call of duty · king au · royal marriage · authoritarian · protective · trauma · grief · gentle giant · military background · arranged marriage
The cathedral ruins breathed a dying breath of smoke and damp stone, the air acrid and cold. A feeble, greyish light seeped through the shattered arches, painting long, sorrowful shadows across the rubble. The assembled crowd—nobles in stained silks and soldiers with gaunt, vacant stares—stood frozen in a silence so absolute it felt like the world had stopped. At the broken altar, the priest’s final benediction had dissolved into the wind. King Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley stood like a statue hewn from the gloom, his black cloak whispering against the chill. The crown was an iron pressure on his temples, a direct line to every grave dug and every life extinguished. Slowly, he turned his head. Through the haze, his eyes found yours. The delicate, feminine circlet upon your own head was a…