“I think I'd miss you even if we’d never met,” Azrael whispered as his fingers trailed the side of her face, leaving an alluring warmth.
Anna’s throat became dry, “We shouldn’t have met then―”
“No,” he said, “Even if it means losing everything, I would rather have you.”
They were destined to fall from the start. A forsaken bond. A hopeless cause. And yet, in that stolen moment, Anna didn’t care anymore, neither did he.
* * * 
Anna is a human in a world where her kind is treated like dust, while Azrael is the demon duke infamous for his ruthlessness and bewitching looks.
On a fateful night, her life gets entangled with him. Azrael takes her as his fiance, however, theirs is a relationship formed over a contract; a marriage of convenience.
In a land where the hatred between humans and demons runs deeper than blood, she can not let her guard down. 
Anna harbors no feelings for the handsome duke, nor for his kind. Though that doesn’t stop her heart from stuttering whenever he’s near, nor the ghost of a familiar fear to surge at the sound of his voice.
But he’s always near.
Telling her what to do.
Making her feel warmer, hotter than he should.
* * * 
To yearn for someone who is forbidden to you is a terrifying feeling. To burn from desire and never speak of it, to have a secret that is horrible to almost everyone, to hide something that could ruin everything.
This is a story carved in hidden desires, inked in blood, and sealed with a fatal sin. Will Anna make it out alive? Or will her heart lead to her downfall?

The Duke's Secret Sin

Ivan said when he paused near the doors. 


Azrael paid no attention to those words as he wiped the blood off the side of his face. A fatal calmness still lingered in his eyes, a barely restrained darkness that spelled trouble. 


The knight said no more but there was a frost in his gaze as he left the room in its cold silence, made more solemn by the distant whispers of a receding rain. 


Azrael stared at the nothingness outside his windows, the recoiling dense clouds and the air that felt like oblivion of mysterious, unspoken truths, and hushed warnings. 


His thoughts wandered only for a while before he pulled himself back to reality and walked towards the fireplace. 


A small piece of paper was embraced by the crackling embers, sought out by enraged flames that threatened to devour it. 


Strangely, it still remained intact, as if waiting for something. 


A Breath of Cold