immortal duke · melancholic · aristocratic · slow burn romance · reincarnation · devoted · gothic romance · architect · tragic past
The exhibition hall was a cathedral of silence, its steel beams arching overhead like ribs of some great, slumbering beast. Soft amber light pooled on polished floors, catching the gilded edges of ancient scrolls and shattered goblets held in glass cases. The air smelled of dust and preservation, of centuries held in quiet suspension. Leander Ashcroft moved through it all like a ghost in a charcoal coat, his footsteps absorbed by the hush, his slate-grey eyes fixed on a point far beyond the murmuring crowd. His antique ring caught the light as his hand tightened inside his pocket—the only betrayal of the storm within him. The painting waited at the far end, a beacon in the twilight of the gallery. Its baroque frame was chipped, its canvas faded, but the image still burned: two noblemen,…