The Cursed Princess of Suryagarh: Book 1

10. Ruthless

Utter silence fell in the hall after his declaration. Though he went back to scrolling through his phone with effortless precision and the same air of coolness she so detested, she was unable to reel back from the string of words he had put together.

She was not sure if she should intervene in that moment of quietude or not. It was again sombre, heavy with the weight of his words, grave with the seriousness of the situation, and she chose to read the book in her hands rather than seek more answers.

No, she needed to know nothing else. That was the limit to the exposure she would allow herself to get in this whirlwind called Suryagarh's history and the tempest that was Aarush Chauhan's reality. However, the more she willed herself not to open her mouth, the less she had any control over what she desired.

Snapping the book shut, she stood up from the couch, and the sudden movement alerted him as he peered at her. "The person who cast the curse five hundred years ago is long dead, Mr. Chauhan. Five hundred years ago, he cast the curse and died. I believed in all the fantastical stuff you told me about curses and everything, but this is stretching the limit. Okay?"

He shrugged. "Okay."

She could kill anyone—preferably Aarush Chauhan—if he were to be this nonchalant for the next four days. "So," she crossed her arms in front of her, "what is the job of these Protectors and the high priest?"

"For starters," he said, "the high priest's job is to fetch Elder Woman before the end of the day, which I am pretty much sure, he is failing at."

She blinked furiously. "What is Elder Woman?"

He frowned at her. "Shouldn't the question be who is Elder Woman?"

She opened and closed her mouth like a fish and flashed her eyes at him again. "Bad Princey!"

He couldn't help it anymore. He chortled. "Elder Woman is a freakishly powerful lady. Very old, mind you. Must be in her late 80s or even 90s. She is needed in Suryagarh before the next full moon night to break the curse."

"Next full moon? When is it?"

"In four days."

Her brows went up to her hairline. "You will need me to break the curse on the full moon night?"

"Of course."

"In four days?"

"Yes."

She bobbed her head and beamed. "Aligns perfectly with my plan. Aryan will pick me up after that, and I can go to my sweet, sweet grandparents. You and Adya can be free from the curse on the princesses of Suryagarh, and we will all live happily ever after."

A damned realization of the impending doom passed through his entire self, cascading down every cell of his body, reverberating inside his chest, and hammering against his head. He leaned ahead on the couch and grasped his head with his hands, his elbows lying firmly on his knees. He was no longer looking at her, but she was continually chattering about how blessed her life was despite the occasional bouts of clumsiness she exhibited.

However, his entire focus was on only one thing. Dharamraj was dead. Lying in a pool of blood in Rampur. He had sent back up to fetch the dead body and alerted the authorities in the village to lodge a case against the people he knew were behind the ghastly murder of Dharamraj Singh Saini. That meant Adya would remain the cursed princess of Suryagarh for the rest of her life. Short life.

He could feel the walls breaking around him, crumbling and coming down. And he couldn't remain in the chirpy girl's company for a second longer. Not because she was telling him all about how nice her grandparents were. But because he needed solitude. He needed loneliness, for four days later, loneliness was the only companion he was going to get. For the rest of his life. The princesses of Suryagarh were not the only ones cursed. The men of the clan were jinxed too with long lives full of melancholy, sequestration, devoid of any emotion, and that stark sentiment of dark rage bubbling through every tissue, every muscle. Until death was gracious enough to take them.