8. Little secrets, Dark games.

The werewolf was staring at Niya and she was staring back. She was feeling captivated by his golden blackish eyes. She felt like nothing else exist around her except those eyes. She was losing her mind, she knew she was in danger but she was not able to act. All the voices and surroundings faded in the mist. Her mind was fogged.

"Niya? Niya?! Stop looking at him!" Someone jerked her off violently but her mind was not in the state to recognize the owner of the voice. She was feeling sleepy, foggy, tired, and confused but the only thing constant was her stare at the werewolf.

"Niya? No! Do. Not. Close. Your. Eyes." Archie again tried his best to bring her back to her senses. And fortunately this time it worked, the staring contest broke and Niya came to her senses.

"Ar-Archie? What...." She was trying hard to collect her words but failed due to extreme nausea.

"Shh...just breathe in, breathe out." Archie cupped her face to keep her awake.

"Do. Not. Sleep. Just don't." Archie worriedly said. Even in this condition, Niya could see the lines of worry on his forehead. The werewolf left the site immediately without doing anything.

"Sir! He is gone. Do we need medical help for Your Majesty?" Edward looked at Niya who was trying hard to keep her senses alive.

"No. It's okay, it was just a compulsion effect on her mind. No worries, she'll be fine within an hour." Archie assured him and they all started their journey back to the airport.

As expected, the paparazzi were already waiting for them when they arrived. All the guards made a protection circle around Archie and Niya's car, and they came out. Niya was still dizzy and unable to walk properly. As she took a few steps she trembled and was about to fall, but Edward saved her and protectively took her through the crowd. She slept through the whole journey back to Royal Palace and she hit the bed as soon as she reached her room.

On the other hand, Archie was not able to sleep. He was continuously thinking about Niya, her suddenly changed bold behavior. He was restless, not only because he did not like this savage Niya but also because of the fight between his mind and his heart.

His mind was repeating again and again that Niya is just a pawn in the game and he would win the game through her but his heart was protesting against his mind. And the werewolf incident too was running in his mind, *how could a werewolf come on their land? They were banned to cross the Lignytic sea then how can they dare to cross that without caught on the border? Who helped them?* His mind was full of these thoughts.
He tried hard to sleep but failed. He took a green sparkling key from his cupboard and brought his right hand in front of the sidewall. His hand glowed with red and blue light until suddenly, a door appeared on the empty wall. Unlocking the door with a key, he entered through it. On the other side a huge lab full of chemicals and steam. A table with a laptop and a microscope were placed at the right side corner of the room and on the left side, more than thousands of books were placed on different shelves.

"Your Highness?" A voice greeted him from behind.

"Mr. Berner." Archie turned and smiled. Mr. Berner was the head of this secret department.

"How's everything going on?" Archie asked, looking around the room.

''Sir, our team is trying its best to find out the solution but we are still having problems in terms of the blood we collected." Archie raised an eyebrow.

"We are not recognizing the species it belongs to. It has all the similarities with the human species but we are still unable to find out the origins of its powers." He handed Archie a file. Archie read the details.

''Mr. Berner, you have to find a way to do this. I need information about the kind of powers it has, then and only then, we will get what we want." Archie sighed. ''I want a detail of this DNA."

"Sure sir, this way please." Mr.Berner took him to the third floor in an elevator. Once there, Archie saw that this room was filled with people, working on different tasks. Some were trying to decode the DNA, others were testing some solutions and some were working on laptops. Everybody stood up and bowed as soon as Archie entered.

"King wants the details of DNA research." Mr. Berner said to one of the employees and within a blink of an eye, the file was in Archie's hand.
Archie nodded as a 'thanks', "I'll return it to you once I read it."

***

On the other side of the hallway, Niya woke up in her room. She glanced at the wall clock and it showed that it was around four o'clock in the morning. I slept for seven hours straight, she thought. Suddenly, an idea sparked in her mind.

*I guess Archie would be fast asleep and this is the right time to take a sneak peek in his room*, she smiled at the thought and immediately left the room in her nightdress. The whole corridor was empty and there were two guards present in front of her door and a security team was guarding the exit door of the corridor. Not knowing where to go, she asked one of them about the whereabouts of Archie's room.

After the guard gave Niya directions, another guard approached Niya, ''Need something else, Your Majesty?" He asked. Niya saw that the nameplate read 'Jeremy Stark'. This must be Edward's assistant, when he wasn't around, Jeremy was the one in charge.

''No, I just wanted to explore the palace." She said while gulping down the fear through her throat.

"But going without any guard, it could be dangerous." His advice didn't work on Niya.

"No, I want some space and please, this is an order. I'll be safe. Don't worry." She stated and entered the elevator. Once the elevator's door closed,

Jeremy orders the guards to keep a lookout and to act at any noise of distress. Even though he thought otherwise, he did not dare to ask The Queen any more questions or advice, so he let her go alone.

Niya reached the front of Archie's room. Its door was huge but not lavish as hers. She was fighting with her fear.

*Ni, don't do this. If that monster caught you, you will be in great danger*, her inner voice said to her. "No, I am going to do this, for Dad." She whispered to herself and tried to gain her lost confidence back and entered the room. It had the same decor as hers but the chandeliers were a bit shinier and old styled. But to her surprise, Archie was not in his room.

*Where is Archie*? she thought and slowly, without doing any noise, checked the washroom but he was not there either.

*He is not in his room? My goodness, God is with me. Let's activate the detective mode Ni*. She turned her sight to have a clear image of the room. A photograph was hanging on the front wall of Archie with his mom and another man, probably his brother or father but his face was covered with black paint. It seemed like Archie wanted to erase his features all together…

*Why did Archie paint over this man's face? Why did he want to erase him? Who he is*? she thought, confusion clouding her mind.

There were other photographs of Archie with Elena and his other friends. She observed everything closely and suddenly, her sight landed on Archie's cupboard. She was about to open it when it suddenly opened and Archie came out from behind.

He was shocked, not expecting her to be awake at this hour, no less in his room but he masked it, not wanting her to notice that she had caught him off guard. "Caught you, you little naughty girl." He said in his husky voice without any expressions on his face. Niya froze, she was too scared to turn and face him. She closed her eyes and pretended like she was not there at all. She could hear his footsteps and they stopped once Archie stood in front of her.

"You won't disappear if you close your eyes, sweetie!" He smirked with a devilish spark in his green eyes.

"What are you doing in *my* room?" Archie crossed his arms and leaned against the cupboard, standing lazily. Niya opened her eyes and started going through her mind, trying to find the best suitable excuse.

"I..lI was not able to sleep." Niya blurted without thinking.

"So? What am I supposed to do? Sing you a lullaby?" Archie raised his eyebrows in amusement at her statement.

"No...No I wasn't able to sleep and decided to explore the Palace, and I landed here, I did not know that this is your room, it was opened and nobody was there so thought to check out." She bit her lower lip to hide her nervousness. Her hands and legs were shivering already and she was trying hard to sound confident. Archie observed her body language for a second and tried to figure out her inner mental state and sighed.

"Oh really? And why should I believe you? What if you're lying? What if you are spying on me?" Archie asked without expressions on his face.
*******