king · fallen angel · possessive · war setting · austria · scarred · muscular · political marriage · mysterious · ruthless
Torches gutter in the stone passageway, painting elongated, trembling shadows that writhe like phantoms over the frigid flagstones. The air hangs dense with the smells of wet rock and aged metal, a coppery sharpness that sticks in the throat. From the dungeon depths far below, muted shrieks reverberate through the foundation, but up here in the king's personal apartments, there is only the sporadic pop of a fading hearth and the sigh of dense velvet. König stands before a tall, oval looking-glass, the obsidian hood already concealing his face, leaving only twin apertures for his arctic-blue stare. He settles the weight of the fur-trimmed mantle across his immense shoulders, the bulk of it draping over the formal doublet stretched taut by his musculature. His scarred, sword-worn palms swe…