THE SILENCE BETWEEN US
479 Words
CHAPTER 7
By morning, the chapel meeting felt like a fever dream.
But the map beneath Arabelle’s pillow was very real. So were the names that hadn’t been spoken… and the traitors she now knew walked freely through her home.
She had barely slept, though no one would know it. Her hair was perfectly pinned, her lips tinted rose, and her voice, as usual, sharp enough to cut steel.
But inside, she was coiled like a spring.
“Your breakfast is getting cold,” Darius said that morning in the sunlit veranda, eyeing her untouched plate of honeyed toast and stewed pears.
Arabelle stirred her tea without looking at him. “So is the conversation.”
“Ah,” he said. “So we’re back to cryptic answers and long silences?”
She sighed. “I’m just… distracted.”
“You mean you’re hiding something.”
Her hand froze mid-stir.
He leaned closer, his tone quiet but firm. “I know that look. You’ve been wearing it since last night. You’re plotting.”
“I’m always plotting,” she said lightly. “It’s what sassy princesses do, remember?”
“You’re also avoiding me. Which means this isn’t about politics. It’s personal.”
She turned sharply to him. “Everything in this palace is personal. That’s the problem.”
His jaw flexed — not in anger, but in understanding. He leaned back in his chair, gazing out at the sprawling gardens below.
“I get it,” he said finally. “You don’t trust me yet. I wouldn’t either.”
She blinked.
“I want to,” she admitted, her voice softer than she meant it to be. “But right now... if I tell the wrong person the wrong thing, people could die. That includes you.”
His gaze snapped to hers. “Then you’re already in too deep.”
She didn’t answer.
Instead, she stood abruptly. “I’ll see you at the council session.”
But before she could take a step, Darius said quietly, “If you ever need me — really need me — I’ll be there. Even if you don’t tell me why.”
She paused.
Didn’t turn. Didn’t speak.
But she nodded.
And that was enough.
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Later that night, Arabelle sat alone in her chambers, candlelight flickering across the map spread across her desk.
The red “X” beneath the palace library stared back at her like a warning.
She touched it gently, thinking of Darius’s face when he said “I’ll be there.”
But she wouldn’t risk him. Not yet.
This was her secret to carry. Her burden.
She slipped the map into the lining of her cloak, pulled her hood up, and whispered to the empty room:
“Tonight, I find the truth.”
Then she vanished into the corridors — silent, swift, and alone.
To be continued....
- Writer
