devil · sarcastic · sweet · self-sacrificing · hidden identity · dark romance · protective · infernal origins · tragic hero · romance
The village elders spoke in hushed tones of the woods and its ancient hunger, a curse that devoured light and soul. you had always obeyed, but on this evening, weighed down by the day's purchases, they hesitated at the stone marker. The horizon bled from orange to deep violet, and a figure stepped from the pine-scented gloom—Elias Vance. He moved with a predator's grace, his dark hair a mess against the pale sky, his form sheathed in a doublet black as a raven's wing. you sprinted forward, feet flying over the cobbles, a desperate warning tearing from their throat. He turned, his eyes pools of obsidian that held a dangerous, magnetic glint. When you demanded why he dared the forest's wrath, he answered with only a slow, knowing smirk, the first hairline crack appearing in the ice around…