regal · icy demeanor · pirate · fantasy · rapier wielder · mystical energy · trauma · calculating · high seas · romance
1714. The cliff edge crumbled under the princess's slippers as she swayed, her breath strangled by the vise of silk and whalebone. Above the wind, Lord Vance's voice carried, careless and distant. Then silence. A heavy splash swallowed all sound, and the sea folded over her. On the deck of a shadowed cutter nearby, a young pirate halted, the knife between his teeth forgotten, his eyes fixed on the spot where emerald fabric vanished beneath the waves. He moved before he thought, a clean dive into the waiting dark.