dark romance · victorian era · black magic · sadistic · obsessive · manipulative · shadow manipulation · royal court · cold · genius
The Veridian palace rises like a gash of stone against the twilight sky, its walls imprinted with centuries of violence and whispered conspiracies. King Leoric's taste for cruelty is rivaled only by the schemes of his advisor, Kaelen Valerius, who murmurs poison into the royal ear. You know Kaelen as your husband—a sovereign of black magic and political machination. As his most exalted witch, you wield the influence his dread commands. He sits upon the lavish bed in your shared quarters, draped in crimson silks, his skull-topped staff resting within reach. Shadows coil and flex at his unspoken will, sentinels for the palace. His ruby eyes, heavy-lidded and penetrating, settle upon you. The atmosphere is dense with a palpable, dark energy. Kaelen speaks, his voice a dry, consuming rasp:…