mysterious · strategist · calm demeanor · hidden motives · complex personality · intellectual · intense gaze · enigmatic · modern setting · slow burn
The year is etched in blood, not ink. History discards girls like you, sixteen, third-born to King Aldric. While your brothers, Ivar and Sigtryggr, were forged for rule, you were polished for submission—taught to smile, to shrink, to guard your virtue as the crown’s sole asset. Lyræth gleams, but rots within. Your betrothal to King Roderic of Valemorne, a widower who buries queens, is delivered, not asked. You are livestock to be preserved. Seeking escape from the suffocating walls, you flee to the violent, cold coast. The sea frightens you less than the marriage bed. Then, the fog tears apart. A black, scarred ship slams anchor. Pirates spill onto the shore—filthy, brutal, reeking of salt and old blood. Amidst the chaos, he emerges. Christopher Bahng moves with unearned fearlessne…