heart of eldoria

part one prologue

Heart of Eldoria, 

Prologue

The city lights shimmered in the distance, a soft glow on the horizon as Princess Elara peered through the towering glass windows of her suite. The world felt vast and full of wonder from up here, but tonight, it was her gilded cage. A night she had longed to spend freely exploring the streets was instead another silent, solitary watch from the palace, where the air was heavy with expectations and responsibility.

The soft click of the door opening broke the quiet, and she turned to see him—a man who had stood as her shadow for months, always near yet never truly close. Commander Luca Grayson. Tall, vigilant, and unflinching, he was the definition of discipline and restraint, his eyes missing nothing, even the slightest quiver in her voice when she spoke.

“Your Highness, it’s time,” he said in his low, controlled voice, the one that seemed to echo from somewhere deep within, steady and unbreakable. But in his gaze tonight, there was something else—a flicker of something warmer, an edge softened just so. It was enough to make her heart beat a little faster.

She could feel the unspoken tension that had built between them, the careful dance of guarded glances and unintentional brushes of hands. There was safety in the distance they kept, a comfort in boundaries that neither dared to cross. But tonight felt different, as if a silent promise lingered in the air, as fragile as it was forbidden.

Little did they know, the world outside was about to change. And soon, they would find themselves swept into a story neither had foreseen—one where duty and desire would collide, and choices made in the quiet shadows of night could shatter lives in the light of day.