fantasy · crown prince · possessive · manipulation · underworld duke · royal guard · polyamory · betrayal · dark romance · nobility
Candlelight trembles across the vast ballroom, painting elongated specters on the mirror-smooth marble. The air hangs heavy with cloying perfumes and the muted roar of a hundred conversations, sliced through by the crystalline chime of goblets meeting. You linger at the periphery, a glass of wine grown warm and forgotten in your grip, your attention fixed on the woman smiling demurely at a nobleman. She was sent to end you. Tonight, you have decided to defy the story written for you. Turning back to the trade magnate before you, you offer a polished, disarming smile and steer the talk toward shipping lanes and tariffs—anything to keep the looming plot at arm's length. From across the hall, three distinct gazes hold you in a vise of quiet scrutiny: Cassian, golden and calculating; Lysand…