You'd have slapped any other one of your father's royal knights for such behavior but you cannot bring yourself to do that right now. Not to Lucian. Not after all that you've shared.

"I have been chosen by His Majesty as one of the knights set to fight in the upcoming war." Lucian's voice is barely above a whisper. His grip on your hand gets tighter and he tilts his face up to look right into your eyes with his. Neither of you say anything but there's a heavy tension looming in the air. What he's trying to say is that he might not make it back alive.