chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-OneThe Sound Before the StormThe day Veer Raichand sent his final message, the palace birds didn’t sing.The sky was bruised silver.Heavy clouds choked the sun.Even the wind was quiet.As if nature itself was holding its breath.The message arrived not as a digital breach, not as a bomb—But as a box.Wrapped in black velvet.Left in the center of the palace courtyard like a gift. No guards saw who placed it. No cameras caught its delivery.Rani stepped out with Dev and Maya at her side.Inside the box:A single rose, dark red.And beneath it… a severed finger.Bhairav’s ring still on it.Rani stared at it for three full seconds.Then closed the lid.“War it is,” she said.That night, the palace was no longer a home.It was a fortress preparing for siege.Steel gates locked.Civilians evacuated.Underground bunkers lit.Maya’s teams rotated on four-hour combat shifts.Dev paced outside the command room, restless.“You think he’ll come tonight?” he asked.Rani nodded. “He wants the empire to burn under moonlight.”Dev’s jaw tightened.“And if he gets in?”She looked at him.“We don’t let him leave.”Midnight.The power didn’t go out this time.But the sky did.A sudden sandstorm swallowed the world.Winds screamed through the towers.Visibility dropped to less than five feet.And out of that storm—He came.Veer Raichand.Not through the front gates.Not through the tunnels.He walked through the palace courtyard, cloaked in wind, flanked by twelve armed mercenaries dressed in black.One of them fired first.Maya’s sniper team answered.The first wave of blood hit the sandstone like paint on canvas.Dev and Rani stood in the west hall, backs against the carved pillars.Gunfire echoed.Screams followed.And then—A silence so loud it bent the air.“They’re breaching the east wing,” Maya’s voice crackled in over comms.Rani gripped her pistol. “Hold them at the staircase.”“You don’t understand,” Maya hissed. “Veer’s not heading for the throne room.”Dev froze. “Then where?”The line crackled.Maya’s voice came through:“He’s heading straight for you.”Dev and Rani moved. Fast.Through hidden corridors.Past silent halls soaked in ghostlight.And then they heard it.Boots.Gun clicks.The echo of Veer’s voice, lazy and low:“Knock-knock, darling. Miss me?”They made it to the east atrium — wide, open, vulnerable.Dev locked the doors behind them. Rani ducked behind the marble rail, pistol up.Then—Veer stepped into the light.Alone.No guards.Just him.His face bloody.But smiling.“Rani,” he said. “Still wearing red like it makes you bulletproof.”She didn’t blink.“Still trying to conquer what you couldn’t lead.”Veer laughed.“I didn’t come to argue.”Dev stepped forward. “Then leave.”Veer looked at him — slowly, like a wolf sizing up another predator.“Ah. The prize.”“You really did fall for him, didn’t you, Queen?”Rani raised her gun. “Say his name again and I’ll show you how I buried the last man who tried to touch my crown.”But Veer didn’t flinch.He stepped forward. Calm. Almost casual.“You think this ends with blood? With fire? No, Rani. This ends when you admit what you stole.”“You took me from myself.”“And now I’ll take you from you.”He raised his gun.Dev fired first.The shot missed.Veer ducked behind a pillar, returned fire.Glass shattered.The storm outside howled louder, slipping into the atrium like a vengeful ghost.For two minutes, it was war.Gunfire.Sweat.Screams.And then—Silence.Dev stood, breathing hard.Veer lay on the floor.Wounded.But smiling.Again.“You think I’m the only snake in your garden?” he whispered.Then he passed out.Back in the command room, Maya stood over a monitor.One camera feed glitched.Basement cell.Bhairav… alive.Beaten.Bleeding.But awake.And someone else—A face partially in shadow.A woman.Maya zoomed in.And her heart stopped.“Rani,” she said into the comm. “You need to get down here. Now.”Rani arrived seven minutes later.Dev beside her.The cell door opened.And there she was.Rukmini Singh.Her mother.The queen who died ten years ago.Alive.Aged. Gaunt. But unmistakably real.Rani stepped forward. The world tilted.“You…” she whispered. “You’re dead.”Rukmini stood.“No, child,” she said softly. “I’ve been hidden. Waiting. Watching.”And then—“Because this war you think you’re fighting?”“It’s not against Veer.”“It never was.”(Nxt)