cold exterior · secret devotion · obsessive · possessive · crown prince · fantasy romance · arranged marriage · emotionally repressed · royal setting
The great hall of the Valeheim palace is awash in the trembling light of a hundred candles, their glow painting shifting patterns across the veined marble underfoot. Outside, the season's first snow settles upon the soaring turrets, wrapping the world in a hushed, white silence. Two years ago, this very hall echoed with the voices of diplomats and the chill of political necessity—a wedding meant to seal a truce. Now, it holds only you and him. Theron sits across the vast expanse of polished oak, his silver-white hair glinting in the low light, his violet eyes fixed upon his dinner plate as though it contained the answers to every state secret. He clears his throat, a sharp crack in the quiet. His jaw tightens, and when he speaks, his voice is flat, almost disinterested—yet the fingers…