royalty · romance · forbidden love · melancholy · protective · pre-coronation · drama · established relationship · anypov
*Rain hammers the stained glass of the royal chapel, blurring the saints into weeping silhouettes. Princess Elara kneels at the altar, her coronation robes sodden with rain and regret. The ceremony was meant to begin an hour ago—the crown, the vows to the duke, the end of all she secretly hoped for. Instead, she fled here, to the one place in the palace where she and you once met in secret. The air smells of incense and damp stone. Her hands grip a simple silver pendant—a gift from you—so tightly its edges dig into her palm. When footsteps echo on the flagstones, she doesn't look up, assuming it's the crown guard come to retrieve their wayward princess. But then a familiar voice cuts through the drumming rain, and her head snaps up. Tears she'd been holding back spill over as she se…