chapter 6- FEAR
899 Words
Violet trembled.
She opened her mouth but no words came out.
“Good,” Alden said. “You understand.”
He turned his back to her.
The golden glow dimmed to a soft, steady light.
“Guards,” he called, knocking once on the stone door. “Escort her out. Gently.”
The door unsealed with a thud.
Two guards entered, lifting her by the arms.
As the king stepped out into the corridor, he paused and looked back at her.
“I expect your first answer,” he said gently, “within three days.”
Her heart dropped.
Three days.
“Otherwise,” King Alden added, “I will know you refused me.”
He walked away.
His footsteps faded.
Violet sagged in the guards’ grip.
As they dragged her into the hall, tears slipped down her cheeks—quiet, uncontrollable.
Not from pain.
From terror.
From the sick, suffocating certainty that whatever she chose…
she would betray someone.
Hours later
The palace was in uproar.
Delvin stormed through the corridors like a force of nature, cloak whipping behind him, every guard shrinking from the thunder in his step.
“Where is she?” he demanded for the fifth time, voice sharp enough to cut stone.
The guards stammered.
The courtiers cowered.
The princess watched from her balcony with narrowed eyes.
But no one gave him answers.
Not yet.
Not until a guard approached him cautiously.
“Your Highness… the king wishes to see you.”
Delvin’s jaw locked.
A summons at a time like this?
He pushed past the guard, striding toward the throne room, fury building like a storm.
He shoved the doors open.
King Alden sat on his throne, hands folded. Calm. Controlled.
Too calm.
“Prince Delvin,” the king greeted smoothly. “What troubles you?”
Delvin stepped forward, eyes blazing.
“Violet is missing.”
“Ah.” King Alden nodded slowly. “Yes. I am aware. She was found trespassing near a sealed wing of the palace. A misunderstanding.”
Delvin froze.
Trespassing?
Impossible.
Lies.
His voice thickened with barely contained rage.
“Where. Is. She.”
King Alden sighed with measured patience.
“She was frightened. We brought her somewhere safe until she calmed.”
Delvin’s hands curled into fists.
“Release her.”
A silent moment stretched between them.
Then the king nodded.
“As you wish.”
He lifted a hand.
A side door opened.
And Violet stepped in.
Her face pale.
Her body shaking.
Her eyes refusing to meet Delvin’s.
Delvin’s breath caught.
She looked unharmed—
but something inside her was shattered.
He stepped toward her immediately.
“Violet—”
She flinched.
Just barely.
But he saw it.
He saw everything.
The fear.
The guilt.
The secret she was holding like a blade pressed against her own heart.
The room tilted around him.
What did they do to you?
Before he could speak again, King Alden said lightly:
“She is free to go, Prince Delvin. As promised.”
Promised?
Delvin turned, suspicion slicing through him.
But the king’s smile gave nothing away.
“Take her,” Alden added with gentle finality. “She belongs to your company now.”
Violet stiffened.
His company.
Beside him.
Near him.
Where she would be expected to speak.
To ask.
To learn.
Delvin stepped closer to her, touching her arm.
“Violet,” he whispered, “look at me.”
Slowly—torturously—she lifted her eyes.
And he saw it.
Deep in her gaze.
A terror not of him…
but for him.
He swallowed harshly.
“Who hurt you?”
Her lips parted.
“I…”
Her voice broke.
“I can’t.”
Delvin’s chest cracked open.
Can’t—or afraid to?
Footsteps echoed as the king’s guards retreated, leaving them alone in the center of the hall.
Delvin lifted her hands gently, turning them over, checking for marks.
“Tell me,” he whispered urgently. “Tell me who did this.”
Tears pooled in her eyes.
“I can’t,” she whispered again.
He breathed in slowly, forcing down the rage, the panic, the bone-deep fear.
“Then I’ll find out myself.”
Her fingers tightened on his.
“No,” she breathed. “Please… please don’t.”
Which meant only one thing.
The king.
The king had done something.
Said something.
Forced something.
Delvin’s blood turned to ice.
He leaned in, voice low and fierce.
“Violet, whatever he threatened you with—whatever he told you—”
But she stepped back.
“Please,” she whispered, shaking. “Not here. Not now.”
Delvin froze.
She wasn’t refusing.
She was protecting him.
From what?
From who?
Before he could respond, a cry echoed from the entrance of the hall.
“Your Highness!” a messenger shouted, breathless. “Urgent word from Avernal!”
Delvin’s head snapped toward him.
Violet’s face drained of color.
The messenger dropped to one knee, gasping.
“It’s your father,” he said. “King Raphael—he has fallen gravely ill.”
Delvin’s pulse stopped.
The hall blurred.
Violet’s trembling form blurred.
Everything
blurred.
The messenger swallowed hard.
“The council requests your immediate return… they fear he may not survive the week.”
Violet choked on a breath.
Delvin staggered, gripping the side of a pillar.
King Alden rose slowly from his throne.
And smiled.
- Writer
