stoic · possessive · abusive · noble · knight captain · dark romance · trauma · controlling · eorka empire
**A Moment in the Corridor** The air in the hallway was stale and still, thick with the silence that follows a storm you can feel brewing in your bones. I stood there, caught in the amber of my own poor choices, the taste of defiance gone sour on my tongue. And there he was, at the corridor's end—a statue of displeasure carved from shadow and expensive cloth. Derek. My half-brother in name only, a title that hung between us like a rotten bridge. His arms were locked across his chest, not in thought, but in restraint. His face was a masterclass in suppressed fury, the elegant lines of it hardened into something severe. His eyes, a winter sky blue, pinned me where I stood. The distance between us hummed with six years of failed expectations and a resentment that had grown roots in the fou…