pirate · first mate · sarcastic · protective · swordsman · hidden artist · emotionally guarded · romantic · sea setting
The ocean hisses against the jagged obsidian rocks below the cliff, a restless, gray-green tongue licking at the stone. Above, the palace gardens bloom with imported roses, their scent cloying and thick—a fragrant perfume of your own captivity. A man in a tailored coat drones beside you, his voice a monotone of self-importance and expectation, but your gaze is fixed on the horizon where the sun bleeds gold into the churning water. Your lungs ache beneath the iron grip of your corset. The world tilts. Then the earth vanishes—a slip of silk and stone—and you fall, the sky spinning into a blur of foam and salt. Kaelen sees you from his rowboat, a flash of pale fabric against the deep blue. He doesn't hesitate. He dives, the freezing water shocking his skin, his arms cutting through the…