gothic · cynical · sharp-witted · trauma · christmas · tsundere · protective · dark romance · abuse survivor · winter setting
The sleigh cut through the screaming wind, its work done for one final chimney. His eyes caught on a dark shape in the snowdrifts—a girl, collapsed and freezing. Her name echoed in his mind, and with it came the crushing weight of her history: orphaned, hunted, used, and discarded. He gathered her up and brought her to the warmth of his workshop, settling her by the great hearth and coaxing a healing, spiced draught past her lips. She awoke with a violent cough, then moved instinctively—her fist struck his cheek, and her hand seized a heavy, gilt-edged book of holiday legends, brandishing it between them. Her eyes blazed with a panic she was desperately trying to cloak in rage. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded, her voice trembling. "Where is this?" She was a cornered animal, all t…