SHANAYA'S POV

My head throbbed as consciousness dragged me out of the abyss. My mouth was dry, my body cold. Everything ached. My wrists burned—rough rope. I blinked against the blinding light overhead, trying to make sense of my surroundings.

It was a room. Bare, concrete. A thin mattress on the floor. A broken window. A camera in the corner. My eyes flew around the space, panic surging like bile in my throat.

"Kabir?" I croaked.

No response. My voice echoed, hollow.

"Isha?"

Nothing. The dread sunk in deeper.

I was alone.

No. No. No.

This had to be a nightmare.

Tears pricked my eyes, but I blinked them away, inhaling sharply to ground myself. I tried shifting my hands but the rope around my wrists cut into my skin. There was a taste of iron in my mouth—blood.

Suddenly, the metal door creaked.

I flinched, heart hammering as a figure entered.

He wore black. Face obscured by a mask. Eyes gleaming with something feral. Predatory.

He walked in slowly, like he had all the time in the world. My breath caught in my throat as I instinctively tried to move back, but I had nowhere to go.

"Don’t touch me," I warned, voice trembling.

He chuckled. A sound that made my skin crawl.

"You’ve got a pretty mouth, princess. Wonder how loud you scream."

He reached for me.

I kicked. Hard.

"Get away from me!"

But he didn’t stop.

"Kabir will come," I spat. "He’ll kill you. Every last one of you."

His hand froze.

"Kabir Singhania, huh?"

My eyes burned. "He will destroy you."

He leaned closer. I turned my face away, heart pounding like a war drum.

Please, Kabir. Please.

Save me.

---

KABIR'S POV

The steering wheel groaned beneath my grip as I pushed the accelerator to its limit. The tires screeched, roaring against the black night. My heart had never raced like this. My pulse hadn’t stopped pounding since I saw that damned footage.

They had her.

They had my Shanaya.

And they would regret breathing.

"We’re five minutes out," Kartik said beside me, loading his gun.

"I’ll be damned if a single one of them makes it out alive."

Veer’s voice crackled through the earpiece. "South entrance clear. Ranveer’s with me. We’re breaching in thirty."

I hit the brakes hard.

Warehouse. Abandoned. Just like the lead said.

The second I stepped out, gun in hand, chaos broke.

Shots fired. Screams echoed. The air smelled of smoke and gunpowder. My men spread like fire. I didn’t care about anything except one thing:

Her.

My boots thudded against concrete as I charged through the hallway. A man came at me—gun raised. I ducked, shot him point-blank in the chest. Another tried to strike me from behind. I turned, snapped his neck with a roar.

"Find her!" I screamed.

Every second wasted felt like I was failing her again.

A locked door.

I kicked it open.

And froze.

She lay crumpled on the floor. Her dress torn, wrists bloody, face pale.

"Shanaya," I breathed. My gun clattered to the floor.

I dropped to my knees and gathered her into my arms. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Kabir..."

Her whisper broke me.

I held her tighter than ever before. "I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you."

She clutched my shirt weakly, her body trembling.

"You came..."

"Always," I choked. My tears fell freely. Her pain was mine. Every second she'd spent here, I would avenge tenfold.

She pressed her forehead to mine. "I told him you’d come. I knew you would."

And then she collapsed.

Blood coated my hands, my shirt, my soul.

I had her. Shanaya. Bruised. Broken. But breathing.

That was the only reason I hadn’t burned the world to ash.

I passed her into Kartik’s arms outside the warehouse, my voice low and shaking as I said, “Take her. Don’t let her wake up alone.”

Then I turned back toward the hell I’d just dragged her out of.

Toward the one who orchestrated all of it.

I should’ve known. Somewhere deep inside, I always f*cking knew.

My boots thudded against concrete, echoing louder in the silence that followed the storm. The air reeked of gunpowder and betrayal. My men were clearing out, wounded but alive. The ones who weren’t lucky enough to be mine… lay in blood.

And then I saw her.

Isha.

She stood on the upper balcony, untouched. Unbothered. Wearing that same black dress she wore to the party—still pristine, like none of this ever touched her. Her hair fell in soft waves over her shoulder, her face emotionless, but her eyes…

Her eyes gave her away.

