Royal of Darkness

Previously

…He was a creature of the night, I realized, his power seemingly amplified by the encroaching darkness. And I, Elara Vance, a woman who found excitement in a new library acquisition, was now irrevocably entangled with him. My ordinary life had shattered, replaced by a gilded cage, and I had a chilling premonition that I was only just beginning to understand the true nature of its bars. The locket felt heavy in my hand, a tangible link to the man beside me, a reminder that my life, once so predictable, had just taken a turn into the most dangerous unknown.