Chapter 93
The restaurant Elizabeth chose was nothing like the grand palace dining halls Lucas had expected.
Tucked away on a quiet street near the university district, it was a modest establishment with warm lantern light spilling from its windows and the inviting aroma of roasted meat and fresh herbs drifting through the evening air.
Inside, wooden tables were worn smooth by years of use, and the walls were lined with shelves holding bottles of varying shapes and sizes wines, oils, preserved fruits.
A fire crackled in a stone hearth, chasing away the autumn chill.
"This is... not what I expected," Lucas admitted as they settled into a corner table.
Elizabeth had removed her cloak, her pink hair falling freely around her shoulders.
She smiled at his reaction. "You thought I'd take you to some stuffy palace restaurant with ten courses and waiters judging your every move?"
"The thought crossed my mind."
"The palace is where you eat when you want to be seen," Elizabeth said simply. "This is where you eat when you want to enjoy yourself."
She gestured at the menu written on a chalkboard behind the counter. "Their roasted lamb is famous. Well, famous in this neighborhood anyway."
Austin was already studying the board with the intensity he usually reserved for analyzing opponents. "I'll have whatever has the most meat."
A young woman came to take their order friendly, efficient, and completely unimpressed by the fact that she was serving a princess in a common tavern.
Elizabeth ordered for all three of them, adding a bottle of something the woman recommended and waving away Austin's attempt to pay.
"My treat," she reminded him. "That was the deal."
While they waited for food, Austin leaned back in his chair, his expression thoughtful. "So that thing you did today. With the girl."
"Mira," Lucas supplied.
"Mira." Austin nodded. "You made it look easy. Just walking up, talking, finding common ground."
He shook his head. "But then at the end... that wasn't about getting her."
Austin's black eyes studied his friend. "You could have just walked away. Let her keep thinking she was being smart, being careful. Instead, you gave her something to think about."
"It costs nothing to be honest," Lucas said. "Sometimes it costs something not to be."
Elizabeth watched the exchange quietly, her fingers wrapped around her glass of water.
The food arrived platters of roasted lamb with herbs, fresh bread, some kind of grain dish with dried fruits, and a green salad that Austin eyed with suspicion.
"Plants," he said flatly.
Austin sighed dramatically and took a small portion, as if doing her a great favor.
They ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes, the food as good as Elizabeth had promised.
The lamb was tender, falling apart at the touch of a fork, and the bread was still warm from the oven.
"So," Austin said eventually, pointing his fork at Lucas, "the mission, three days, You ready?"
Lucas considered the question. "Physically, yes. Mentally..." He paused. "The demon generals are waiting for something.
The red-haired woman especially.
She could have killed me in that illusion, but she didn't. She wanted me to suffer, not die."
"Comforting," Austin muttered.
"It tells a lot." Lucas set down his fork. "They're not just mindlessly destroying. There is something they are moving towards, and my guess is that the red hair woman wants the demonic beast for herself. That means she'll try to interfere with the sealing."
Elizabeth's expression tightened. "Can you stop her?"
"I can try." Lucas met her eyes. "Your mother's safety is the priority. If the generals attack during the ritual, we hold them off. Either way, the beast gets sealed."
"And if they attack before?"
Lucas was quiet for a moment. "Then we adapt."
Austin nodded, as he grabbed another piece of bread.
Elizabeth looked between them—these two young men discussing potential death with the casualness of traders discussing market prices.
It was a reminder that despite the easy conversation and shared meal, they belonged to a different world.
A world of killing and being killed, of power measured in body counts and spell strength.
"Does it scare you?" she asked quietly.
Both men looked at her.
"Dying," she clarified. "Does it scare you?"
Austin answered first. "Yeah, Not the dying part, exactly. The leaving things unfinished part." He shrugged. "I haven't done enough yet. Haven't proven enough and Dying now would mean I wasn't able to reach my potential."
Lucas took longer to respond. When he did, his voice was softer. "What scares me isn't death. It's the people I'd leave behind. My mother, Nora, Tracy and Mia. People who need me to be there and also, I have to see how far I can go in this path I have chosen."
The meal wound down, plates emptied and the fire burning low. Austin stretched and yawned, glancing toward the window where the street had grown dark.
"I should head back," he said. "Training tomorrow, You should join me."
"You're leaving?" Elizabeth asked, surprised.
Austin's eyes flickered to Lucas, then back to her. A small smile tugged at his lips. "Yeah, still tired." He stood, grabbing his jacket. "Good food. Good company. Lucas—" He clapped his friend on the shoulder, leaving.
He was gone before Elizabeth could protest, disappearing into the night with the easy grace of someone who moved through shadows as naturally as light.
Suddenly the table felt smaller. The fire seemed warmer. Elizabeth became acutely aware of the distance between them—close enough to touch, far enough to feel the space.
"He did that on purpose," she said.
"Probably."
"He thinks—" She stopped, cheeks flushing.
Lucas turned to face her fully, his blue eyes calm but focused. "What do you think?"
Elizabeth took a breath. The princess, the future queen, the girl who had watched him charm a stranger and then break her heart with kindness—she set aside all of it and just spoke.
