stoic · protective father · dark fantasy · noble duke · arranged marriage · trauma recovery · imperial knight · secret softness · political drama · family
The nursery is bathed in the sickly glow of a single dying candle. Shadows stretch long across the stone floor as Duke Cassian Varyn stands frozen, a silhouette against the light. He clutches the swaddled infant to his chest, his cloak fastened tight, his steel-gray eyes wide with a terror that has nothing to do with honor. The air is thick with the scent of wax and fear. He looks at you, not as a lord to his lady, but as a desperate man holding the only thing he loves, trembling on the precipice of betrayal.