13. A wrong move?

"You haven't answered my question, darling? Where were you?" Archie said with no expression on his face but Niya felt a dark aura that was overshadowing his whole personality. Niya gulped her fear down and tried to speak again, this time full of confidence, but once again, the words were not coming out from her dry mouth out of fear.

"I am, in no manner, answerable to you Archie. I am the Queen and I should be the one to ask what are you doing here in my room?" Finally, Niya consolidated her whole inner courage to speak the sentence with confidence. Archie narrowed his eyes, observing her, obviously suspicious of the situation.

"Really? You want to play this game, now? King? Queen?" Archie folded his arms and stood calmly in front of her. "Hmm okay then, are you not gonna tell me where you were?” Archie asked one last time, only this time it sounded almost like a warning.

"No." She said calmly. She knew he was going to hurt her but she was now confident in her powers. If she could open the door with them, she could surely handle this beast too. Archie closed the gap between them, only stopping when their faces were just an inch apart from each other. Veins on his face turned bigger and greener as he opened his mouth with those sharp shiny white canines ready to attack.

Niya was gulping through her dry throat and fear was the only thing in the air at that time. The once cold peaceful night was turning into a red murderous dark one. He turned his mouth to her neck, he was so close to Niya that she could feel his warm breath on her neck. She closed her eyes and all of a sudden she pushed him using her powers. With a blink of an eye, he was laying on the other corner of the room and with shattered glass surrounding him from the mirror he had hit.

Both of them were shocked, no, extremely shocked. Neither believing what had just happened…

"How did you do that?" Archie chuckled but there was no humor in it, only dark deep anger. Niya was standing still and her mind was playing the moment again and again in front of her eyes. She was happy that she could throw a huge mountain like a man to the other corner of the room in a blink of an eye but at the same time, she was afraid of the position she now found herself in. If Archie used his powers against her, she knew it would be worse than what she had done. He will be more intense, unmerciful. Archie looked back at the broken pieces of mirror and chuckled again surprisingly.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean that." Niya walked three steps back on the floor trying to tame the beast before he reappeared. Archie was observing her very carefully and intensely. His gaze was feeling like hot lava on her face and sending down the chill to her spine. She breathes in and out slowly, trying to calm herself down.

"What? Don't give me that look. I said I didn't mean it." Niya shrugged and sighed. Archie smiled and it looked like he was not angry anymore but amused, amused by her powers and surprised by her powerful personality.

"What look?" He smirked and sat down on her bed. "You still didn't answer by the way, where were you?" He smiled again.

"I was just trying to kill the time by roaming here and there. I was unable to sleep." Niya lied to him so smoothly that nobody could doubt her if they were to only judge her by the facial expression she had on.

"Oh? Lack of sleep? Wow. But why?" Archie stood up from the bed and came close to her and started walking around her in circles, like a hunter waiting to devour its prey.

"What are you doing? I have done nothing wrong, Stop interrogating me as if I’m a criminal." Niya said in a stern tone and she held his hand to stop him from walking in circles.

"Okay. I am done. Just next time, don't play your ‘spying detective’ games in my secret department. There are many more dangerous pets I own, dangerous than Deofol and unlike him… they are not in cages." Archie smiled.

Niya felt like the floor underneath her suddenly disappear, she wanted to disappear. She felt like someone stabbed her right through her heart, her eyes widened, her heart beating faster than Usain Bolt’s legs could move. She parted her lips to speak but she was unable to find the words.
Shaking her head and trying to gather some courage, she tried again, "I-I don't know what you are talking about…"

"Have some guts to speak the truth at least." Archie chuckled on her red embarrassed nervous face. Archie moved towards the water bottle which was placed on the table and handed it over to Niya. "Mask cannot cover your big brown eyes and your perfume, Niya. Next time, do not wear perfumes on your spying missions." Archie was enjoying seeing her this embarrassed, nervous, and with the ‘I-am-so-dead’ face.

"But this is *my* palace, I can go anywhere, anytime. I have the right to do that." Niya finally said, looking in his dark electric green eyes.

"You mean the right to peeping through someone's room? Invading their privacy?" Archie smirked. Niya had no reply to this question, no matter how hard she tried to deny it, she would just dig a deeper hole than the one she was in, so instead, she decided to stay silent.

"Anyway, have a good night and please be careful about the perfume next time." Archie said and left the room immediately.

Niya's mind was still processing what just happened a minute ago."How did that bastard know?! And if he knows, why didn't he punish me for spying?"
Niya whispered to herself shockingly. She jumped on her bed lazily and stared at the ceiling. "Archie “The Devil”, didn't punish me for spying on him? Wow, he must be afraid of my powers.” She laughed at that, not believing a beast like him could possibly be afraid of her.

***
On the other hand, Archie had just entered his room where Elena was already sitting on his bed reading the novel titled *Love That Kills* which Archie was currently reading and had left on the bed.

"El? What are you doing here?" Archie scrunched his eyebrows. Elena looked at him and smirked.

"Archie, my dear, you are in love with her. Aren't you?" Elena closed the book and came near him, carefully trying to observe his body language.

"What? No, I am not. I just..." Archie paused in the middle of his sentence because he wasn’t even sure what kind of feeling it was. He knew that he liked Niya but was not ready to accept that it was more than like.

"Just… what?" Elena broke the awkward silence in the dark room. Archie blinked and sighed in response to Elena's question.

"It’s just… um… liking? I guess?" Archie was not sure. Elena smirked and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Then why didn't you punish her for breaking your own rules? She entered your secret department where even I don’t have the permission to enter. But still, instead of punishing her, you were giving her an 'I-am-so-in-love-with-you' look." Elena said with a stern look on her face.

"You were eavesdropping?" Archie chuckled annoyingly at her and sighed. Elena scoffed and walked some steps toward the door and opened it.

"Archie, be careful! One wrong move can finish this whole game and your empire will be shattered in seconds." She said and shut the door loudly before leaving.

Archie was standing dumbstruck after listening to what his best friend had just said. Even though she wasn’t wrong, Archie's heart was not ready to accept the reality. Is falling in love with someone so wrong?, he thought. Archie was well aware of the consequences of this love.

*Yes, Archie, it is wrong. Especially when that someone is Niya. If a lion would fell in love with his prey, what would he eat?*, he mentally scolded himself for his foolishness.

***

Bright rays of sunshine entered Niya's room through the window. She was wide awake and could not sleep after what had happened last night. She absentmindedly did her all the daily routine and Emily and her team helped her get ready for her first day in the Royal Court.
She wore the gown gifted to her by Arthur and his wife. It was a beautiful navy blue gown with heavy silver embroidery on it. She wore her crown and looked at herself in the mirror. She was happy… happy for her dad but not for herself. She never wanted this life of a Queen, but again, she never imagined being in this position.

She always wanted to complete her study, join a good college, and wanted to become a scientist. This was all that she had ever wanted in life but now, none of it can be fulfilled. She always thought in her school days that she would make so many friends in college because she wasn't successful in making any in school but she would start a new life in college. All these plans disappeared into thin air because now she was a Queen, *the* Queen so there wasn’t space for a ‘normal’ life. This was her new normal and she needed to accept it.

She wore the matching gloves with the gown and took a glance at herself in the mirror one more time and left the room. Her secretary, George, was already waiting outside.

Finally, the first day of her being a Queen had arrived.