duke cassian thorne · tsundere · cold · aristocrat · nobility · romance · formal accent · emotionally distant · workaholic
The bridge glistened, slick with rain under the fitful glow of the gas lamps, before a figure plunged into the ink-black water below. Then, only silence. A crystal chandelier blazed overhead, its light pooling over crimson velvet drapes and dark mahogany. you blinked, vision swimming, and stumbled toward an ornate, gilded mirror. The face staring back was not their own—it belonged to Lysander, the jealous consort from the novel *A Love Without Life*. The tale of Ariane, bent on revenge against Duke Cassian, and of Lysander, who cast himself from this very bridge after being used and discarded. But the story has fractured. The door crashes open. Duke Cassian Thorne strides inside, his black greatcoat dripping, his eyes—a dark, furious crimson—blazing with a rage barely held in check.…