Anurāga | The Quiscent Queen

Chapter 7

A/N:- I am sorry for the delay guys but I was so swamped up with work and writer's block hit hard. So this chapter is a little bigger than the others, as compensation, hehe. Also, please leave comments and reviews. It will help in countering my diminishing motivation greatly.

------------------------------------

I almost leaped in shock as I entered the chambers for retiring for the night, at my usual time and saw Arjun leaning against the railing of the balustrade, laconically bent like a predatory leopard. 

His cyan orbs met my marble grey ones and I froze in the middle of the room like a rabbit in a trap. I was pretty sure there was indeed a trap being laid for me. 

The silence between us stretched and with it my nervousness climbed steadily. I knew we couldn't keep up this staring match on for the entire night and someone had to break the stalemate eventually. 

But all I wanted right then, was to escape from the room somehow. 

'Nowhere to run off to now, Bhadra. Time to face the music.'

The voice in my head sounded oddly like Krishna's and I swallowed in inside my rapidly drying throat. My tongue had sedimented at the floor of my mouth like it was cement. 

"Don't even think about it!", Arjun retorted sharply and I realised that my eyes had been darting at the side, towards the doors. 

"I was just..", I began but shut up wisely when he straightened up with a sharp tang like the Gandhiva's string being pulled taut. 

Storm clouds had been gathering distantly in the horizon since morning and now, I could smell the cutting clear smell of a fast approaching downpour. I cannot be sure if the weather in general had decided to align with my mood or was it my husband's spiritual father playing ironic with us. 

"Of everyone, you have always been the one to never shy away from saying what is on her mind. I hadn't taken you for someone who will employ such childish backhanded methods of playing mind games."

Despite myself, I bristled at his tone as Arjun approached me. His gaze looked more predatory than conciliatory like it had priorly been. It seemed like I had misjudged the depth of that well of his legendary patience. 

Or maybe it was the unintentional double pronged attack which had finally broken the camel's back. 

Draupadi had not been very kind to him since our arrival and I certainly wasn't helping with my steady avoidance.

"I am not playing any games", I retorted sourly and turned to look at the side, focussing my fidgeting gaze on the heavy tapestry of the curtain blinds. 

"Oh aren't you!"

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't even seen you properly let alone manage to get a word in sideways since that day in Matashree's chambers. It has been weeks, Subhadra!"

I snapped my face back then, to see him standing close to me, having covered the physical distance between us within a blink. 

The emotional distance though stood in front of me like an impossibly wide gorge, at present. 

I don't know whether it was the lingering exhaustion from all the mental gymnastics I played with Duryodhana's traders for the whole day or the emotional fatigue of my self imposed separation from my husband, but I didn't take notice of the slight desperation which had seeped past his words along with the overt frustration. 

My temper unfortunately, instable as it always has been, proved to be at its worst, that evening. 

"I am here now. I was busy", I replied curtly while deftly circling around him to reach the massive teak wood dresser, kept at the corner.