Laughter. Soft, unguarded, free.
Sruthi could still hear it as clearly as if no time had passed at all. Druve's deep chuckle vibrated beneath her cheek while she curled closer to him on the balcony. The night had been cold enough to sting her face, but his arms around her were warm, and at twenty-one she had possessed the ridiculous certainty that warmth like that could last forever.
"You're shivering," he murmured.
"I'm not."
His arms tightened around her. "Liar."
Sruthi smiled against his chest. "I'm perfectly fine."
"Of course you are."
She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. "Why do you say it like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like you don't believe me."
The corner of Druve's mouth curved into that rare smile almost no one else ever got to see. "I don't."
"Druve!"
His quiet laugh followed her protest as she pushed at his chest. She barely managed to move before he caught her hand.
"Where are you going?"
"Away from you."
"No."
One simple word, spoken with such certainty that she glared at him even as he pulled her back against him. Sruthi pretended to struggle for all of two seconds before giving up and settling against his chest again. His chin rested lightly against her hair while the city lights shimmered far below them.
For once, neither of them spoke.
Sruthi listened to his heartbeat beneath her ear, steady and strong, and remembered thinking there could be no safer place in the world. She had believed there would always be another tomorrow with him. Another argument. Another laugh. Another chance to tell him all the things she kept assuming there would be time to say.
She had been so certain.
A violent crack split through the memory.
Sruthi's eyes flew open.
The heartbeat vanished. The cold balcony disappeared, and Druve's arms were replaced by suffocating heat.
She coughed as smoke clawed into her lungs. Orange light flickered across the walls of the room, brighter than the weak bulb above her had ever been. Thick black smoke rolled along the ceiling, and something beyond the door burned fiercely enough to fill the air with an acrid stench.
For several seconds, Sruthi simply stared.
Fire.
The building was burning.
Flames had already begun creeping through a widening crack near the doorway. Somewhere beyond the room came the sound of running feet, shouted orders and something heavy crashing to the ground.
Strangely, Sruthi wasn't afraid.
She had spent years fearing pain. She had feared footsteps outside the door, the scrape of a key entering the lock, the sound of men approaching while she waited to discover what they had decided to do to her next. Fear had been such a constant part of her existence that she had forgotten what it felt like to live without it.
But death?
She had stopped fearing that a long time ago.
Sruthi let her head fall back against the wall and watched the flames grow.
Maybe this was finally it.
No more chains. No more darkness. No more waking to discover that she had survived another night only to face another day exactly like it.
Her eyes slowly closed.
For one fragile moment, she let the fire disappear and returned to the balcony. Druve was laughing again. His heartbeat was beneath her ear. His arms were around her, and she was still the woman who had once believed she could stay there forever.
A crash outside dragged her back.
"Move! Get everything out!"
Footsteps thundered through the corridor.
Sruthi didn't move.
"What about her?" someone shouted.
There was barely a pause before another voice answered.
"We take her."
"Now? The whole place is coming down."
"She comes with us."
Sruthi's eyes opened.
Of course they would take her.
Even with the building burning around them, even while men shouted and scrambled to save themselves, they still wouldn't leave her behind.
They couldn't.
She had known why for long enough.
Druve.
They had never hidden what they intended to do forever. One day, after they had taken enough from her, they would let Druve find what remained. They wanted him to see every scar, every injury, every piece of the woman he had failed to reach. They wanted him to carry those years as his own failure.
They couldn't safely reach Druve.
So they had made her the weapon that could.
For years, Sruthi had survived by believing the opposite of what she believed now. Through pain, hunger and endless darkness, one thought had followed her.
Druve will find me.
She had once wanted it more than anything.
Now she would rather he never saw her again.
Another crash shook the building, and burning debris struck the floor outside. Sruthi looked at the fire advancing toward her. Minutes ago, she had been ready to close her eyes and let it take her.
Then she looked toward the door.
If she died here, perhaps it would finally end.
But if those men reached her first, they would drag her from the fire. There would be another room. Another chain. Another locked door. They would keep her alive for however long they needed until the day they finally decided she was ready to be placed in front of Druve.
She couldn't let that happen.
The decision didn't suddenly make her want to live. She couldn't remember how to want a future for herself anymore. She didn't imagine going home. She didn't imagine finding Druve and falling into his arms.
