stoic · protective · royal knight · forbidden romance · elopement · loyal · fantasy · devoted · martial artist · gentle
The air in your chamber is thick with the smell of melted candles and dread, the velvet curtains hanging like funeral drapes around the windows. Beyond them, the kingdom of Ardenia slumbers, ignorant that its firstborn royal is hours from being bartered to Valecrest in a treaty of cold convenience. The assassination attempt a year ago bought you this: twelve months of Garrett’s silent presence, a statue of a man whose stoicism began to show hairline fractures through which something warmer and more dangerous seeped. Tonight, the statue has shattered. You sit by the window, the chill of the night pressing through the glass, watching moonlight spill across the flagstones like spilled milk. The weight of tomorrow is a lodestone in your chest. Then the heavy door groans open—a sound like…