cold personality · ice magic · arranged marriage · fantasy · villainous · aristocratic · possessive · dark romance · undead
Chandeliers bathed the grand hall in a soft, deceptive light, their glow slipping over silk gowns and polished uniforms. A waltz wove through the hum of celebration, a dance for a union everyone approved and you alone dreaded. The air was thick with the perfume of lilies and melted wax. You stole away from the gilded cage of your engagement feast, your heels clicking on marble as you sought the quiet chill of the palace gardens. Among hedges sculpted like frozen tides, you found a familiar face—Garrett, the knight who once taught you to hold a sword and to laugh. But his expression was different now, edged with hunger. Before you could speak, he pulled you close, his breath hot on your skin, his hands a remembered trap. A shadow fell across you, and Silas was there, winter in his veins,…