"I think you're confusing," she admitted. "I think you're dangerous in ways that have nothing to do with fighting. I think when you look at someone, you actually see them, and that's rare and terrifying." She met his gaze. "And I think I want you to look at me like that, Just me."
Lucas was silent for a long moment. Then, slowly, he reached across the table and took her hand.
"Can I ask you something first?"
She nodded.
"Kaya." He said the name quietly. "You've seen her. You know she cares about me."
Elizabeth's heart clenched, but she kept her expression steady. "Yes."
"She's beautiful, Talented, She'd be good for someone who could give her what she needs." Lucas's thumb traced slow circles on the back of Elizabeth's hand. "But that someone is or isn't me."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't love her." He said it simply, without cruelty. "I care about her. I'd fight for her, protect her, die for her if I had to. But love..." He shook his head. "That's different."
Elizabeth waited.
"There's someone else," Lucas continued. "Nora, She's my fiancée."
The word hit Elizabeth like a physical blow. She started to pull her hand back, but Lucas held on gently.
"Let me explain."
She forced herself to stay still, to listen.
"Nora's clan arranged it when we were children. Political thing—two families with old connections, trying to strengthen bonds." Lucas's voice was calm, but something beneath it carried weight.
"Her parents raised me after my clan fell. They're the closest thing to family I have, besides my mother."
"And Nora?"
"Nora is..." He paused, searching for words. "Nora is the reason I'm still human. After the war, after everything I saw and did, I could have become like my old master. Cold, Calculating, Willing to sacrifice anyone for my goals." He looked down at their joined hands.
"But she wouldn't let me. She just... loved me. Stupidly, unconditionally, without asking for anything in return."
Elizabeth's throat felt tight. "So you love her."
"Yes." The word was quiet but certain. "Not the way a husband loves a wife—not yet, maybe not ever. But I love her, She's my family, She's the part of me that still believes the world is worth saving."
He looked up, meeting Elizabeth's eyes. "So I'm asking you, Liz. Knowing that knowing there's someone else who will always be part of my life, who I'll never abandon, do you still want me?"
The question hung between them, heavy with honesty.
Elizabeth thought about it, About Kaya, who looked at Lucas like he was sunlight.
About Nora, this unknown girl, About herself, sitting in a modest restaurant, holding hands with a boy who had just told her he belonged to someone else in ways she couldn't compete with.
And she realized—she didn't want to compete.
"I don't need you to be mine alone," she said slowly, understanding the words as she spoke them. "I need you to be honest with me. To look at me the way you looked at Kaya and what you are willing to do for her."
Lucas's eyes didn't waver.
"I want you," Elizabeth continued, her voice stronger now, "knowing that Nora exists. Knowing that you'll always protect her. Because that's who you are—someone who protects. If I tried to take that from you, you wouldn't be Lucas anymore."
She squeezed his hand. "So yes, I still want you."
For a long moment, Lucas simply looked at her. Then, slowly, a smile spread across his face not the careful, controlled expression he wore with others, but something real and unguarded.
"You're remarkable," he said.
"Took you this long to notice?"
He laughed softly, and the sound was warm. "I noticed. I was just waiting to see if you'd run."
"Where would I run to? You're the most interesting thing in this kingdom."
They were both smiling now, the weight of the conversation lifting into something lighter, brighter.
Elizabeth leaned forward slightly. "So. What happens now?"
Lucas leaned closer too, closing the distance between them. "Now, I stop thinking about missions and demons and politics, and I focus on something else entirely."
"And what's that?"
Instead of answering, he kissed her.
It was soft at first—tentative, questioning. Then Elizabeth's free hand came up to rest against his cheek, and the kiss deepened into something more certain. When they finally pulled apart, both slightly breathless, the fire had burned low and the restaurant had grown quieter around them.
"Well," Elizabeth murmured, her forehead resting against his. "That was worth the wait."
Lucas's smiled "Yeah."
They sat like that for a long moment, the world outside fading into irrelevance. The mission waited. The demons waited. The future with all its complications and dangers waited.
But for now, in a modest restaurant with warm lantern light and the smell of lamb still lingering in the air, there was only this—two people who had found something unexpected, and chosen to hold onto it.
Later, walking her back to the palace through streets lit by gas lamps and the occasional magical glow-stone, Elizabeth linked her arm through Lucas's.
"Nora," she said quietly. "Will she hate me?"
"No." Lucas's voice was certain. "She'll probably want to meet you. Ask you a thousand questions. Decide if you're good enough."
"And if I'm not?"
"Then I'll have two women trying to kill me instead of one." He paused. "Worth it."
Elizabeth laughed, the sound bright in the night air. "You're impossible."
"So I've been told."
They walked in comfortable silence, the palace gates appearing ahead. Before she went inside, Elizabeth turned to face him one last time.
"Three days," she said. "Come back."
It wasn't a question.
Lucas nodded. "I will."
She kissed him once more—quick, soft, a promise—and then disappeared through the gates, her pink hair the last thing to vanish into the shadows.
Lucas stood there for a long moment, his mind on a single thing, "I have to grow stronger and as fast as possible."