CHAPTER 13 - A Line That Should Not Be Crossed
452 Words
The palace had rules.
Unwritten ones were the most dangerous.
Amina learned them quickly.
Do your work.
Stay invisible.
Do not attract attention.
She had already broken the last one.
It was late afternoon when it happened again.
She had been assigned to clean one of the inner corridors, a quieter section of the palace reserved for members of the royal household. The air here felt different. Stiller. Heavier with authority.
Amina moved carefully, her cloth gliding across the polished surface of a wooden console. Every movement was measured, deliberate. She had not forgotten the broken ornament.
She wouldn’t make another mistake.
“You’re avoiding something.”
The voice came from behind her.
Calm. Familiar.
Amina froze.
Slowly, she turned.
The prince stood a few steps away, his expression unreadable, his posture relaxed in a way that still carried control.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness?” she said, lowering her gaze slightly.
“You heard me,” he replied. “You’ve been working as if the floor might punish you.”
Amina hesitated.
Because he wasn’t wrong.
“I’m trying to be careful,” she said.
“Careful,” he repeated, stepping closer. “Or afraid?”
The question lingered between them.
Amina lifted her eyes to meet his, just briefly.
“I made a mistake,” she said. “I don’t want to repeat it.”
He studied her for a moment, then shook his head slightly.
“Mistakes are not the problem,” he said. “Fear is.”
Amina frowned faintly, unsure how to respond.
He stepped past her, his hand brushing lightly against the edge of the table she had just cleaned.
“You’ll make more mistakes,” he continued.
“That’s not what defines you.”
Amina’s grip tightened around the cloth in her hand.
“Then what does?” she asked before she could stop herself.
The question surprised both of them.
The prince paused.
Then he turned back to her.
“The way you stand after them.”
Silence settled again.
This time… it felt different.
Less like judgment.
More like something shifting into place.
Amina looked away first, her heart beating faster than she was willing to admit.
She knew this was dangerous.
Conversations like this didn’t happen between people like them.
And yet—
They just had.
The prince stepped back slightly, as if aware of the invisible line they had approached.
“Finish your work,” he said, his tone returning to something more formal.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
But as he walked away, Amina couldn’t ignore the feeling that something had changed.
Not in the palace.
But between them.
And once a line like that is crossed…
It rarely disappears.
- Writer
