❝And in her smile I see something more beautiful than the stars.❞
Beth Revis

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A FEW DAYS LATER

THE queen passed hoards and hoards of courtiers and handmaidens to reach the golden gates of the library. The doors stood slightly ajar which indicated that someone was in. This confused her since no one comes to the library this deep into the night.

Akira rested her hand against her sword hilt which was placed securely at her waist as she pushed open the doors. The queen cringed slightly at the creaking sound that the doors made as she walked inside the library.

"Who is there?" A voice came from inside at the creaking of the gateway. The sound was easy to locate in the vast library. Akira recognized that voice more quickly than a blink of the eye, that voice had annoyed her too much for her own good since the past few days. 

It belonged to Yuvraj Kartik.

Akira walked past shelves and shelves – all of them filled with any and every book imaginable - and under the huge gold carved ceiling which depicted a myth her baba had told her when she was a child. She made her way to the source of the voice.

The voice had come from the inner sections of the library and she answered back, "It's me."

Her footsteps echoed through the library, blending with the silence quickly as she walked on the marble floor. Akira came to a halt and rested her shoulder against a mahogany book shelf which almost touched the ceiling and she spotted the man holding a thin, worn out book in his hands, his gaze fixated on it as a gentle smile encased his lips.

"What are you doing here so late?" She raised an eyebrow.

His eyes didn't leave the book as he turned the pages delicately, "Reading, of course."

The sovereign propelled herself from the shelf and took a few steps towards him, "And what exactly are you reading?"

He said nothing but rather just silently gestured at the book in his hands. She glanced at the pages he had turned over which were illustrated with silly figures and she scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion and curio, "That's a children's book Yuvraj."

"I know."

She looked up at his face in perplexity, "You're reading a children's story book?"

He tore his gaze away from the words for the first time that evening and looked at her with a small shrug, "Yes"

"I did know that you have the intelligence of a small child but I didn't know you had the same interests as a child." She tried to joke and he simply shrugged, ignoring her comment as if he was too busy reading. 

"So," she tried again, this time with a more sincere tone, "would you tell me why you're reading this book?" 

Kartik ignored her question and instead put forth one of his as his fingers traced the ink on the book, "Have you read it?"

Akira glimpsed at the thin story book which looked sturdy yet worn, "No, never read that book for some reason."

A melancholy happiness clouded his eyes and a sad smile came to life on his face as he just stared at the book, "It reminds me of my mother... she gave this book to me when I was a child. Used to read it to me every night."

His expression looked fazed as if he was re-living moments he couldn't travel back no matter how much he yearned for it and for a moment there the queen could almost feel the days and days she and her father had spent in the library, reading stories and making silly faces at each other, just enjoying the pure bliss before it ended abruptly.

Akira hesitantly raised her hand to his shoulders - not too sure whether she was doing the correct thing or not - and broke the gut-wrenching silence which was too hard to bear for both of them, "She sounds like a wonderful woman."

A half-hearted laugh left the threshold of his lips which cut through the uncomfortable hush, "She was."

"I am sorry." She said, knowing nothing better to say. 

She felt her thought process shifting. Something that made her think of him as more than just a spy. 

'He isn't just a spy, he's human too. Should you really kill him? Let him go, he isn't half as bad.'  A small part of her brain seemed to argue. 

'And? Human or not, you need to kill him before it's too late. Stop letting your emotions get the best of you Akira, do it. Kill him before you regret it. Kill him before you meet the same fate as all those countless buffoons who let their emotions get the best of them.' The rational part of her head seemed to argue back, convincing her that he, indeed, was trouble. 

His voice snapped her out of her thoughts, "Thank you but don't worry, I'm alright. I was pretty young when she passed away, so, I don't have many memories of her," He raised the book, "Besides this book I suppose."

 "Oh" She said in a soft tone, still not knowing how to comfort him.

'He's a spy, this is an act. He's a spy, Akira, don't fall for his words.'
'Spy, spy, spy. Lies, lies, lies.' 

The thought ran through her head until it was all she could think, until that was the only thing that she could identify. 

He continued, his gaze left the book and met hers but he quickly looked away as if regretting looking at her in the first place, "She was a force to be reckoned with, she taught me how to fight too. She was much like you if I might say so myself."

Akira pulled her hand back from his shoulder and spoke in a light-hearted tone, trying to ease the tension that persisted between them, "Now that's how you give a compliment, Yuvraj."

He gave her a lopsided smile and extended the book in her direction mindlessly, "You should read it sometime you know?"

His cheerless smile soon turned into a forced a smirk, "Assuming you can take a few hours from your busy schedule."

A small laugh left the brink of her lips. Akira had laughed and it was not one of the cold or forced ones she had been hiding behind, wearing them religiously like a mask – a mask no had ever permeated. No, this laugh was real, this laugh was not deprived of any emotion and the queen who had such a sharp memory couldn't remember how long it had been since she gave a heartfelt smile to somebody.

Kartik looked at her for the first time properly that night – how the gold on the ceiling reflected on her jewellery casting a subtle blush on her skin, how her nose scrunched up a little when she laughed, how her eyes turned into crescents brimming with laughter and how his vision was almost transfixed on her smiling form, "You look good like that." He absentmindedly muttered.

Akira caught herself and raised her eyebrow, "Like what?"

"Smiling..." He pointed at her with a small smile, "Makes you look less like a murderer." 

She offered him a small smile, "Thank you?" and he nodded back awkwardly. 

For the second time, she paid attention to the details lying in the simplicity of his eyes. Light brown sea with specks of hazel floating mindlessly. 

