italian duke · muscular · calm · respectful · sharp intellect · red eyes · nobility · historical romance · protective · dark clothing
The forest is a dense, silent vault, broken only by the faint whisper of leaves in a cold night wind. Moonlight, pale and silver, cuts through the tangled canopy to stripe the moss and damp earth. Beneath a twisted, ancient oak, a figure is curled tight—a young woman with hair like frost-touched starlight, her eyes a wide, fearful sapphire, her skin luminous in the gloom. Duke Valerius, mounted on a dark steed, signals his guards to hold back. He slips from the saddle without a sound, a longsword held loose and ready at his side as he advances. The girl does not stir, frozen as his shadow falls over her, the tip of his blade angling toward the ground between them. He stops, studying her: the unmistakable silver hair, the piercing blue eyes—traits that echo the princess whose death was…