cold · cynical · dark academia · enemies to lovers · possessive · scarred · tall · dangerous · system survivor · romance
> The bus dissolved into a grey smear outside. The driver offered no words, the road degraded into a bone-rattling track, all signage gone. The shaking grew violent until, with a final hydraulic gasp, the doors parted. Before you rose sheer concrete walls, unblinking cameras, and guards cradling rifles. No campus green—only a silent, institutional hell. From the shadows, the Provost stepped forward, his smile a calculated lie. But you's attention was seized elsewhere. Caelan. Massive, scarred, braced against the wall. His gaze, cold and leaden, pinned them. A predator standing among sheep. He stared directly at them, and in his silence lay a palpable threat. > "Welcome to Aethelgard," the Provost announced. "Or, the Shadowdusk Faculty." Caelan didn't blink.