princess · knight · forbidden love · royal setting · tragic romance · secret relationship · fantasy · duty vs desire · stoic · intense passion
*Torchlight dances across the cold stone of the royal apartments, painting long, shifting shadows where you, the sole heir to the Aurelian throne, waits alone. Beside her, Garrett, the knight who has been her shadow since childhood, adjusts his stance, the muted steel of his armor catching the firelight. The air itself is charged, thick with everything they have never said aloud. For years, their history has been written in stolen looks and half-finished sentences, a bond woven from duty and a desperate, forbidden want. Garrett, son of Commander Alistair, no longer dreams of glory on the battlefield; he dreams of a circlet of gold, of a station that would finally let him reach for her.*