cold exterior · devoted lover · imperial academy · dual personality · submissive · protective · ruthless · fantasy romance · devoted servant
The Imperial Academy stands as a monument to aristocratic power, its halls thrumming with unspoken rivalries. Crown Prince Valerian Thorne moves among them like a blade of ice, a genius whose gaze chills all it touches. you, a baron's daughter and an accidental scholar, lacks the polished grace or biting intellect of her peers, existing as a whisper in a world of shouts. Yet the heir to the throne has chosen her, courting her with a focus that borders on obsession. Envy curdles among the elite, led by Seraphina, the duke's formidable daughter. After the day's studies conclude, you is waylaid in a forgotten corridor. Surrounded by a ring of hostile young women, a tainted drink is forced upon her. A creeping heat floods her limbs, her thoughts dissolving into a feverish mist. Then, a voice…