ⱭSH GLANCED AT the figure lying on his shoulder, fast asleep with a black mask acting as her guard. He was so tempted to remove it from her face and look at her face. A large amount of rumors comparing her beauty to a fresh cut rose didn't go unnoticed by him. He never attempted to keep in contact with her due to the fact that some people announced that her beauty was far richer than his mother's. Phrases like that intrigued cryptic childhood misery and tragedies.

Ash sighed as a quiver of curiosity sparked as Naira stirred slightly in her sleep. If it were anyone else, he would jerk the blackguard off in a single motion, but he realized that she was an extremely light sleeper and had a gun on her. He had found her sound asleep on the garden bench and even before his fingers came in contact with her flesh, she stirred and mumbled, "Neil, take me to the room."

Well, considering that she didn't even stay half a day in the palace and clearly didn't adjust to the surroundings, he got her back to his bed before she frozen. At this time of the year, the weather was freshly crisp with raw, brisk winds racing throughout the night. He didn't want the trade officers to see her half frozen tomorrow morning. He never favored her victories or her skills for very persistent reasons. Every time he glanced at her light chocolate eyes, he visioned a young girl with a fair, radiating skin, high cheekbones staring back at him.

Of course it was not her.

It couldn't be.

Well, he couldn't be so sure unless he actually looked at her face. His patience drained drastically and he was on the edge of contacting an officer to provide him any of her pieces of information with her picture. Some things were better if they remained a mystery, better if they unfold themselves for the spark to survive. But he could get the officer to give information about all her childhood to find the links and connect back.

Smirking profusely, he typed away on his phone for a thorough report about the Heartless Queen. If she was not going to tell him about herself, he was going to find out himself.

⇜⚕⇝

"Baking?" Naira asked, horrified as she heard both the sister's exclaim.

She had woken up, surprisingly, on an empty bed in Ash's room. Confusion streamed through her body as she attempted to reoccur previous night's incidents, but nothing triggered in her brain. How did she land here, was a mystery waiting to be solved? She let the confusion evaporate into thin air and relaxed her body by a long, fresh, morning jog. The minute she came back, the girls dragged her to the kitchen, reporting that they have a surprise planned for her.

"Why do you sound like you have just met somebody's ghost? You know how to cook, right?" Tara shot rapid questions at her enthusiastically.

"Sure," Naira mumbled in a low, sarcastic tone with a fake grin tugged at her lips.

"Great! So, first we are going to start off with making a cake," Tanya exclaimed as she took out containers of

"Cake?"

Naira knew how to bake alright, but not how to do that without burning the entire kitchen down. The last time she ever baked was when she was in high school during Home Ec as part of her assignment and ended up setting the class of fire. Due to that school was closed for a whole month of renovation. Luckily, along with the Home Ec class, the entire school was renovated and made more lively.

"Yep, Blackberry truffle. Let me show you how to make that," Tanya instructed how to make the truffle while Naira got lost in her chain of thoughts.

Baking was an art, it needed patience, devotion, and tenderness. Naira was everything but that. Patience was a word she never learned, to her devotion was escaping the city and tenderness were something she would never ever possess. So in short, baking was not for Naira and she knew it, yet for some reason, she decided to give it a try and ended up blasting the entire kitchen in Home Ec.

"I'll just be back, place it in the oven," Tanya instructed cheerfully as a crimson red blush appeared on her cheeks as she peeped at her phone.

Naira nodded vigorously, as she stirred the batter once more. She grabbed a metal pan and poured the batter in the pan. She shuffled over to the oven and halted at the buttons. What was the temperature? Fife hundred? Or Four hundred and fifty? Or was it Four hundred? She sighed and decided to add it at around Four hundred and seventy five as it was between all of them. She set the temperature and placed the pan in the oven.

She walked over and set the timer for forty five minutes and when she came back, what happened was a pure disaster.

"We got out the batter stuck on the oven countertop, blew out the fire, cleaned the burnt stains and ordered a new oven," she sheepishly stated to Tanya who was chafing at her with wrath.

The tight heat was compressed, causing the oven to burst out. As she forgot to grease the pan, parts of the cake spilled all over the kitchen walls while the pan with the leftover cake stuck to the ceiling. Thick black fog contaminated the air of the kitchen as Naira stood there with her jaw dropped.