He was like water and she couldn't understand him. He was ever-changing. She felt like she understood him yet she didn't. One moment he was a smug royalty - lined with smirks and witty one-liners - and the most compassionate person the second. One moment he was her doom, the one who would end her reign and her most understanding friend the second. One moment he was just Kartik and a spy the second.  

Akira took the long forgotten book from his hands and used the chance to look away from his delicate gaze. She fiddled with her hands for a brief moment and muttered, "I should go now."

The foreign sovereign opened his mouth to say something - wanting to ask her to stay with him a bit long, just long enough for him to remember every little detail about her, from the tint of her lips to the intensity in her eyes - but he ultimately decided to utter nothing.

Though she couldn't admit it, a part of the queen also wanted him to ask her to stay with him a little longer. Just to be with him, in silence, away from the busyness of her life and away from the duties that clung onto her and scorched her skin. 

But he said nothing and she heard nothing and they were once again caught in the invisible threads of silence like vulnerable preys.

"Shubh ratri" Akira turned away, leaving him in the still library.

"Shubh ratri" His voice was almost a whisper, merging with the shadows in the library as soon as it left his lips.

Just as she had taken a few steps away from him, walking back out, she caught herself standing still as marble.

Akira looked over her shoulder to see the stranger standing quietly, looking down on the floor as if in deep thought - his eyebrows were knit together and his mouth stood agape just a little as if he was having a tiresome battle of thoughts.

The monarch looked away from him, "Yuvraj?" she said his name as low as possible - a part of her hoping he wouldn't hear it - yet he heard his name out of her mouth loud and clear.

"Yes?" He asked, his eyes meeting her back in silence.

"Why aren't you scared of me?" She wondered aloud. 

"Huh?" He let out a low chuckle, the sound sounding so foreign in the tense room, "What do you mean?"

"I mean," She dragged the word on, "everyone is afraid of me - even the people closest to me - but you don't seem afraid. You treat me like I am just some person. Why?"

"Well, you are a normal person, aren't you? But if it brings you any peace, I am terrified of you at some points. You can be pretty intimidating." The foreigner said through a small shrug, "But at the end of the day, you're just as human as me and that thought alone makes me think that maybe you're not as ruthless as everyone makes you out to be." 

'Don't trust him Akira,' she thought to herself, 'It's all white lies. You're a monster and he knows it.'

Her eyes dropped down to the book in her hands, "Well, you're wrong because I am as ruthless as people make me out to be." And with that she left.     

---

Akira walked out of the library in almost a trance, her hands mindlessly glided over the soft pages marked with words as her mind rushed with a thousand thoughts.

The queen came to an abrupt halt as she saw a figure standing in the hallways, leaning against one of the marble columns.

"Shree?" The queen called out to the figure which stood still as stone in front of her.

"What's going on Akira?" The girl inquired, her form was lit up by the moon. 

"What do you mean?" The queen started walking away from the figure and towards her room while her adviser followed suit. 

"You heard me, what's going on?" Her voice was accusing just in the slightest.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Shree walked in front of the sovereign, "You just walked out of the library and the imposter is still inside the library alive."

Akira said nothing and Shree finally spoke up, scrunching her eyebrows and holding her gaze with Akira, "What were you doing in the library with him?"

The queen came to a halt and rubbed her temple in mild annoyance, "He gave me a book, we were talking Shree. It does not mark the end of the world."

"A book?"

Akira handed over the book in her hands to the girl in front of her. Shree eyed the book for a moment before muttering in confusion, "He gave you a children's book?"

The queen simply nodded and resumed walking as her adviser continued, "And you took the book?"

"What's the big deal?" Akira asked the girl beside her who was wearing a skeptical look.

"The big deal is that the imposter has been in our palace for almost a week, Aki." Her voice was exasperated yet concerned, as if for the first time she was truly confused, "He has lived longer than he should have then why is he not dead? You have killed people far more innocent than him."

"I know." The Maharani took a pause and drew a long breath, "And I am working on it, he will be dead-"

"-soon enough?" Shree shook her head, "Aki who are you fooling? Tell me why is he still alive? You must have some reason to keep him alive this long-"

The curly-haired girl's voice cut short, "Do you-" She paused as if she couldn't believe her own thoughts, "Do you, perhaps, feel something for him?"

Akira stopped abruptly as if an invisible force had knocked the wind out of lungs and replaced every breath she was taking with grains of sand instead. She snatched back the book in Shree's hands, not meeting her gaze and scoffed, "No, obviously not. He is a spy Shree, he's someone I'm not supposed to even minutely" Her voice became quieter, "consider as a friend much less something... more." 

'And yet you can not pick up your blade to kill him. Why is it so hard for you? What do you call that feeling in your chest then?' A voice in her head seemed to taunt, 'What is that smile that spreads over your lips? Is it nothing? Is it obviously nothing Akira?'  

"Then what is it?" Shree asked, pulling Akira back into reality. 

"I am just taking my time to kill him." The sovereign looked into her adviser's eyes, answering the question, "I am trying to get information about who he works for, that's all. It's taking some time."

"That's all?" Her voice hinted that she didn't quite believe the figure in front of her.

"Yes."

"It better be because that man is gonna be the death of you Akira..." Shree gave her a concerned look, "quite literally."

Akira sighed and closed her eyes momentarily, taking her time to contemplate whatever her minister was telling her. 

"I know." 

---
A/N - **evil laugh** Akira is finally realising that there is more to Kartik than just a spy. Now is this gonna make thing better or worse? Who knows?

Stay tuned, stay corrupted ♥️
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