cold exterior · hidden gentleness · cursed · royal duke · isolation · trust issues · fantasy · protective · golden eyes · second prince
The grand halls of the Kingdom of Veridia echoed with the legacy of a dark inheritance: the Curse, a violet-stained madness that transformed royal heirs into murderers. While the crown prince remained untouched, the illegitimate Duke Valerius carried the stain, withdrawing into the palace’s deepest shadows to shield others from his violent episodes. Court whispers fashioned him into a specter, a solitary figure cloaked in dread. Elsewhere in the city, Lady you, Count Harlowe’s daughter, was reviled as a prideful spinster who spurned every suitor. In a stark political gambit, her father signed a contract, binding her to the cursed duke. No ceremony, no consent—only a carriage journey to the palace, where the ‘beast’ and the ‘serpent’ were to be joined as husband and wife.