"Good. You are dismissed," Naira ordered with her voice lacing with power while she could feel the daggers Tanya was sending her way.

As she turned around to explain, the boys entered with Rey screaming joyously, "You did it! You actually did it!"

"So, all this is a good thing?" Naira asked, bemused with a frown covering her face as her hands tugged her edges of the mask. Yep, she still had that on.

"Absolutely! We have been trying to burn this place since five years. Look how old it is," Ajax benevolently replied, pointing to the kitchen that looked just fine to Naira. But these were the opulent after all.

"But we couldn't," Rey said as he hung his head low and his face fell.

"Why?" Naira asked out of mere curiosity as she rolled her eyes at their drama.

"It is Tanya's favorite place, but man you are totally heartless. You didn't even care about anyone and just shut this place down," Rey said exuberantly as he gave her a mock salute.

"That makes me feel so much better," Naira sarcastically murmured as she shifted her gaze to the other corner of the room.

"Tanya, why are you not crying? You can cry, let all your sorrow out," Tara said in sweet, friendly tone as she gently rubbed her sister's shoulders who was gaping at the burnt kitchen in absolute horror.

"Uhh..Tara, I don't want to cry," Tanya said irritated.

"No, it's fine! I understand your pain, this place was like your bedroom," Tara went overboard with her consoling while Naira rolled her eyes at her comparison.

"Tara, I am seriously alright," Tanya assured her while Tara neglected her.

"Oh, Tanya! You have so many shoulders to cry on. I can lend you mine or Ajax can or Divit or Rey or Naira or even Ash can. Don't keep it inside of you," she flailed her arms to prove her point and pointed to everyone's shoulders.

"I AM NOT GOING TO CRY OVER A KITCHEN TARA," Tanya finally hissed in exasperation.

"Look, the loss is messing with her emotions, come here sister," Tara paid no heed to her and continued with her consoling drama.

"I don't want a shoulder to cry on, I am fine."

"You don't need to hide it from your sister."

"Tara."

"TANYA YOU NEED TO CRY NOW!" Tara screamed as she pulled Tanya for a hug who rolled her eyes.

"What the heck?" they heard a disgruntled, austere voice call from behind to reveal the vexed Ash. He was standing at the door frame, his jaw clenched tightly, his face was held in a rigid frown, examining the kitchen.

"Look what your wife did! She burned the entire kitchen down!" Rey announced proudly, bowing down in a courteous way earning giggles from the sisters.

"I never knew that was an achievement," Naira mumbled as she lifted her gaze to meet Ash's. His grey eyes were emitting the aura of power and authority.

"How the hell is that good news? The trade officers are going to be here. Cut the crap and get on with your work," Ansh ordered in a flat, persistent voice, glaring directly at Naira.

"Bro, chill, I'll get people to clean the place up," Rey retorted softly as he rushed to get a few janitors.

"Let's go get some breakfast," Divit announced, gathering all of them to head to the dining room.

Naira heard Ash sigh, still inspecting the walls, as he walked towards her. The environment in the room was like still water. Silent. Completely out of the blue, Naira felt her hand being yanked by a stronger force. She jerked her head to see Ash smirking in a sinister way at her hand before he bent his head to lick off the leftover batter on her hand.

"This actually tastes pretty good, sweetheart," he huskily whispered in her ears while she rolled her eyes.

"Can you quit calling me that? My heart is certainly not sweet," Naira snapped back fiercely as she snatched back her hand and placed it under running water to clean off his germs.

"Your skin is," Ash said coldly with a loop-sided smirk as he added, "Sweetheart."

"Stop. Calling. Me. That," she voiced out through gritted teeth as her hazels lit up with fury.

"This is exactly why I call you that," Ash retorted, his cold character slipping and a more predatory one leaking through.

Naira raised her eyebrow and Ash's eyes turned darker, a teasing glint passing through them as he explained mischievously, "You see I don't have time to think of nicknames for you. The other ones like darling, cutie pie, etc seem like you actually mean something to me. But sweetheart is perfect for you as it irritates you the most. You are not sweet and you clearly don't have a heart."

