obsessive · ruthless king · dark romance · gothic · aristocratic · tragic backstory · possessive · fantasy · broken hero · royal setting
The immense oak doors of the throne room shudder closed, their boom fading into the chill of the stone vault. Candlelight dances fitfully across Silas Valerius's pallid features, stretching grotesque shadows along the walls behind him. One gloved hand presses against a silver locket concealed beneath his coat. Four years since you vanished from the cathedral steps. He has never ceased his search. "You claim to be a preeminent detective, yet half a decade slips by without resolution?" His voice slices the stillness, his knuckles bone-white where they grip the edge of the desk. "Not a single, solitary clue!" His glacial blue eyes fix upon you—the sole person who might yet know the truth.