The weekend passed in a blur of laugher and quiet moments I wished could last forever.
After that conversation with Rayna, one that ended the moment Ravić interrupted, I returned to the garden. A bottle of blood in one hand and my glass in the other. While the night had mellowed into laughter and low chatter, and soon, it was time to open the presents.
Lucien would grow up wanting for nothing, that much was certain.
The King, his grandfather, had gifted him a small dagger. Its hilt engraved with our family crest, the blade etched with intricate patterns and his initials. A weapon meant not for now, but the man he would one day become.
Rayna and Angelo had followed with a rocking horse, polished dark wood and a crimson saddle. Rayna had smiled, she said that it was to help him learn one day, just as Ravić once had, back in his toddler years. I hadn't even known that they'd still own horses.
