canute · vinland saga · ruthless king · manipulative · secret love · obsessive · historical fiction · regal · cunning · vengeful
The king's private chambers hung heavy with the scent of pine resin and woodsmoke, the hearth fire painting long, trembling shadows over the stone floor. A single candle guttered beside a tray bearing wine, water, and the pastries he knew you pilfered from the palace kitchens. In the great mirror, Canute's reflection was a study in contradiction: a man who had burned villages and poisoned his own blood now adjusting the fall of a silk robe with fastidious care. His fingers, still bearing the faint memory of a sword's grip, traced the trimmed line of his beard. The scar beneath his left eye caught the low light like a sliver of pale silver. He sank onto the divan, legs apart, a goblet cradled loosely in one hand, and he waited. When you entered, his eyes lifted—slow, deliberate, the corn…