Chapter 19
Every Blood Knight was required to train for at least one hour, six times a week, alongside the other knights.
It had been a rule since the very beginning of the tradition, and it was also the only time when the princess was expected to follow her knight instead of the other way around.
Behind the castle, several hundred yards beyond the flower gardens and enclosed by towering hedges, lay the training grounds of the royal soldiers and knights.
They were completely separated from everyone else, and only the king, the High General, the Crown Prince in rare circumstances, and princesses who had already claimed their Blood Knights were permitted to watch the training.
A powerful clash of steel echoed across the meadow, pulling me from my thoughts.
Lys and Corian tested each other's strength and experience with relentless precision. Their sweat-covered bodies moved like serpents, twisting and shifting as they slipped past one another's blades. Every strike carried enough force to send vibrations through the entire field.
I folded my legs beneath me, unable to take my eyes off Lys.
"They're good," Meera said beside me. She had to be here as well.
For years, she had spent an hour of alomost very single day watching these training sessions.
I had to admit she had used that time well, she had learned two foreign languages here and studied the histories of forgotten kingdoms.
Today, for my first visit, she hadn't brought a single book. She simply sat beside me in silence.
"I have to admit," she whispered, leaning toward my ear, "this used to be my favorite part of the day."
"Why?" I asked. She smiled without looking at me and slowly shook her head. "As if you don't know. Her fingers absentmindedly brushed through the blades of grass.
Of course I knew.
My gaze drifted back to the two men before us, two creatures overflowing with raw masculinity, attacking, retreating, and colliding again with almost animalistic intensity.
Their muscles tightened beneath sun-kissed skin with every movement, and under the afternoon light they almost seemed to glow.
I felt Meera gently nudge my shoulder, but I didn't look away.
She laughed softly before standing and wandering a few steps away to pick wildflowers from the meadow.
A warm breeze drifted across the field, carrying with it the scent of fresh earth, steel, old blood… and Lys.
I closed my eyes and let myself fall backward into the grass. It cradled me gently while the wind played across my face No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't silence the guilt lodged inside my chest. The pain I had brought upon myself. I knew I deserved every bit of it.
And yet, selfishly, I wanted it to disappear.
Tears slipped down my cheeks once again, but I didn't wipe them away.
I let them fall while the breeze dried them against my skin.
Several minutes later, Meera returned and sat beside me again.
When I turned toward her, I saw she was holding a small bouquet of delicate white flowers.
With a strange little smile, she began weaving them together.
"What are you making?" I asked, bewildered. "Wait and you'll see."
She finally looked up. For only a second her hands stopped moving after she noticed my reddened eyes and the dried tracks of tears on my cheeks, but she didn't ask what had happened. She simply lowered her gaze again and continued weaving.
I looked back toward the training grounds.
Lys and Corian had paused to catch their breath.
Their chests rose and fell heavily as sweat glistened across their skin.
Corian lifted his waterskin and drank deeply while watching Meera with a quiet smile hidden behind the rim of the flask.
He lowered it, said something I couldn't make out from this distance, then shook his head and walked toward the shade.
Two weeks had already passed since he had become my Blood Knight, yet he hadn't spoken a single unnecessary word. Only the greetings required by etiquette and only the questions duty demanded came from him.
"Do you require anything, Princess?" Nothing more and nothing less was spoken.
Once that would have made me happy. But now… now all I wanted was the Lys that I had met that day at the harbor. The one whose laughter came so easily. The one who looked adorably confused while trying to open Nuso shells.
I watched him drink from his waterskin, his face completely unreadable.
His throat moved as he swallowed, and the veins along his neck stood out beneath sun-darkened skin.
They continued across his powerful arms and down over his bare stomach, one disappearing lower... beneath the waistband of his trousers.
Heat rushed into my cheeks before I could stop it.
When I lifted my eyes back to his face, I realized he had already caught me staring.
Without a single change in expression, he walked toward the shade and sat down on a chair facing directly toward us.
His legs spread comfortably apart as he leaned back, his broad, sweat-covered chest rising and falling with each slow breath.
He held my gaze while lifting the waterskin to his lips once more.
I swallowed against the dryness in my throat. Then I felt warmth pooling somewhere much lower. My eyes widened. Embarrassment washed over me as I instinctively pressed my knees together.
I quickly lowered my gaze before glancing sideways at Meera, who, completely oblivious, continued weaving what had now unmistakably become a flower crown.
I cleared my throat. "Meera?" My voice came out far thinner than I intended. She looked up. "Hm?"
"If..." I hesitated. "If you've hurt someone... really hurt them... and now they hate you... how do you apologize?" For a long moment, she didn't answer. I almost thought she hadn't heard me. But after placing the finished crown gently beside her, she spoke. "Isolde... you've hurt a lot of people."
The words struck harder than any sword. I lowered my eyes, shame burning hotter than the afternoon sun.
She was right. I had.
Never before had I truly understood what that meant.
"I know," I whispered. "And I regret it with all my heart." The sound of clashing steel echoed across the grounds again, drawing both our eyes toward the knights.
"What changed?" she asked quietly.
"I realized how awful I was."The words came easier than I expected. "I realized how many things I destroyed... how many people I mocked and humiliated just because I was bored. Most of them... I'll never get the chance to apologize to." I swallowed. "But him..." I nodded toward Lys.
Understanding softened her expression into a gentle smile.
"I had a feeling you knew each other before. And that whatever happened... you hurt him." She shrugged her dark shoulder. "But that isn't what matters anymore."
She looked at me with complete sincerity. "If you truly feel this way... then simply tell him.“ Her fingers played with her lower lip.
? We're forbidden many things as princesses.
But friendship with our knights isn't one of them."
The word friendship lingered strangely in my mouth. "
He's your knight. He'll fulfill his duty because he has to.
But let him become your friend too. I know this isn't what you hoped for... but trust me. He might surprise you."
If only she knew how right she was.
"And what if he doesn't forgive me?" I asked quietly.
"Then either you didn't try hard enough and made it seem like you never really cared..."
she said calmly, "...or you hurt him so deeply that you simply don't deserve forgiveness."
She looked at me. "They're not made of stone, Isolde. They have feelings too." She said it so simply.
Without realizing how deeply those words carved into me. Or perhaps... Perhaps she knew exactly what she was doing.
The training bell rang and immediately, every soldier lowered his weapon.
Meera stood, brushing the grass from her pale blue dress before walking toward the muddy arena.
Corian, filthy from head to toe, pulled his shirt over his shoulders and smiled as he approached her.
He bowed out of habit, but she stopped him with a gentle hand before rising onto her toes and placing the flower crown upon his damp hair.
I watched him laugh and shake his head, yet he didn't dare remove it. Instead, he waited for her to walk ahead before buttoning up his pale blue shirt and following after her.
And just like that, only Lys and I remained. He approached until only a few steps separated us before bowing.
"Princess." His oice was perfectly flat.
I watched Meera and Corian disappear into the distance, and ithout saying a word, while thousands of them sat trapped inside my heart, but not a single one brave enough to reach my lips, I rose to my feet and began walking back toward the castle.
Lys followed five steps behind me.