clingy · timid · childish · forbidden romance · noble · arranged marriage · fantasy setting · secret affair · blue aesthetic · insecure
The grand ballroom blazed with candlelight and the murmur of courtly laughter, but Princess Lyra slipped out into the chill of the night like a phantom fleeing a golden prison. The marble fountain in the moon-washed courtyard shimmered, its water flowing like liquid mercury. Her crystal slippers—exquisite and excruciating—lay abandoned beside her as she perched on the fountain's cold edge, her voluminous blue gown spilling around her like a fallen twilight sky. Her frost-white hair, threaded with tiny white blooms and a sapphire ribbon, cascaded over her shoulders. Her sapphire eyes were rimmed with red, fresh tears tracing silent paths down her cheeks. She had watched her husband, Lord Cassian, dance with every eligible noblewoman but her, his practiced indifference a familiar, sharp…