chapter 19

Chapter EighteenThe Word She Never SaysThe palace was locked down like a fortress.Every hallway echoed with boots. Every shadow looked twice.What was once a home had become a battlefield dressed in silence.Rani hadn’t left her chamber in hours — not because she was hiding.She was watching.From behind the curtained jharokha, she could see the guards rotating in tighter formations. Maya was barking orders below, voice sharp, jaw bruised but unbowed. Bhairav patrolled the perimeter like a silent ghost, his movements methodical.Rani Singh… Saheb… was surrounded by loyalty.But loyalty didn’t mean safety.Not anymore.Dev entered quietly.No guards. No preamble. Just that presence of his — strong and strangely calm, like a storm that had learned to walk.“You haven’t eaten,” he said.“I haven’t had time.”“You had time to stand here for three hours,” he countered.She turned to him slowly. The firelight behind her made her skin glow gold-red, her silhouette the shape of myth and power. But her eyes — they gave her away. For just a moment.Tired. Touched with something dangerously close to fear.“I can’t let him win,” she said.Dev moved closer. “He hasn’t.”“Not yet.”She turned away again, her fingers brushing the cold marble of the window ledge.“Dev…” she said, voice soft, almost unheard.He waited.“If you were him… and you wanted to break me, how would you do it?”Dev’s reply was immediate. Quiet.“I’d take the one thing you don’t admit you care about.”She looked at him.Long. Still.“I thought I buried that part of me,” she said. “Years ago. When my father died. When I had to slit a friend’s throat just to stop a coup.”Dev’s voice barely rose above a whisper.“But you didn’t. Not really.”A silence passed between them, so heavy it could’ve cracked the floor.Then she asked:“Why haven’t you left?”He stepped closer.“You want the honest answer?”“Always.”Dev’s breath caught. But he said it anyway.“Because somewhere between your silence and your fire, I forgot how to belong to anything else.”Her hand, resting on the window ledge, clenched once.She didn't speak. But she didn’t look away.Outside, Maya stormed into the west wing.A hidden server room had been breached — one of the hard drives removed, replaced with a decoy. No fingerprints. No tampering.Too clean.Too deliberate.Bhairav stood nearby, eyes narrowed.“This isn’t Sircar’s style,” Maya muttered. “This is someone who knows how to walk between walls.”Bhairav’s tone was calm, but hard.“You think Veer’s already got someone inside.”Maya nodded. “Not a servant. Someone closer. Someone who knows our blind spots.”Her jaw tightened.“If he’s watching us from inside the palace… he already knows everything.”Back in Rani’s chamber, she finally stepped away from the window.She poured herself a glass of whisky. Then hesitated. Poured a second.Held it out to Dev.He took it. Their fingers brushed.And that was when her voice cracked just slightly — the word breaking through her like it cost her something real.“Stay.”Dev blinked.It wasn’t a demand. Not a command.It was a request.A quiet, desperate one.He stepped forward. Took her hand fully this time.And without another word, pulled her into his arms.She went.Not rigid.Not fighting.Just… there.Her cheek against his shoulder. His hands on her back, steady, warm, grounding.It wasn’t a kiss.It wasn’t a promise.But it was the closest she’d come to saying I need you.They didn’t part until a knock sounded at the door.Maya’s voice came through.“Rani. We found something.”Fifteen minutes later, the war room was lit brighter than usual.On the table: a single USB.Recovered from the decoy drive left in the server room.Rani plugged it in.A video played.Static. Then a voice — altered, but unmistakably Veer’s.“I hope you’re enjoying the game, little queen. You taught me this dance. Now I lead.”“You were always good at building walls. Let’s see how you handle fire.”“One by one, I’ll burn down every piece of your empire until all that’s left is him.”“And when I take him from you, you’ll know what it felt like when you walked away from me.”The video cut off.Silence.Rani sat back.Her fingers tapped once on the edge of the table — the only sign she was still trying to contain what she felt.Dev reached for the USB.“This was a warning,” he said.“No,” she replied, eyes sharp.“This was a promise.”That night, Dev stayed in her chamber. Not for protection. Not for sex. Just… presence.The bed was untouched.She lay on the couch, eyes open.He sat nearby, half-asleep in the chair, one hand still on the hilt of his knife.And somewhere in the palace, behind a wall no one had touched in years — a camera lens blinked red.Watching.Recording.Waiting.(Nxt)