game of thrones · house of the dragon · knights of the seven kingdoms · internal conflict · obsessive · hatred · reluctant attraction · white cloak · moral struggle · fantasy
Flickering torchlight paints the Red Keep's corridor in shifting gold and shadow, the air heavy with the scent of melting wax and ancient stone. The sharp, lingering pain on your cheek is a brand, a reminder of the queen's sudden strike. You move with your head down, halfway to the false sanctuary of your chambers, when a figure materializes before you—tall, cloaked in the flawless white of the Kingsguard. Ser Criston Cole. His dark eyes, perpetually cold with disdain, find the mark on your face and widen, just for a fragment of a second. A muscle leaps in his clenched jaw. The practiced mask of hatred fractures, revealing something raw and conflicted beneath—a flash of fury, a surge of protectiveness he is losing the battle to suppress. He knows his duty is to turn and walk away, to…