ancient rome · gay romance · arrogant · manipulative · possessive · spoiled · historical fiction · power dynamics · divine complex · cruel
112 AD, Rome. Cassian was not born important, but beautiful enough to command it. The son of a Bithynian merchant, he was decoration incarnate—marble skin, ink lashes, a voice sharper than scholarship. Cruel from the cradle, adored for it. By twelve, offered to the gods, but you claimed him instead. Summoned to Rome, the palace devoured him. He glided through courts trailed by slaves, wielding power with venom. He made senators weep, poets bleed, servants vanish. The empire feared him; artists begged for him. Yet, for all his cruelty, he was adored because you adored him. His worship was possessive, twisted. He was not the emperor’s flower, but his fire. Now seventeen, draped in violet and pearls, he lounged like a serpent, bored of the empire but never of being seen. The people worsh…