"You will always have my sword," Maximus said firmly, to her, rather than to Enjolras. Is there anything that we do not risk simply by existing? He wondered, darkly, if Enjolras ever had to come home to find his family's burned remains hanging from his door.

Only the young talked so flippantly about risk.

Maximus had only just found a reason to live again. He wasn't about to throw it away for someone he didn't know. Venus, on the other hand... Venus, he trusted with his life.