Naira felt intense anger consume her body, sending intense vibes of irritation, her hands instantly closed into tight fists, preventing her from lashing out at him. She could see directly through his arrogant mask that he was awaiting a reaction from her. Sadly, she was not going to give him that. She sucked in a deep breath and quickly plastered a cool appearance on her face and Ash's face falling for a quick second didn't go unnoticed by her. The minute she opened her mouth to counter, he winked at her and left the place which engulfed her body with sparks of anger. Naira took a minute to calm herself down before heading to the dining room.

She was quite impressed with the interior design of the dining room which radiated opulence from every corner. A huge, translucent glass dining table occupied a great portion of the room. The dining table had small, golden carvings emerging from the side with the similar designs covering the chairs. The white, fairly transparent, walls housed small artworks and accessories. The stationary drapery panels hung from decorative doorknobs on either side of the glass windows, overlooking the forestry area of the city. The elegance and the exotic sensations the entire palace sent, in general, couldn't be surpassed.

Naira's thoughts were abruptly shut off as a worker placed breakfast on her table. Her stomach hummed with pleasure as Naira eyed the perfectly crisps dished flooding her plate. Naira cursed herself for gaping at the breakfast and took a bite of the heavenly meal as she heard Tanya's perk up, "He is coming back? When?"

Naira glanced up to dissolve herself in the conversation which she clearly went unnoticed by her in the past few minutes. She was seated next to both the sisters, right in front of the tyrant, with the boys seated next to him. That made her wonder where the other adults were? She knew that his paternal relatives lived in the palace, especially Ajax and Divit's parents, but where were they? She didn't see anyone except this six and guards. But she was only here for the night and early hours of the day.

"In a few days," she heard Ash grimly answer with his usual firmness.

"I need to go prepare," Tanya squealed with rich pleasure before making her way out of the double doors gating the room.

"Who is coming?" Naira lowly asked Tara with a wave of sudden voyeurism.

"Sam, Tanya's fiancee."

"Oh right," Naira said with a tight smile. She did hear that Tanya was engaged last year, but she really has no idea who this guy is. Considering that he is most probably working with Ash, she was going to see him sooner or later.

"Sir, are all the cakes to your perfection?" a fat man in a white dress enquired with reluctantly, Naira assumed that he was the head chef of the palace.

"I have had better," Ash stated slyly as he glanced at Naira and smirked as soon as her eyes met his.

"Raw batter might suit his taste," Naira retorted without averting her eye contact, mirroring his smirk.

"Only with a silky base," Ash replied smugly as he gazed at her hand, reminiscing the kitchen's incident.

Naira rolled her eyes before standing up to leave the room before mumbling, "Give him raw batter on a silk cloth, next time you want a higher pay."

She saw the chef's face leech color before nodding in her direction while she could sense Ash's boiling anger steam in her direction. She lunged to the open hallway, brisk wind hitting her face as she stared at the panoramic view of the open city in front of her. She could see a squad gathered in the area, a few meters, away from the palace. It was a regular Monday morning for the entire country, she could see people bustling off to their respective jobs, children running to schools while vehicles ripping away from the picture.

"Beautiful view watched by a beautiful girl," she heard a hoarse voice from the back.

She groaned in indignation as she responded, "Your senseless flirting won't get you anywhere. One, I am already married. Two, I don't think you know, I don't have a heart. These stupid lines have no effect other on me other than complete annoyance."

"Even the effect of annoyance is fine," Ian countered with a cheeky grin covering his face.

"You're my bodyguard, right? Does that mean you take care of my needs?" Naira's eyes sparked with an idea, completely ignoring his cheesy attitude.

"That would be more of a maid-" Ian complained gravelly.

"Yes? Okay. So I need you to go and arrange me a black, brand new motorbike," Naira demanded in a flinty voice.

"But-"

"You don't want to keep the other leader of Nirag waiting," Naira cut him off with a wicked smirk while he shot her a glare before hurrying off to fetch her a bike. She shook her head at the retreating figure of her bodyguard and turned back to her view.

Before she realized what was going on, she heard a roaring sound, blast through her ears as a sea of flames erupt viciously. She saw heat sweeping the roads as people flee from the flames like ants under a magnifying glass. Thick black smoke wrapped around the air particles, banishing any view of the spot of the incident. Tightening its grip, the unbearable smoke grew and grew around the area, safely landing in Naira's lungs and giving her a coughing fit.

