Silent Embers

"You used me," she says, realisation hitting her harder than expected

"I warned you," his reply came, colder than ice

"I...I love you, Aditya. Please....tell me it is all a lie, and I wasn't just a pawn in your game," she begs, tears threatening to spill.

He regards her with a look that gives no hint of emotion, her breath hitched, chest constricting, the onset of a panic attack.

"Was anything between us ever real?" A breathless whisper leaves her, his cold and unyielding demeanour shattering her heart

The world tilts, and her knees buckle, making her lose balance. Aditya moved before he could think, catching her before she fell.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The night everything he loved was destroyed, Aditya Thakur stopped being a man and became a mission.

Consumed by grief and a burning desire for vengeance, he infiltrates the dark underworld. Years of patience, years of silence, and now he stands at Shankar Indra's right hand, trusted above all others. The perfect ghost of vengeance. But getting there required one calculated move he didn't expect to cost him anything. Miraaya.

Shankar's daughter. His greatest weakness. And Aditya's most useful door. She was only ever meant to be a key. A way in. Aditya used her smiles, her trust, her openness, all of it, deliberately.

Miraaya Indra was the last person who should have fallen for him - and yet, she did.

Now Aditya stands at the edge of everything he's worked for, his revenge finally within reach. But the mission that once felt like liberation began to feel like a cage.

He came to destroy her world. He never planned to want to protect her from the ruins.