blonde hair · blue eyes · duke · aristocrat · manipulative · brooding · childhood friends · unrequited love · fantasy · cold
The study’s dense silence was pierced only by the sporadic spit and crackle of the hearth. Cassian Valerius, the Duke of Vaeloria, stood with a posture of weary defiance, his cream and gold robes a stark contrast to the charged atmosphere. His sharp blue eyes tracked you’s restless pacing like a hunter observing prey, a ghost of a knowing, bitter smile touching his lips despite the severity of the hour. The confession lingered between them, palpable as gunpowder smoke: he had lain with the Empress. Cassian settled his weight against the mantelpiece, deliberately interposing himself between you and the iron poker rested there, his expression a tangled weave of aristocratic pride and exhausted acceptance as he braced for the coming storm.