When Aastha met Veer, she knew they had a connection.
However, the connection would be from two centuries ago, she never could have imagined.
A love story that remained unfulfilled, broken by evil, and destroyed to ashes - whose reference hide...
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Chapter 13
There was a strange feeling that settled in the pit of her stomach. A feeling that everything was going to go sideways. Radhika vowed that if she did die, she would meet Mohan again, in the next lifetime. At least she spent some good moments with him. She recalled their kiss and let the blush consume her cheeks.
As she entered the main hall, the first thing that hit her was the pungent smell of the smoke coming from the havan kund [ fire-altar ]. There was a weird-looking man wearing black robes, a red and white shawl sprawled on his shoulders, sitting in front of the square-shaped fire altar. The bricks around the altar were black and looked as if they were carved out of stone. As far as Radhika knew, royals believed that using bricks made of pure red mud brought prosperity. And the black rocks were popular for black magic rituals. What's going on?
"Is that her?" The man in the robes asked. Radhika gulped, his stare was ruthless and was laced with a stomach-churning smirk.
"Yes, Agninath Pandit ji, that's my daughter... Radhika." Meenavati spoke. Radhika whipped her head towards the other side of the room. The queen who was also her unfortunate mother sat dejectedly in a cushioned seat. Radhika gave a feeble smile at her mother. Dismissing the water pooling in her eyes, Meenavati looked away but not before Radhika caught the glimpse of those unshed tears.
Why feel so sad when you gave the consent to it all, Maa sa? Radhika asked her mentally.
At that instant, Meenavati looked up, her breath caught up in her throat. Oddly enough, Meenavati had read Radhika's mind.
Meenavati bit her lips and drew a long breath. As a queen, she couldn't fall weak now. She tried to recall all the bad things, the curses, the predictions, her mother's death, and Radhika's stunt from earlier in the day. Even as all of it came to her mind, Meenavati recalled the good things too. Radhika's wholehearted laughter, her unmatched talent with sword-fighting, her smart comebacks, the tender care she showered on the animals around the fort, and countless moments she spent with her grandmother Umadevi with untethered smile and love. Meenavati had secretly watched it all. At first, she had told herself she was doing it to keep an eye on her. As time passed, she realized, that all she wanted was to have a look at her daughter.
The daughter, she had discarded.
A deep-rooted heaviness settled in Meenavati's heart and she looked away. Pull yourself together, Meenavati she told herself. Surprisingly, Radhika had read her mother's mind too.
Raja Ratan Rajveer Singh stood by the corner watching the dreadful moments unfold before him. He was unhappy and refused to acknowledge whatever was happening. He felt helpless and confused. Avantika sat behind Meenavati with Chandrika seated next to her.
Avantika looked sadly at Radhika, giving a brief nod to her. Radhika nodded back with a sigh. At that particular moment, she envied Avantika. All her life she had seen her twin sister enjoy the privileges while she suffered a jilted fate. She had spent many moments wondering how lucky Avantika was. But Radhika didn't let the emotion of jealousy envelop her, not until Mohan had come into the picture.
