Part 16: The Fall That Never Came
Her hands gripped the window frame. The glass was cold, almost mocking. Beyond it stretched darkness—moonlight spilling across the courtyard, whispering freedom. Her heart pounded.
Bhuvanya's breath came in shuddering bursts. "I'll jump… I will. I'd rather die than live like this," she whispered, voice cracking. Her bare feet slid on the marble floor as she leaned forward. Wind tangled her hair. The ground below looked merciful—hard, final.
But before she could push herself over the edge—
"Don't."
The voice came from behind her. Calm. Low. Commanding.
Her body froze. She didn't need to turn to know.
Aarush.
He stood in the doorway, his silhouette framed by the dim light from the hall. His tone wasn't angry, but there was something far more dangerous in it—control.
"You think death will free you?" he asked, stepping forward slowly. "No one leaves this house without my word. Not even through death."
Her fingers trembled on the windowsill. "Then what do you want from me?" she whispered, still facing the window. "What do you all want from me? You treat me like property—like something to own!"
Aarush exhaled, a sound halfway between a sigh and a laugh. "Something to own? No, Bhuvanya. You're far more valuable than that. You just don't understand it yet."
He came closer. The floor creaked under his weight. She turned slightly, her tear-streaked face pale in the faint light.
"Understand what?"
Aarush's eyes, dark and sharp as obsidian, met hers. "Why you're here."
She shook her head violently. "You bought me. My father sold me!"
His gaze softened—too calm, too deliberate. "That's what you believe," he said, voice almost tender. "But the truth… is far more complicated."
Before she could ask, he reached past her and closed the window with a single smooth motion. The click of the latch echoed like a verdict.
Then, quietly, he said, "Kabir won't touch you again. Not unless I allow it."
Her breath caught. "You allow it?"
Aarush didn't answer immediately. He simply studied her, the way someone might study a dangerous animal behind glass. Then—
"Do you really think I would let my brother ruin what I built?" he asked softly. "You think I don't see everything that happens in my house?"
He turned away, walking toward the door, his words calm but chilling. "If Kabir disobeys again… I'll break him."
The silence that followed was unbearable. The ticking of the clock felt like a countdown.
Finally, Bhuvanya whispered, "Then why keep me here? If you're so powerful, why not let me go?"
Aarush stopped at the doorway. Without turning back, he said, "Because the world outside this mansion would eat you alive. And you—" he looked over his shoulder, eyes glinting—"belong to the fire now. Not the ashes."
Then he was gone.
The door clicked shut.
Bhuvanya slid down to the floor, her breath breaking into sobs. She didn't understand. None of it made sense—why Aarush had stopped her, why his words sounded more like protection than cruelty, why his eyes burned not with lust, but something stranger.
But one thing became terrifyingly clear—
Whatever she had believed about being sold… was only half the truth.
And tomorrow, she would find out what it really meant to be "the property of fire."