Chapter 16 The First Crack In The Crown
The rain started at dusk.
Not loud, not wild—just soft enough to make the palace feel smaller. Softer. As if the heavens were holding back their tears.
Sana sat by her window in the west wing, her fingertips tracing the misted glass. She had changed out of her usual pastels—tonight she wore deep maroon. Not royal. Not servant. Just… her.
And outside that window, Hatim stood in the garden. Sword in hand. Alone in the rain.
> “He hasn’t come inside for hours,” Meher whispered nervously. “He’s just standing there.”
Sana said nothing. But something pulled at her. A thread. A whisper in her blood.
---
The storm that raged inside Hatim was louder than the one falling from the sky.
He had taken a stand. Defied his mother. Moved Sana into the west wing. And now?
Now every noble in court whispered behind their sleeves. Every advisor offered warnings laced in polished cruelty.
And Queen Roshni?
She hadn’t spoken a single word to him since the confrontation.
> “Let her be angry,” Hatim thought, the rain sliding down his face like tears he refused to shed. “I won’t let her touch Sana again.”
---
He didn’t hear Sana’s footsteps until she was close—close enough for her scent to cut through the dampness.
> “You’ll fall sick,” she said softly, holding out a folded cloak.
Hatim didn’t move. “Maybe I need the cold.”
Sana stepped closer, wrapping the cloak around his shoulders herself. Her fingers lingered for a moment—just long enough for him to catch his breath.
> “You’re not alone in this,” she said, looking up at him through the curtain of rain.
Hatim met her eyes.
> “I know. That’s why I can bear it.”
---
Back inside, in the palace war room, Queen Roshni watched the rain from the stained glass window. Her advisors hovered behind her, silent.
> “She’s changing him,” the head priest said quietly. “The boy who once served your command without question… now bows only to her.”
Roshni’s voice was bitter. “He’s under a spell.”
But even she didn’t fully believe it.
---
Later that night, Sana found a scroll outside her chamber door.
No signature. No seal. Just a single sentence written in dark, deliberate ink:
> “When the moon bleeds, you must run.”
She clutched the scroll to her chest, heart pounding.
> “The shadow again…”
But why warn her?
---
The next morning, Hatim entered the royal court in full armor—not for war, but because the nobles had summoned an intervention.
The whispers had grown too loud.
And Queen Roshni had given them permission to speak.
> “Your Highness,” a noble began, “it is not fitting for a future king to parade with a veiled girl of unknown blood.” “She has not even shown her face.”
Hatim didn’t flinch.
“She owes no one her face,” he replied coldly.
Gasps.
The noble stammered. “She may be a danger to the throne.”
“She is the only thing keeping it steady,” Hatim shot back.
Then his eyes turned to his mother.
> “If your fear of losing me makes you destroy everything I love, then maybe you never deserved to call yourself a mother.”
Silence. Sharp. Slicing.
Roshni’s jaw tightened. But she didn’t respond.
Because somewhere… she knew.
She was losing.
---
That night, Sana sat on her bed, holding the blue ribbon in her hands.
She remembered the warmth in Hatim’s voice. His fire. His silence.
And for the first time in her life…
She whispered a prayer.
> “Not for safety. Not for escape. But for the courage to stay.”
---
??? Author’s Note:
BABY HATIM CAME ARMOURED IN THAT COURTROOM and dragged the entire aristocracy ???? this man said “she owes no one her face” and I melted into a puddle.
Also… what’s that scroll? Who left it? Why is the moon bleeding soon?? ??
Chapter 17’s gonna get darker, besties. But you already know: our girl Sana’s made of steel wrapped in starlight ????