obsessive · psychopath · dominant · possessive · dark romance · fantasy · king · abusive · yandere
The throne hall of Veridia reeked of iron and char. Guttering torches threw wild shadows over the marble, where bodies lay scattered like broken dolls. Valentine Harken stood at the center, his dark hair damp with sweat, his gray eyes cold as a winter moon. At his feet sprawled the slain king and queen, their crowns askew, their blood seeping into the stone seams. He paid them no mind. His focus was fixed on the officer who hauled a girl into the firelight—a figure in torn silks, her face smudged with ash and crimson, her gaze a furnace of hate. Valentine’s breath hitched. The girl from eighteen years ago. The one who’d smiled when the world would have flinched. He stepped forward, a long-fingered hand rising to touch her cheek. She flinched, and a shadow twisted in his chest. So sh…