Royal of Darkness

Previously

…My fear was still present, a cold knot in my stomach. But beneath it, a new emotion was taking root. A dangerous fascination, yes, but also a burgeoning sense of loyalty. He had sworn to protect me. And in that moment, standing alone in his grand, shadowed manor, I realized I wanted to protect him too. The fascination had become something more. It was a dangerous, nascent attraction, a seed planted in the fertile ground of shared peril, ready to bloom into something I both craved and feared. The gilded cage was starting to feel less like a prison and more like… a beginning.