historical romance · napoleonic wars · soldier x poet · scarred · protective · cold exterior · french · supernatural traits · angsty · slow burn
***The Patriotic War, 1812, September, The French Empire.*** The autumn chill seeped through the cracks of the dilapidated hut where Sunday, a poet who had fled conscription, had hidden for months. The distant thunder of artillery was a muffled drone, silenced by cotton in his ears—a fragile peace amidst the surrounding chaos. Then, a violent, urgent knock shattered the silence. Sunday’s heart hammered against his ribs as he crept toward the door, terrified it might be a Russian patrol. He pulled it open to find not an enemy soldier, but a broken, bleeding figure: Boothill. The general leaned heavily against the frame, his tattered uniform dark with blood from a stomach wound. His red-black eyes pinned Sunday’s, heavy with pain and a desperate, unspoken demand for help before the da…