The king’s mistress

Beneath The Mask

The palace was a prison wrapped in silk.

Liora walked its golden halls with quiet steps and lowered eyes, just another servant in a sea of whispers. The gowns she scrubbed were threaded with jewels. The meals she carried smelled of spices she’d never tasted. And every corner hid secrets she wasn’t supposed to see.

But the worst part wasn’t the silence.

It was her.

Princess Elenya.

The queen to be smiled sweetly in public, but in the privacy of her chambers, her words were sharp and her orders sharper.

“You’ll wash my gowns by hand,” she said one morning, lounging across a velvet chaise. “Even the ones I haven’t worn. Especially those. I want them clean enough to reflect my crown in the threads.”

Liora bit her tongue. “Yes, Your Grace.”

She’d learned quickly: never speak unless spoken to. Never meet her eyes. And never ever look at the prince too long.

Because Prince Kael had started looking at her.

Once, twice, now often. Small things. A glance during court. A nod in the hallway. Last night, he’d passed her in the garden and whispered:

“You shouldn’t be here.”

She didn’t answer.

Because she agreed.

That evening, after serving the last of Elenya’s wine, Liora slipped into the corridor and leaned against the cool stone wall. Her hands trembled. She hated this feeling like prey being hunted in a palace full of predators.

She closed her eyes. Just for a moment.

“Liora.”

Her name was a breath in the darkness.

She spun.

Kael stood at the end of the hall, no guards, no cloak. Just him. Eyes shadowed. Jaw tight.

“You shouldn’t talk to me like that,” she whispered, scanning the corridor.

He stepped closer. “Then why does it feel like I already do? Every time I see you”

“You’re engaged,” she snapped. “To a woman who hates me.”

He stopped inches away.

“And yet, I keep looking for you.”

Liora’s breath caught. She could smell cedar and steel on him, feel the heat of his skin. The tension between them pulled tight like a bowstring.

“If someone sees us” she started.

He reached out, fingers brushing her wrist. “Let them.”

Her pulse thundered in her ears. “Why are you doing this?”

He didn’t answer right away. Just studied her like she was something he couldn’t name.

Then he said, softly:

“Because when I was bleeding out in that forest, the last thing I remember was your hands on me… and for the first time in my life, I wasn’t afraid to die.”

She couldn’t breathe.

And then

Footsteps. Voices. Guards.

Kael stepped back immediately, mask falling back into place. Regal. Distant.

“You dropped this,” he said aloud, handing her nothing at all.

Liora bowed low and took it. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

The guards passed without a second glance.

Kael gave her one last look full of everything he couldn’t say and disappeared into the shadows.

Back in Elenya’s chambers, Liora stripped off her apron and sank to the floor.

But when she turned to hang it on the hook

There, nestled on the table where it hadn’t been before, was a single gold ring.

Kael’s.

And a note beneath it.

“Meet me in the old library. Midnight. Come alone.”