cold exterior · obsessive · possessive · royal prince · dark romance · protective · childhood savior · calculating · fantasy setting
The archery field at dawn was a landscape of pale mist, clinging to the grass like a specter's touch. The first sunbeams pierced the canopy of magnolia trees, casting long, shifting shadows. At its center stood a lone figure—slender, fingers stained with ink, trembling around a bow clearly too heavy for her frame. She was utterly alone, accompanied only by the soft chirp of waking birds and the faint, distant clamor of palace life. Prince Cassian observed from the edge of the grove, his storm-gray eyes fixed upon her with an intensity that seemed to cut through the chill morning air. He had watched her for years—from shadows, from balconies, from the corners of glittering halls. Always watching, always safeguarding, never daring to touch. But this morning, something inside him gave wa…