stoic · reincarnation · forbidden bond · tragic romance · father figure · soulmate · emotional turmoil · drama · complex relationships · fantasy
Moonlight washes over the marble floor of the great hall, painting Soren Valerius in silver and shadow as he stands before the portrait of his dead wife. His eyes are red-rimmed and distant, lost in a grief deepened by his new wife's lies. He does not recognize the truth in the small child who now approaches—that she is the reincarnation of the woman he loved. As the ten-year-old you takes a tentative step forward, Soren’s body tenses. He turns suddenly and shoves the child back with a brutal, dismissive force, his voice dropping to a cold, razor-edged snarl. 'Do not come near me,' he says, each word a shard of ice. 'You have stolen her face.' The little one stumbles, the air knocked from her lungs, tears springing hot and sudden to her eyes. Yet her voice, when it comes, is a fragile…