Royals

22 - You Need To Go

A/n: So I have read enough good quality paperbacks to get an adrenaline rush to complete this book! Although, I personally believe that the first few chapters may need some editing but I guess I'll get to that once I'm done with the story on the whole. Alsoooo, I am having mixed feelings about what I'm gonna write... Ehh... I'll just wing it n see where it goes!

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Chapter 22

Maisha had an urge to see him before going off to her chambers. Something wasn't right. She was unsure herself but his eyes! They weren't their usual charming brown. They held an unfamiliar depthness she didn't know they were capable of holding.

It had been more than an hour since she last saw both Chitra and Aditya. Deep in her thoughts, she barged into his chambers before waiting for the footman to announce her presence. There she saw them, all three of them. Deep in a conversation, wearing a guilty look as Dev and Chitra silently took their leave.

She just stared at them trying to comprehend an unsolvable puzzle. It was evident that they had been hiding something from her. But what? Well, she was about to know.

"I intended to talk to you," he said wearily grabbing her dazed attention.

She nodded slightly as he went on, "Chitra has found the ideal spot for the experiment."

"What experiment?" She raised an innocent brow.

"To send you back." He jumped to the point rather harshly.

"But...ho..how? I mean there must be..," her breath hitched as she sank in the shaiya at the foot of his bed, not believing what he had said.

"She works rather fast." She said bitterly remembering Chitra's promise to her. The promise wherein both of them were to bully Aditya for his rude behavior! What happened to that?

"Don't blame her. It was me who ordered her. She would've been tried as a traitor had she not assented." He said coldly, walking past her to the balcony. He looked out to the specks of flickering oil lamps in front of each and every house of the Capitol. Those were all the people who could sleep at night, who were happy and in the midst of the chaos, it gave him a false sense of peace.

"But there is a way!" Maisha jumped up almost hopefully but retreated back. It was not her secret to tell. But there it is, loud and clear, a way for her to stay. Just as Chitra had told her. Unfortunately, she was bound by her word. She wanted to scream that she could live for an entire lifetime here and then go back as her twenty six year old self! Just as Chitra had done. But now what?

"There is no way," he said with a slight fanatic tone and gritted annoyance.

"What if I promise there is? You're not going to give up on us, are you?" She ignored him and questioned back with a voice both angry and pleading.

"I... I don't know how to explain this but I know! I know Adi, I can stay here . And when I'm about to die, maybe I'll go back then. It is possible, for God's sake believe me," she let out a shrill cry. It was overwhelming. He was her rock in this crooked unfamiliar world and she desperately wanted him to trust her. But the fact that her rock might just be slipping away from her made her hysterical.

Even in the worst of his tempers, as the previous toil of thirty days had been a testament, he never turned his back on her. Maybe she was naive to think that he had forgotten his own words from a few days ago, maybe he had changed his mind or just maybe it was another one of his lies to push her away. But amongst all the other blatant lies he mockingly spewed to hurt her, this one was the truth.

She gently put her hand on his shoulder as if being careful, like he wasn't hers anymore and begged for one last time, her voice breaking, "Just believe me."

"I know the way. I just choose not to believe it." He whispered shrugging, pushing her hand away.

"Very well." It was the last thing he heard her say before the gentle thud of a closing door. Her tone was stern but he could sense the underlying feeling of betrayal and hurt laced in her voice. This was the last of it. He had managed to give her the final scar leaving an even bigger one on his own heart. But desperate times call desperate measure, don't they? Besides, he was incapable of giving her any happiness, wasn't he? Or was it just another thought to console his wrecked mind and unsettling nerves.

A lone tear escaped from his weary eyes as he breathed deeply in the cold night air that held the lingering scent of incense sticks post Diwali. He opened his closed palm which had been painfully fisted till now staring at his mother's big Emerald ring he had intended to give her on Diwali night, that he had securely kept in his kurta pocket til now. But it didn't matter. She was going to leave after all, she had to. And now he knew, whether he lost or won, he would be the one crying.

Just how rotten is my luck. She was a little adventure never mine to have. He sighed throwing the ring into an empty vase near the the corner of the semi circular balcony and headed outside to wear himself into the arms of yet another sleepless night.

Whatever may be the cost, he was to send her away.

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A/n: ik ik it was a very short chapter. Forgive me! 😿😿

I also know that this air of mystery (if I have successfully managed to create it) is uncalled for but I really want a good plot that makes sense! Let's hope for the best💝💝🦄🦄

Drop in your views please!!!