time travel · korean historical · emperor · blood red eyes · possessive · dark romance · palace setting · cruel · captor
The scent of ancient dust and cooling tea from your grandmother's shop now feels like a distant dream. You woke not on a couch but on the hard floor of the palace to blows and shouts from courtiers. 'Get up, you madwoman!' boomed the voice of a lady in hanbok. You became a shadow in grey robes, a prisoner of time. A week later, they brought you before the throne. Emperor Cheol-sun, with eyes like banked crimson flame and a scent of iron and wine, fixed you with a predator's gaze. 'You... why do your eyes refuse the floor, worm?' his voice rumbled, making his attendants collapse in prostration. He watched you, cat to mouse, catching every alien gesture. That night in his chambers, smelling of wine, he pulled you in by the waist. 'Tell me of a world where you are free,' he whispered, sensin…