The Black Flames

Chapter 15 - The Option

Kiara stumbled out of her cabin and found Ved approaching her. His mere sight eased the knot in her chest as something fluttered in her stomach. Her left hand lifted towards him on its own, but she pulled it in immediately and let out a deep breath instead. She felt a strong desire to let him in in this crushing moment, to allow him to hold and comfort her.

What the hell am I doing? She reprimanded herself.

She turned her gaze away. Dan was speaking to Pritam a few metres away. She glanced at the remains of the plane at a distance on her right. Despite the charring, one could make out the blue colour, and the beige wavy design on the aircraft had survived.

"So, are you okay?" Ved had reached Kiara and asked her.

She turned to him and spotted something. The sundown could hide the worry lining his face.

Despite the grim phone call she had just had with her brother, momentarily losing her grip on reality, a smile glimmered on her lips.

He's so cute. She thought to herself.

Baring her teeth a little, Kiara assured him,

"Ved, you don't have to worry about me. I am fine."

Ved felt a little awkward.

Am I overdoing it? I have known her for just twelve hours. He thought to himself.

"Sorry, I don't mean to overstep my limits. Just that, I wanted to check if you are doing alright after your argument with Dan."

Kiara searched for the right response. So much had happened in the last forty-five minutes alone.

How much should I tell him? I have confided in him a lot today, maybe more than I should be telling a stranger.

But he doesn't feel like one. Is that a problem? She wondered.

"I...just had a long chat with my brother over the phone," she started to reveal. Ved tilted his head but didn't look away, "I told him that Dan has asked us to live with him under his direct protection."

"What?" Ved said, a little louder than he had sounded in the past twelve hours.

"Oh yeah, that's another major development," Kiara realised there was so much she hadn't told him. She felt like following her heart one more time.

"My father was working on a single shot cure for cancer, Ved. And Dan's father was his first patient. The first person to recover using my father's medicine."

She paused to look Ved in the eye, searching for any expression to break through, but nothing breached his poker face. So, she continued,

"He made it at a very affordable price. And looks like...he was killed because his invention would have put the plans of someone in the pharmaceutical industry in jeopardy."

Kiara took another pause, waiting for a word and a reaction from him, but Ved kept his thoughts to himself.

"Dan says he owed my father for saving his father's life. So, he promised my father that he would do everything in his capacity to protect me and my brother. He says our lives are in danger, and he can guard us better by taking us under his protection."

Still, nothing came out of Ved. Kiara decided to poke him,

"What are you thinking? I am intrigued."

Ved shook his head and looked away from her.

Why am I surrounded by men today who like to take a dramatic pause? She thought.

"Kiara." Just that. Ved went silent after using her name as a sentence. As if that was all he could muster to say out loud.