At Your Service

Chapter 3- The Garden Before Dawn

The night had barely surrendered to morning when Prince Delvin stepped into the royal gardens. Mist curled low across the trimmed hedges, turning the marble statues into pale ghosts. The world was quiet—too quiet for a kingdom as crowded as Celestia. But perhaps that was why he chose this place, this hour. Only here, only now, could he breathe.

He arrived early.

He told himself it was habit—soldiers rose before sunrise, kings-in-training earlier still. But the truth pressed against him with every slow step he took toward the center fountain: he wanted to be there first. He needed to be.

He had not slept. Not well, at least.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the faint tremble of Violet’s hands as she lit candles in the library. The way her gaze lingered on him a moment too long before she remembered who she was and who he was. The sound of her voice when she whispered, “You should go, Your Highness.”

He had gone.

But he had not left her behind.

Delvin reached the fountain and drew in a slow breath. The water shimmered in muted silver, reflecting the sky’s earliest pale blue. He rested his hands on the edge of the stone basin and tried to steady himself.

He had fought wars at eighteen.

Led battalions at twenty-two.

Buried friends and enemies alike.

He had never feared anything—not swords, not politics, not the storm of expectation.

But the thought of what he was about to do with a servant girl…

That terrified him.

The faintest breeze stirred the hedges behind him. He turned sharply—not in hostility, but in anticipation he wished he could deny.

Violet stepped into view.

She wore a simple white dress, her cloak drawn around her shoulders against the morning chill. Her hair, still slightly damp from an early wash, framed her face in soft waves. She looked innocent. Untouched. Too pure for the world he came from.

And yet, she had come.

Her eyes widened ever so slightly when she saw him. “Your Highness… I didn’t expect you to be here already.”

Delvin forced down the surge of feeling her presence brought. “I arrived only a moment ago.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie.

She approached cautiously, as if the garden had suddenly become a battlefield. But there was something else in her—curiosity, maybe. A pull she didn’t want to name.

“You shouldn’t be alone with me,” she said quietly. “If anyone sees…”

Delvin stepped closer. Not enough to frighten her—just enough for honesty.

“I didn’t ask you to come here because I care for what others see.”

Her breath caught. She looked away, the morning light warming her cheek.

“Then why call me here?”

He swallowed, searching for the right words.

Because he couldn’t explain the way her laugh had carved into him.

Because he couldn’t ignore the way she saw him—him, not the prince, not the warrior, not the kingdom’s chained heir.

Because for the first time in years, he felt something alive inside him.

But Delvin had never been good with feelings. Swords and strategies—those he understood.

The heart was a battleground he was ill-prepared for.

He took a slow breath. “Because I needed to speak with you without masks. Without roles.”

She lifted her gaze. “I’m not sure I know how to do that.”

“I’m not sure I do either.” He paused. “But I want to try.”

Silence fell between them, heavy and charged. Violet’s fingers twisted around the edge of her cloak. Delvin watched her—watched the uncertainty, the hope, the fear.

He took one more step toward her. She didn’t retreat.

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what you said last night,” he confessed. “That you don’t have a place to be seen.”

She inhaled sharply.

“Violet… you are seen.”

Her lips parted—soft, surprised, disbelieving. “By you?”

“Yes.”

The word escaped him before he could stop it.

She folded her arms around herself as though trying to contain the tremor that passed through her. “Your Highness, if someone hears you say things like that…”

“I don’t care.”

“You must.” Her voice was almost a plea. “You are a prince. I am—”

“A woman,” he interrupted. “A woman who stands here at dawn because she felt something too.”

Her eyes flickered—fear, nerves, truth.

He moved closer. Their breath mingled in the cold morning air. He could see the pulse fluttering at her throat. He had seen men stare death in the eyes without trembling. Yet this girl—this quiet, gentle girl—was shaking.

And he was the cause.

He softened his tone. “Violet… I need you to understand something.”

She held his gaze, though her hands trembled.

“What?”

