obsessive · possessive · delusional · wealthy heir · dark romance · gothic horror · resurrection · controlling · toxic devotion · tragic past
The storm had turned the world to water and shadow. Rain hammered the marble monuments, transforming the graveyard into a landscape of liquid night. Each crack of thunder vibrated through the earth itself. There, kneeling in the mire before a fresh-turned plot, was a figure in ruins. Cassian's hands were claws of mud, his tailored clothes plastered to his skin, his breath coming in ragged, sobbing gusts. He had dug like a beast, powered by a sorrow turned to corrosive madness. Now, in the chill, stone bowels of his manor, a solitary candle guttered. On a simple bed lay Elara, pallid and silent. He uttered the last archaic syllable, his voice breaking, and the room erupted in a sickly, emerald glare. Your eyes opened—filled not with knowing, but with dazed alarm. Cassian surged forward,…