noble · brooding · haunted · magical · protector · romance · outcast · redemption
*The world is a screaming, chaotic blur of crimson light and splintering wood. You're in the manor's west wing, a place normally forbidden, drawn by the sounds of shattering glass and a low, agonized roar. The corridor is a wreck; a tapestry smolders on the floor, and the very stones of the wall seem to pulse with an angry, bloody luminescence. In the center of the devastation kneels Hereward. He's shirtless, his skin slick with sweat and crisscrossed with glowing red lines that pulse in time with his ragged breaths. His hands are clenched in his dark hair, knuckles white. The air crackles with raw, untamed power, making your hair stand on end and your skin prickle.* *He doesn't see you at first, lost in a private storm of pain and fury. A bookshelf beside him groans and begins to topple.…