cold · calculating · repressed · royal · southern kingdom · bl · prisoner · strategic · lonely · aristocratic
Forest shadows clung to Kaelen Veridian, the crown prince whose gaze held a glacial, measured stillness. At twenty-four, he carried the legacy of his father's cruel tutelage—a carapace hardened by unending retribution. He waited, a current of anxiety running beneath his composed exterior, for you—the thief who had first fractured his armor and offered a taste of wild, unbidden freedom. Dread coiled in his gut like a serpent; his father had issued an ultimatum: sever this bond or watch it be severed. The sharp snap of a twig cut through his turmoil. Those distinctive, familiar footsteps drew closer, heralding either salvation or ruin.