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“Isha!” said her mother sharply. “Apologise at once! To Veer and to Diya, for being disrespectful to her brother.”
My loving sister just rolled her eyes in response.
“He probably deserved it, Ma,” she said, with a snigger.
“Still, he’s a guest in our house,” snapped Padmini Aunty.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness,” said Isha stiffly, her eyes shooting sparks at me.
I smiled at her sweetly, knowing it would only serve to piss her off even more. I was right. She bristled like an angry cat, her curly hair almost standing on end with the force of her fury.
“That’s alright, Aunty. I know it’s the grief talking.”
I waited until Padmini Aunty stepped away to speak to Dheer before I turned to Isha with another sweet smile.
“And the guilt, of course. I mean, I know you drove Dadi Sa to the brink of a heart attack on a regular basis, but you could hardly have expected her to go over the edge like she did.”
She drew in a sharp breath and I could swear she was ready to launch herself at me. I braced myself for the impact, but Diya spoke before Isha could react.
“That’s too nasty even for you, Veer. I’ll help you hide his body if you want to gut him alive for that remark, Isha. Just saying,” she declared, with a disapproving glance at me.
“Eh, no worries. We could always knock him out and feed him to the hyenas that live on the edges of the villages around here,” replied Isha.
I studied her cautiously. She had to be kidding, right? Right?
“Are there hyenas in Trikhera?” asked Diya, with what I considered far too much interest.
Isha nodded without taking her eyes off me.
“They call them daakan ra ghoda - the horse of the witch. They are quite useful in disposing of trash and keeping the villages clean.”
Ouch!
“Do you keep yours in the stables?” I asked sarcastically because if ever there was a witch in real life, it had to be her.
Isha took one slow step closer to me, and then another, until we were toe-to-toe. Then she went up on her tippy toes and leaned forward to whisper in my ear.
“Fuck around with me and find out. I dare you,” she whispered.
A shiver ran down my spine at the feel of her warm breath on the skin beneath my ear and at the challenge in her voice. Any sane man would back down and leave her alone, but I had never been sane at the best of times. Why begin now?
“Challenge accepted,” I whispered back.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” hissed Diya angrily.
I waited for Isha to respond, but when she merely raised her eyebrows at me, I realised my sister was speaking to me.
“Uh…”
I had no response because I had asked myself the same question for years. What the fuck was wrong with me? Why did I go after Isha the way I did? I was nice to most people, but I had been an utter asshole to her from the day her brother broke my sister’s heart.
Isha Shekhawat was not for me, and if I had any sense, I would stay away from her. Far, far away. I had tried just that for the past nine years, but it was surprisingly difficult because she was my sister’s best friend. And their friendship had survived Dheer’s betrayal of Diya. Which meant that I was forever bumping into her, and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t keep my distance from her.
For the past nine years, I had hated the Trikheras. Unlike my sister, I wasn’t capable of hating them selectively. I hated them all for the pain that Dheer had caused Diya. And my conflicting feelings for Isha made life even more difficult for me. Was it any surprise that I snarled and snapped every time I set eyes on her?
What made it worse was the fact that I knew exactly how much I was hurting her. Like I said, I could read every emotion that crossed her beautiful face. And it was all I could do to not take her into my arms and soothe the pain away. I was a vicious brute and sometimes, I wished she’d just slug me hard. It would make both of us feel better. But I used to think Isha wasn’t capable of violence. That she was far too gentle. Far too kind. Until she dropped her polite mask and showed me the fire-breathing dragon that lived under it. Who knew getting singed could be so addictive?
I was such a fucking idiot.
