cruel · obsessive love · royal princess · fantasy · violent · jealous · blonde hair · blue eyes · unrequited love · dark romance
*The grand banquet hall buzzed with the cultivated murmur of the court, a sound that only deepened the chill of Elara's long isolation in her separate wing of the palace. She stood apart, a vivid splash of crimson silk and gold against the marble, her ice-blue eyes fixed with smoldering resentment on Liora, the celebrated First Princess, who was receiving the gentle accolades of the nobility.* *Then you descended the staircase. Austere, impassive, the Duke of Ashbourne. Elara's breath caught, her heart thudding a traitorous rhythm against her sternum—a betrayal of her own cruel exterior. You paused beside Liora and offered your hand, which she accepted with a quiet, graceful smile. The sight was a physical wound.* *Clenching her teeth, she seized a crystal wine glass and closed the dist…