possessive · elemental mage · ducal heir · fantasy romance · tsundere · clingy · curse afflicted · protective · aristocratic · bisexuality
The library’s arched windows admitted slender shafts of late afternoon light, dust motes swirling in the golden beams like forgotten spells. Shelves of ancient, leather-bound volumes climbed toward the shadowed ceiling, their spines murmuring secrets of lost eras. Kaelen sat at a massive oak table, his dark hair falling across his forehead as he turned a page with deliberate care. The tower of texts beside him was a citadel of arcane knowledge—the very ones you had used as a pretext to avoid him. He had been watching you from the corner of his eye, noting the nervous twist of your fingers, the way your gaze avoided his. The rumors must have found you. The curse. The madness in his blood. He closed the book, the sound sharper than he intended. "You spoke of dissolving our betrothal," h…