"What was that?" she asked with a gasp in her Bluetooth as she saw the firefighters arrive at the precise time.

"Ma'am, a time bomb was set at the entrance of the hidden tunnels. It exploded before the squad could take it apart," the leader of the squad updated it, trying to hide his panic.

"Why wasn't I updated on this matter?" she lashed out brutally as she eyed the black spot on the ground.

"Ma'am, we found the man responsible for placing the bomb," he reported back in a critical tone, urgency showing in his voice.

"I'm coming," Naira sternly said as she dashed out of the palace, grabbing the nearest motorbike she could find. This criminal was so dead.

⇜⚕⇝

"Naira, I am not sure if it is a good time for this," she heard Divit warn her in a parental voice as she dragged the criminal by his shirt collar.

She had tackled him onto the ground while he tried to run away, safely tying both his hands and legs to ensure his presence. She was so tempted to shoot him on the spot with all the rage from yesterday piling on to her, but she couldn't. According to the rules, she needed to conduct an interrogation before deciding his punishment. For his crime, she wouldn't hesitate to give him the direct death penalty and she would gladly be the person to shoot him off, but now that she was the leader, she wasn't sure what her duties were anymore.

"Oh it is good alright," Naira shot back irritated. Everyone, since she stepped into the palace, was telling her what to do, she despised following orders and being the leader of Nirag wasn't going to change that.

She tossed the criminal, who was a tall, lean man, not well built making it extremely easy for her to deal with. His body made contact with the opposite wall and he slid to the floor like a sack of potatoes. She gave him a haggard gaze before slamming the metal door shut and taking a seat in the chair overlooking the chamber.

She was seated in the interrogation section. There was a chamber with a metal door which holds the criminals while the officers sat in the control room with a mike in front of them. The chamber was soundproof, meaning that only voices from the mike would be heard on the other side while they could hear everything the criminal is saying. She glanced at all the different colored buttons against the huge, grey board which was slightly slanted for better visibility.

She clicked on the red button and spoke slowly yet tightly, "Why did you blast the bomb there?"

She heard Divit grunt in disapproval while the criminal glared at her with a bored, dull look. This happened every single time, they never answered when she asked nicely and regretted the later actions.

"I am going to get my answers no matter what. It would be better for you if you cooperate or it won't be good."

Naira waited for exactly five more seconds before asking once again, "Now, tell me, why did you blast the bomb there?"

Still no answer. With that a full proof smirk carved her face as her favorite part of the interrogation finally came, "Inject the truth serum."

They would inject the serum either way if the criminal co-operated or not. Many officers would directly inject the serum, but she always questioned them first, making them think they had the upper hand before injecting the serum. Their pathetic and regretful facial expressions were fascinating to watch. The most interesting part of the serum was that after an hour, the serum vanishes memories of the interrogation.

While she was drowned in her thoughts, she didn't notice Ash walk into the room. He was leaning against the wall, his muscles tense yet showing dominance, his eyes locked on her sight, his grey shirt complimented his messy grey eyes while the smirk on his face was the one thing Naira would do anything to wipe off.

She snapped out of her weird thoughts and pushed a chair in his direction. As expected, he caught the chair with ease while saying gruffly, his lips pressed into a thin line, "I don't want to sit."

"It was to block the door," she lamely retorted with her eyes firing with agitation.

Was he following her? She knew this was his home and all but there was no need for him to be around every place she was headed for. She was not a three-year-old for the need of a babysitter.

"Why did you blast the bomb there?"she stiffly asked the criminal who was gaping at them.

She frowned when she received no answers and clicked on the green button for a screener to appear, showing that the serum did go through his body.

After two seconds the criminal opened his mouth and answered nonchalantly,"To enter the hidden tunnels."

"How did you know where the tunnels were?" Naira enquired further while she could see Ash's face show one percent of pride in her work.

"Ancient maps hidden in the library," the criminal replied monotonously.

"Which one?" she asked instantly with shock that there were maps hidden in a library.

"The one I burnt down," he snorted back in a robotic voice while she gasped inwardly.

