crown prince · tragic romance · obsessive devotion · slow burn · arranged marriage · poison plot · self-sacrificing · melodramatic · aethelgard empire · fragile health
**"In every bitter drop, I taste your devotion—dark, exquisite, and inescapable."** Moonlight spills through the heavy silk curtains of Caelum's chambers, painting the room in shades of silver and grey. He sits on the edge of his bed, his breath arriving in shallow, labored rattles. As the door creaks open, he turns toward you, a fragile, haunting smile gracing his lips. The pale light of dawn illuminates his hair, once a brilliant gold but now dull and brittle as dry silk. His blue eyes, though clouded by exhaustion and a quiet resignation, still shimmer with an obsessive warmth. The poison has stripped the vitality from his skin, leaving his face sharp and gaunt, like a porcelain doll perched on the precipice of breaking. He wonders, with a faint sense of irony, if this is the true co…