"She is destruction incarnate-everything she touches turns to ash."
Ishani, a sharp-witted and fiercely independent businesswoman from the modern world, trusts no one, least of all men. But fate has other plans. Thrust into a treacherous era of warr...
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"Stop this madness! Please. Just stop it!" Ishani screamed as she saw the intensity of the war they could start. Krishna sighed, while Devajit immediately dropped his weapons and glared at Karna, who straightened up and ignored him. The storm still raged over Dwarka, but within the palace, silence had fallen—heavy and suffocating.
"I am not interested in any man. Kindly leave before I.."
Devajit knelt before Ishani, his dark eyes burning with devotion. The flames that wreathed him did not scorch; they worshipped, curling around her feet like supplicants before a goddess.
Devajit's fingers twitched toward her, his obsidian eyes burning with a hunger that was both terrifying and heartbreaking. "Pari, you were never meant to suffer," he rasped, his voice layered with echoes of the abyss. "I would have torn the heavens apart to keep you safe."
Ishani stood her ground, her eyes reddening in anger. She had enough of men speaking about burning the world and all that sugary nonsense.
Karna took a step forward. His face was a battleground—rage, guilt, and something deeper, something raw. "You think I wouldn't have done the same?" His voice cracked. "I was there. Watching. Helpless. The gods bound me to silence, but I tried—"
"Tried?" Devajit's laugh was a serrated thing. "You could have rebelled instead of taking a part of her pain."
But he had fought. In secret, in shadows, he had whispered prayers into the void, sent fragments of his soul after her—Devajit, his rage and longing given form.
And now, here they stood.
Krishna's voice was soft. "The time has come, Karna. Will you deny yourself any longer?"
Karna closed his eyes—and let go.
Devajit's form dissolved into smoke, swirling around Karna like a second skin before merging into his chest. The moment their souls fused, the palace shuddered.
Karna gasped, his knees hitting the marble as memories flooded him—
Her laughter in Kailash. The way she had once tucked a blue lotus behind his ear. The gods tearing her from his arms.
His voice, when it came, was raw. "Ishani."
She took a step back, her face unreadable. "Don't." She stood silent before uttering another word, knowing her voice would crack and her stupid heart and eyes would betray her.
Krishna raised his hand.
The focus shifted back to Ishani, who stood tall despite the tremor in her voice. Clad in shimmering divine silks that seemed to hum with an inner light, she faced the space where the Trimurti had stood, her chin lifted in an act of defiance that belied the vulnerability in her eyes. "If this is the price of balance," she declared, her voice ringing with a newfound resolve, "I will pay it."