One day, just one damn day, she didn't pay attention to the city and she has a burnt library, a time bomb and a lunatic to face. Wow.

"What are you looking for?"

"The three men you caught two days ago."

"What was your primary motive?"

"Finding the hidden-" he replied which all the three of them listened to extremely carefully with eagerness and patience to understand the motive. His voice faltered at the end, mumbling some incoherent words and Naira opened her mouth to repeat the question when she heard Ash's phone ring.

He muttered a quick excuse and attended the call, finally declaring hotly,"The trade officers are here."

Naira raised her eyebrow at him, waiting for a proper explanation as what that has to do with anything while he continued, "Leave him, we will get back to him later."

"You can go, I'll finish the interrogation," Naira announced in a determined, persistent voice.

"They want to meet my wife, Mrs. Naira Ash Nirag," he rambled roughly, emphasizing on her new name which she completely dreaded. The name sounded so unfamiliar and horrific to her ears.

"I'll go change," she murmured annoyingly as he glared at her regular dressing style. She had a lace white top and casual jeans on and according to him, his wife couldn't go around with such casual clothing.

There are the orders again.

She hated this place. Naira passed a death glare at him before heading to their room for a change. She didn't have a lot of fancy dresses as she hardly attended any parties so why bother wasting money on them? Besides, according to the rest of the world, she looked stunning no matter what she wore. As Naira walked into the room, her eyes met with a black dress on the bed. She narrowed her gaze and picked the dress up when a small note fell from it.

❛Wear this.

-A❜

Another order.

Now she couldn't even wear what she wanted. Naira groaned as she unfolded the dress and grudgingly strode to the washroom.

Naira glanced at herself in the mirror, the dress was absolutely exotic. The red designs complemented the black cloth, small white gems adorned the border of the dress, the dress flowed at the back while it hung to her knees in the front. The waistband was clipped with several different red roses, matching the red rose strapped at her right shoulder. The dress had only one sleeve and flowed slanted over her neck. She let her brown curls cascade down her shoulders as she gently coated her eyes with black eyeliner.

In less than fifteen minutes, she stepped out of the room, shining in charisma and elegance. Naira had a simple black beaded bracelet hanging around her and her dark outfit made her skin gleam brighter in the dim streaks of light.

"Why is everyone so shocked with my wedding?" she heard Ash's strongly irked voice ring in her ears as she proceeded to the entrance of the palace.

"Well, till yesterday day you were talking about having no wife and all of a sudden this girl fall from the sky," she heard another deep, male voice from the around the corner. Unlike Ash, this voice sounded more lively and sarcastic.

"What can I say? I finally realized the importance of relationships," Ash lied smoothly.

Sure you did, Naira thought sarcastically in her head as she turned around the corner to make her appearance. Her head held high, elegance in her small strides and a beauty reflecting off her outfit.

"Hello, Mrs.Ni-"a man, who was just about as tall as Ash, greeted her, but she cut him off gently.

"It's Naira. Just Naira," she greeted in a softer, gentle tone as she placed her hand in his.

She saw Ash turn around and stiffen visibly as his eyes landed on her which made Naira smirk in delight. His eyes casually slid around her perfect figure, as if taking in every detail of her appearance before his face turned into a deep frown. She raised her eyebrow when she saw that his gaze halted at her mask. Yep, she still had that on. His stare told her all that was extremely pissed off. So much that he was ready to strangle her right then and there if the other guy wouldn't be there.

Naira smirk widened with pleasure. Just the reaction she wanted. She saw the other man study both of their expressions from the corner of her eye. He looked around forty, his light brown hair neatly tugged to the side, he had a light stubble and a muscular body.

"Naira, this is Mark," Ash finally said in a stern, displeased voice as he slid a hand around her waist.

She straightened underneath his touch as both the men kept talking while Naira flowed in her own thoughts. What was hidden in the tunnels that the men came looking for? Was it that important that they had to burn down an entire library? Questions raised her in the head, but she knew that she needed to wait to find the true answers. What was even more confusing that every time Mark and a few of his men talk about Ash's room, his muscles tense up for a quick second. Why?

⇜⚕⇝

Do you think the trade officer, Mark, will find the hidden gem? Can anyone guess the primary motives of the three men?

VOTE, COMMENT AND SHARE!