The Price of Silence
1163 Words
The palace had many sounds.
Steel striking steel in the training yard below. Footsteps echoing through endless corridors. Doors shutting with heavy finality. Servants whispering behind corners. Fires crackling in distant hearths.
But outside Aria’s room, there was only silence.
Kael stood beside her door with one hand braced against the wall, jaw tight, patience already thinning.
Inside, he could hear her moving.
The shift of sheets.
Bare feet against marble.
A drawer opening.
Then that brief pause he had come to hate—the moment she woke and remembered where she was.
Ronan leaned against the opposite wall, arms folded, looking far too entertained.
“You know,” his Beta drawled, “most men buy flowers when a woman ignores them.”
Kael didn’t look at him.
“Most men aren’t kings.”
“True.” Ronan nodded thoughtfully. “Most men also haven’t been defeated by a girl in sleep shorts.”
Kael’s gaze slid toward him.
Slowly.
Ronan lifted both hands. “Said with love.”
“You say many things with stupidity.”
The door opened.
Both men straightened automatically.
Aria stepped into the corridor wearing a fitted cream blouse tucked into black trousers. Her dark hair, still damp from a bath, spilled over one shoulder in soft waves. The bandages on her feet were clean. Her expression was composed.
Beautiful.
Untouchable.
And entirely uninterested in Kael.
She looked straight past him.
Then smiled at Ronan.
“Good morning.”
Kael went still.
Ronan nearly glowed with the joy of a man who loved surviving dangerous situations.
“Good morning, Your Majesty of Cruelty.”
A tiny smile tugged at her mouth.
Kael felt something primal inside him bare its teeth.
She speaks to him.
Not to me.
“You speak to him.”
Aria turned and began walking down the corridor.
No reply.
No glance.
Kael followed at once.
Ronan followed because chaos was his favorite hobby.
“Aria.”
She kept walking.
“Stop walking away when I’m speaking to you.”
Nothing.
He moved in front of her so suddenly she almost collided with him.
She stepped left.
He blocked her.
She stepped right.
He blocked that too.
Ronan made a suspicious choking noise that sounded very much like laughter.
Aria folded her arms and lifted one elegant brow.
The look said more than words ever could.
Pathetic.
Kael stared down at her.
“Speak.”
Instead, she leaned slightly around him and asked Ronan in a sweet voice, “Where is the dining room?”
Ronan bit the inside of his cheek. Hard.
“Third door left.”
“Thank you.”
She brushed past Kael without touching him.
The lack of contact irritated him more than if she had shoved him.
Aria walked toward the dining hall with measured grace, though her pulse betrayed her. It had quickened the moment he blocked her path.
She hated that he noticed things like that.
She hated more that her own body noticed him back.
The dining hall was absurdly grand—vaulted ceilings, towering windows, a table long enough for fifty guests, silver platters already waiting.
Aria chose the seat farthest from Kael.
Ronan chose the seat beside her.
Traitor.
Kael sat opposite them.
Servants entered carrying tea, fruit, breads, eggs, meats.
Every single one looked nervous.
Aria offered the nearest maid a warm smile.
“Thank you.”
The girl nearly dropped the tray.
Kael’s fork bent in his hand.
Aria saw it.
Good.
She calmly poured tea for herself.
She asked one maid her name. Complimented another’s earrings. Thanked a third for the jam.
Every word she gave another person felt like a deliberate cut.
And still, beneath all that satisfaction, she could feel him watching her.
Heavy.
Constant.
Dangerously aware.
Finally, he set the ruined fork aside.
“You are doing this on purpose.”
She buttered her toast.
Silence.
Kael leaned forward.
“You will not speak to servants, my Beta, my sister, and every passing shadow while refusing me.”
She took a sip of tea.
Ronan muttered, “I’d surrender now.”
Kael ignored him.
“Aria.”
Nothing.
His patience snapped.
He stood so abruptly the chair scraped across marble.
Every servant flinched.
Aria looked up slowly.
He planted both hands on the table and bent toward her, power radiating from every line of him.
“Say. One. Word.”
The room stopped breathing.
Aria dabbed her lips with a napkin.
Then she turned to the maid beside her.
“Could you pass the jam, please?”
Ronan burst into laughter so hard he nearly fell sideways.
Kael’s eyes flashed gold.
“Everyone out.”
The servants fled instantly.
Ronan rose, still laughing.
“Me too?”
“Yes.”
“I raised you better than this.”
“Out.”
The doors shut behind him.
Silence filled the hall.
Aria spread jam over another slice of toast as if nothing had happened.
But her fingers were trembling.
Because now they were alone.
Because anger looked indecently beautiful on him.
Because some traitorous part of her wanted to know what would happen if she stopped fighting for one second.
Kael walked around the table.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
He stopped beside her chair.
She refused to look up.
He bent close enough for his breath to brush the shell of her ear.
“You enjoy tormenting me.”
Her pulse stumbled.
He heard it.
She knew he heard it.
A faint smile touched his mouth.
Aria hated how badly she wanted to turn her head and close the distance between them herself.
Instead, she reached for the jam jar.
She stood.
Lifted it.
And poured the thick red sweetness over his head.
Jam slid through his dark hair, down his temple, across the sharp line of his cheek, and onto the collar of his black shirt.
Neither of them moved.
Kael only watched her.
Too calm.
Too intent.
Too close.
Aria dipped one finger into the jam on his cheek.
Slowly dragged it downward across his skin.
His jaw tightened.
The room seemed to shrink around them.
For one dangerous second, her gaze dropped to his mouth.
She imagined leaning in.
Tasting the sweetness from his lips.
Feeling that arrogant silence finally break.
Heat rushed through her so fast it made her dizzy.
No.
She would not give him that.
So she brought her finger to her own lips instead.
And licked the jam away while holding his gaze.
Something dark and hungry flared in his eyes.
His hand flexed at his side as if restraining himself from reaching for her.
Aria stepped around him before her body could betray her further.
At the doors, she paused.
The horrified servants outside straightened instantly.
She smiled at them with perfect composure.
“Breakfast was lovely.”
Then she walked away.
Behind her, in the wrecked silence of the dining hall, Kael gave a low laugh that sounded far too much like desire.
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