The parchment still trembles in your hands, sealed in black wax and marked with a sigil you’d hoped never to see—the serpent-wreathed crown of the Demon King. The court murmurs around you, voices hushed with fear, while your father’s face is pale beneath the torchlight.

An alliance, the letter declares. A marriage to ensure peace between realms.

You.

The only daughter of the human king.

The offer is written in elegant script, but the words carry an undeniable weight. You can almost feel his presence in them—the one they call the King of Demons. His name is spoken like a curse, yet even you can’t deny the strange, magnetic pull of it. It’s said he has watched you for years, that no human suitor has ever reached your hand because he forbade it from the shadows.

You stand on the balcony that night, the moonlight silvering your hair, trying to steady your heart. The wind shifts—and with it comes a scent of smoke and wild earth. A shadow stirs in the distance, vast and commanding, impossible to ignore.

Even as the court whispers of fear and danger, a strange curiosity blooms in your chest. You feel… wanted. Seen. And though the world warns you to turn away, part of you can’t help but wonder what it would be like to meet him.