Smug. Satisfied. Not a hint of remorse.

I stopped at the base of the stairs. My heart was pounding. Rage licked at the edges of my control.

“Where were you?” I asked, voice hollow. “Where the f*ck were you when all this went down?”

She smiled. That damn smile.

“Right where I was supposed to be.”

I climbed the stairs one step at a time, slow, deliberate. “Don’t play with me, Isha.”

“I’m not playing,” she said, voice calm. “I was watching.”

“Watching?” My voice was sharp, deadly. “While they took her? While they hurt her?”

She didn’t flinch. “They weren’t supposed to hurt her that much. But I knew you’d save her eventually. That’s what you do, right? Always saving people who never deserved it.”

My jaw tightened. My hands curled into fists at my sides.

“She trusted you.”

“I never asked her to.”

I stepped closer until we were face to face. “What did you do?”

She leaned in, her breath brushing my cheek. “Everything.”

I stared at her, the pieces locking into place like a sick, cruel puzzle. “The power outage at the party. The timed explosion. The missing guards. The cameras being down.”

She nodded slowly. “Perfect chaos, wasn’t it?”

My heart beat like a war drum.

“Why?” I demanded. “Why the f*ck would you do this?”

And then she said it.

“Because I hated her.”

I blinked.

Isha tilted her head, eyes gleaming like a snake in the dark. “Since the day we were kids, Kabir. Since the day she came into our lives with her perfect smile, her pretty face, her goddamn innocence. Everyone loved her. My parents. Her parents. Rohan's family and then You.”

My mind reeled. “This was envy?”

She laughed—low and broken. “You think I did all this because I loved you? No. I did it because I wanted to watch her fall. And I knew the only way to destroy her… was to break you.”

“You killed Rohan, didn't you??” I said, voice cracking like thunder.

She nodded. “Yes. Slowly. Carefully. I tampered with his medication. Just enough. Just enough that the doctors wouldn’t catch it. Just enough that he’d suffer, and Shanaya would drown in it. And you—would be her savior again.”

“You f*cking psycho—”

“She was always the center of your world, Kabir,” she snarled. “But not anymore. Now, I have your attention.”

I wanted to kill her. Right there. Right then.

But she wasn’t done.

“I'll give you a choice,” she said softly, almost like a whisper.

“Stay with her, and I’ll end her.

Or walk away… and maybe I’ll let her live.”

My rage built like a tidal wave inside me. “You’re insane if you think I’d ever pick you over her.”

“Then she dies,” she hissed, eyes blazing. “And this time, I’ll make sure you find every piece of her in a different city.”

I grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall. Her breath caught, but her smile didn’t falter.

“You’re not going to kill me,” she choked out. “You need me alive. At least until she’s safe.”

And she was right. As much as every cell in my body screamed to end her right now, I couldn’t. Not yet.

“You made one mistake, Isha,” I growled, eyes boring into hers.

Her smile faltered for the first time. “What?”

“You should’ve killed me instead.”

Then I dropped her.

She crumpled to the floor, coughing, shaking.

“I’ll bury you for this,” I said coldly.

“And you’ll watch as the empire you tried to steal from her is rebuilt around her name.”

I turned my back to her.

But she called after me, her voice cracked but still venomous. “She doesn’t have what it takes to survive in your world, Kabir.”

I didn’t turn around.

“She doesn’t have to,” I said. “She has me.”

And with that, I walked away—toward Shanaya. Toward everything I was willing to fight for.

Even if I had to go to war with the devil.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE :

This chapter shattered me while writing it.

Isha wasn’t just a side character—she was Shanaya’s best friend. The girl who stood beside her through every laugh, every tear… and yet, she was the one who broke her the most. Sometimes, the people closest to you carry the darkest intentions. Not because they love you—but because they can’t stand watching you have what they never could.

Kabir’s pain in this chapter is raw. You’ll see a side of him that’s unhinged, heartbroken, and more dangerous than ever. Because if there’s one thing you don’t do—it’s touch what’s his.

Next chapter? Let’s just say… Isha has lit a fire she isn’t ready to burn in.

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