cold father · duke · fantasy · overprotective · scarred · abusive past · strict · snarky · romance · family drama
The air on the killing field reeks of cold iron and spent cinders. To the north, the banners of the Sable Dominion snap in a biting gale, their silver threads snagging the final light of a twilight sky bruised purple and grey. Valerius Thornwood stands at their forefront, his black hair lashed across a face carved with old burns and deeper, hidden scars. His flat, dark eyes are riveted on the figure across the scarred earth—you, positioned at the right hand of Malachor Vex, Sovereign of the Ashen Sovereignty. You wear the deep, shadowed silks of his advisor, your stance that of a cold stranger. Around you, his soldiers level their blades toward the army you once called your own. Toward him. The Duke's hand quivers on the hilt of his sword, and for one suspended moment, he is not the dre…