He hesitated. The confession clawed inside him. “For years, I have been everything my kingdom needed. A soldier. A shield. A future king. But somewhere along the way, I lost the part of myself that belonged to me.”

Her eyes softened.

“And when I look at you…” His voice broke slightly—barely noticeable, but to her, it was everything. “For the first time in a long time, I feel like he’s still there.”

The wind rustled the garden trees. Violet didn’t speak. Her throat worked as if she were swallowing words she dared not voice.

Delvin took her hand.

She gasped.

He held it gently—far gentler than anyone would expect of a warrior prince. His thumb brushed over her knuckles. She didn’t pull away.

“Tell me I am not alone in this,” he murmured.

She closed her eyes. “You’re not.”

It was barely a whisper. Barely sound at all.

Delvin felt something crack open inside him.

But before he could speak again—before he could ask the question burning in his chest—a sudden snap echoed from the hedges.

Violet jerked back, startled.

Delvin reached instinctively for the dagger concealed at his belt.

Nothing moved.

A bird, perhaps. Or so he told himself.

Still, Violet’s heartbeat was racing. He could feel it even with distance between them.

“I should go,” she whispered, stepping away. “This is dangerous.”

“Stay.”

“Your Highness—someone could be watching. Someone could have heard.”

He clenched his jaw. The thought twisted like iron inside him. He had spent years understanding the cost of duty. But now, for the first time, the cost felt like a threat.

“I won’t put you at risk,” he said quietly. “Not because of me.”

But she shook her head. “It isn’t you that puts me at risk. It’s what I am.”

He frowned. “What does that mean?”

She hesitated.

And then—slowly, painfully—she let the truth uncoil.

“My mother was not born a servant.” Violet’s voice was barely audible. “She was a noblewoman from a fallen family—accused of disloyalty years before I was born. There are families in this palace who believe her bloodline should have been erased. If they discover I’m here…” She swallowed. “I cannot be seen with a prince. It would destroy me.”

Delvin’s breath stilled.

He understood politics. He understood bloodlines, alliances, silent wars fought with secrets. But he had not expected this—not from her, not here, not now.

He stepped closer. “Violet… why tell me this?”

“Because you deserve to know why I cannot be what you want.” Her voice broke. “And because if I disappear one day, I want you to know it wasn’t by choice.”

His chest tightened. “No one will take you from here.”

“You can’t promise that.”

“I can.”

“You can’t,” she whispered again, almost desperate. “You are not from this kingdom. You don’t understand how they hide their knives behind smiles. You don’t know the families who want the old blood erased.”

Delvin didn’t care. But her fear—that, he cared about.

“Violet,” he said firmly, “I will protect you.”

She blinked rapidly, trying to hold back tears. “I don’t need a prince to save me.”

He stepped so close their foreheads nearly touched.

“Then let me be the man who wants to.”

Her breath hitched.

The world narrowed—just him and her, the cold air between them warming, the space shrinking until—

Footsteps. Fast. Heavy. Coming from the east archway.

Delvin stiffened.

Violet paled. “Someone’s coming.”

“Stay behind me,” he whispered. But she shook her head frantically.

“No—if they see me with you—if they see us together—I’m done.”

“Violet—”

She pulled away just as a voice shouted from beyond the hedges.

“Search the gardens! She was seen heading this way!”

Delvin’s blood ran cold.

She?

He reached for Violet—but she stepped back, terror in her eyes.

“I have to go,” she whispered.

“Violet—wait—”

But she spun, darting toward the back path—and ran straight into two palace guards.

They seized her instantly.

Delvin strode forward with lethal fury, but one guard barked, “Stay back, Your Highness.”

The other dragged Violet’s arm up, forcing her to kneel.

“We found her,” he said. “The girl suspected of spying.”

Violet’s scream ripped through the garden.

“NO! I’m not—I didn’t—I swear—!”

Delvin’s vision went red.

“Release her,” he growled.

The guards hesitated.

“We were ordered by the king’s council,” one stammered. “She’s to be questioned—privately.”

Delvin reached for his dagger.