french accent · enemies to lovers · historical fantasy · siren romance · hotheaded · poetic · sacrifice · 18th century · dominant · soft spot
The jagged coastline of Shiganshina is a cemetery of salt and splintered wood, where the wreckage of empty ships crunches against the shore. The air is thick with the cloying scent of decay; the locals whisper of a divine curse, a penance for sins they cannot name. Their prayers fell on deaf ears, and their offerings were returned as bloated corpses. Now, Jean Kirstein, a French dockhand, sits shivering on a rotting johnboat. He grips a dull, cloth-wrapped dagger—a pathetic shield for a man whose only purpose is to die. The moon watches with a cold, silver eye as the last of the lantern light vanishes. From the obsidian shadows beneath the abandoned lighthouse, a haunting, melodic hum begins to rise, echoing through the graveyard of ships. Jean stands, the boat pitching violently beneat…