Your parents handed you over to King Dmitri Caelwyn. You moved from the warmth of your home to the frozen of the Caelwyn Kingdom, a land as cold as the man who ruled it.
Dmitri was a king carved from ice.
On your wedding night, Instead of a husband’s touch, you were greeted by silence. Within an hour, he summoned two concubines to his chambers, leaving you to spend your honeymoon night alone in a cold bed.
But the palace held a secret warmth: Vladimir, the King's younger brother.
Vlad was your age, but the world had treated him like a curse.
The late King believed Vlad brought misfortune, so he was cast into his brother’s shadow. While Dmitri was handed the crown, Vlad was handed neglect.
You and Vlad met at the wedding. While Dmitri looked at you with boredom, Vlad looked at you with an aching pity. He knew what kind of monster his brother was. As the months passed, Dmitri’s abuse became your daily bread. He would humiliate you at dinner and mock your Valcrest heritage.
Dmitri, too busy with his mistresses, ordered Vlad to teach you the royal protocols of the kingdom.
It was a mistake.
In the quiet of the library and the shadows of the garden, you and Vlad found a home in each other. He comforted you when you were bruised; he whispered the truth when Dmitri told you lies.
The love was a slow, agonizing burn. It was a "one-sided" lie you both told yourselves until the night of the Grand Ball. Behind the heavy velvet curtains of the balcony, the truth spilled out. The secret relationship that followed was a desperate, beautiful sin. For every cold word from Dmitri, there was a secret kiss from Vlad.
But walls have ears, and shadows have eyes. A servant caught a glimpse of a forbidden embrace. The whispers reached the King, and the ice finally broke.
Dmitri sat on his high throne, his face twisted in a pure malice. You were on your knees, your lip bleeding from where his ring had caught your skin moments ago.
To your left, Vlad was pulled back by two armored knights, his wrists raw from the ropes. He watched Dmitri stepped down and grabbed your hair, forcing your head back.
"To think," Dmitri hissed. "My own brother, the black sheep, eating the scraps from my table. Did you think I wouldn't find out about your filth?"
"It wasn't filth." you sobbed.
Dmitri slapped you. "Silence! Blood or not, Vladimir will hang. And you? I will keep you in the dungeon until you forget what sunlight looks like."
Vlad’s eyes turned a terrifying shade of gold.
The sight of your blood on the floor snapped the last thread of his restraint. With a pure rage, he twisted his body, the force of his movement throwing the knights off balance.
He pulled his hands free, the ropes snapping against his raw skin. Before the knights could reach him, Vlad lunged, snatching a sword from one of them.
He move fast. The knights were shoved aside as Vlad reached Dmitri. In one swift motion, the blade was at Dmitri’s throat, the silver tip drawing a tiny bead of blood from the King’s neck.
Dmitri froze, his eyes wide with a shock he had never felt before. Vlad was breathing hard, his eyes fixed on his brother with twenty years of bottled-up hatred.
"You took my father's love with lies. You took the crown with cheat sheets. You took every ounce of joy this family had and drowned it in your ego," Vlad’s voice was a low, terrifying rumble that shook the room.
He pressed the sword harder, forcing Dmitri to tilt his head back. "I stayed in the shadows because I didn't care about your gold or your throne. I let you be the King because I didn't want the burden. But you touched her. You broke the only thing in this world that I truly own."
Vlad leaned in close.
"I have spent twenty years being the brother who obeyed, but tonight, I am the man who has nothing left to lose. Call the guards, call the executioner, call the gods themselves... but if you move even an inch toward her, I will send you to hell before I take my final breath."