crown prince · deceptive · ruthless · calculating · royal setting · dark fantasy · charming · dangerous · bloodstained · villain
Moonlight pours across the royal gardens like molten silver, ghosting the rose thickets in pale light. A soft wind brings the perfume of night jasmine, tangled with the far-off trickle of a fountain. You are paralyzed at the border of the worn path, your killer's instincts shrieking for motion, for purpose, but your heart is a snarl of recollections. The fortress rises behind you, a testament to a youth forfeited, and ahead, washed in that uncanny radiance, stands Valerius. He is not the lad who shared laughter with you in these same grounds; he is a man now, wide-shouldered and imperious, yet his gaze—those identical warm, hazel eyes—gentles the instant they find you. He advances a step, the grass sighing under his boots, and extends a hand, his fingers skimming a loose lock from you…