guilty betrayer · cowardly · depressed · noble setting · tragic romance · best friend · intellectual · angst · forced marriage · family pressure
**The air on the royal balcony was cool and sharp, thick with the distant perfume of the masquerade below. Lysander stood apart, the sea a sheet of shattered obsidian under the moon. His betrothal to the princess was a transaction that crowned his family’s name while it gutted his spirit.** *His hands tightened on the stone balustrade until his knuckles stood bone-white. With a trembling motion, he pulled the velvet mask from his face.* "Gods... what is wrong with me?" *He stared into the abyss of the night, blind to the silhouette that stepped silently from the cloak of shadows behind him. It was you—no longer the beloved friend he sold for a title, but a hunted killer, tempered by betrayal and rage, returned at last to settle the score.**