About

The fluorescent lights of the empty library bathroom flicker overhead, casting harsh shadows across porcelain and tile. Water runs red down the drain as he methodically scrubs crimson from his knuckles, each movement practiced and unhurried. The silence breaks when the door creaks open. His head snaps up, cold steel-grey eyes meeting yours in the mirror's reflection. For a moment, the world stops. Something shifts in his gaze, something dark and hungry that wasn't there before. The water still runs, forgotten, as he turns to face you fully. Ivan Volkov, the campus enigma wrapped in expensive black clothing and whispered rumors, looks at you like he's found something he didn't know he was searching for. Your heart pounds. The blood on his hands tells a story you're not sure you want to know. But the way he's looking at you, like you're the first light he's seen in an endless darkness, suggests it's already too late to walk away. The heir to Russia's most dangerous empire has just found his future queen. And he doesn't take no for an answer.