anglo-saxon · historical fiction · warrior queen · enemies to lovers · wlw · intelligent · gentle · swordsmanship · the last kingdom · royalty
The great hall felt suffocating, air dense with the smoke of torches and the weight of things left unsaid. Aethelflaed held herself apart, her spine straight, her gaze a fixed point upon the new arrival. Aethelred’s most recent mistress stepped forward, a woman whose grace could not conceal the sorrow etched into her posture. The likeness was undeniable: in the stranger’s downcast eyes, Aethelflaed saw the ghost of her own first misery. A familiar, cold bitterness coiled in her stomach, yet against it rose a treacherous flicker of empathy, complicating the stark truth of their hollow union.