She only knew that these men could never be allowed to take her again.
Sruthi pushed herself upright.
"I have to get out."
Her gaze dropped to the chain.
She grabbed it and pulled.
Nothing.
A bitter sound almost escaped her. Of course it didn't move. She had fought that restraint years ago, when there had still been enough strength in her body to believe force could free her. She had pulled until her wrists bled. She had kicked the wall, clawed at the concrete surrounding the iron anchor until her nails tore and screamed until her throat gave out.
The heavy ring had never moved.
Not once.
Another explosion tore through the building.
Sruthi dropped instinctively as part of the ceiling collapsed. Burning debris crashed nearby, and plaster rained over her head. A violent crack travelled through the wall beside her.
She coughed, shielding her face from the dust.
Then she saw it.
A jagged fracture had appeared in the concrete around the chain's anchor.
Sruthi stared at it.
The chain hadn't changed.
The wall had.
She crawled closer and reached for the exposed metal before jerking her hand back from the heat. The explosion had split the concrete and exposed part of the fitting buried inside it. For years, that wall had been stronger than she was.
Tonight, perhaps it wasn't.
Sruthi tore a strip of cloth from the edge of her clothing, wrapped it around her palms and grabbed the chain.
She pulled.
Nothing.
She tightened her grip and tried again. Her arms trembled almost immediately, muscles weakened by years of starvation and abuse refusing to give her what she demanded from them.
"Come on."
She braced her good foot against the lower wall and leaned backward. Pain shot through her damaged knee, forcing a strangled breath from her, but she kept pulling.
Something small struck the floor.
Sruthi froze.
A piece of concrete.
Her eyes snapped toward the anchor.
It had moved.
Barely.
But it had moved.
Hope hurt.
She pulled again.
More concrete crumbled from the fracture.
Voices rose outside.
"Get her!"
Sruthi's head jerked toward the door.
They were coming.
She wrapped the chain more tightly around her hands and pulled again. Her shoulders screamed under the strain, but the anchor shifted another fraction.
"She's still inside!"
Closer.
Sruthi planted her foot harder against the wall. The moment she tried to use her injured leg for support, her knee buckled and she crashed to the floor.
For half a second, she stayed there.
Her lungs burned. Smoke thickened around her. Every part of her body begged her to stop.
Then she heard the words she had carried for years.
One day, Druve gets what he's been searching for.
No.
If they took her now, nothing would change.
Sruthi forced herself upright.
"They will not have you too," she whispered.
Her hands closed around the chain.
She pulled.
The wall cracked.
Again.
Footsteps thundered closer.
Sruthi threw her weight backward with everything left in her body.
The concrete gave way.
She crashed onto her back as a chunk of the wall tore loose. For several stunned seconds she could do nothing except stare at the ceiling, hardly understanding what had happened.
Then she felt the weight across her legs.
The iron anchor lay on the floor.
Still attached to the chain.
Sruthi hadn't broken the restraint.
The building had broken around it.
She scrambled upright. Part of the chain still hung from her wrist, the heavy anchor dragging behind her, but for the first time in years there was nothing connecting her to that wall.
The door.
Sruthi stumbled toward it and grabbed the handle.
Locked.
She didn't waste strength trying to break it. She already knew she couldn't. Instead, her gaze moved over the doorway. Smoke curled through widening gaps around the frame. Flames had reached the wood surrounding the reinforced door, blackening one side and weakening what the lock itself had protected.
Sruthi looked at the chain in her hand.
Then at the handle.
She looped the loose chain around it and pulled.
Nothing.
She changed her position and tried again. The door held, but somewhere around it came a low groan.
Sruthi stopped.
Not the door.
The frame.
She pulled again.
Burnt wood cracked away.
"She's awake!"
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
Sruthi pulled harder. A section of the frame splintered, and the door shifted outward barely an inch.
An inch was enough.
She shoved her fingers into the gap. Heat burned her palms, but she barely registered it as she pulled. The opening widened.
A shadow appeared through the smoke at the end of the corridor.
"There!"
Sruthi forced herself sideways through the gap. Burning wood scraped her shoulder, and her clothes caught on something sharp. She tore herself free just as a hand reached through the smoke behind her.
Fingers almost closed around her arm.
Almost.
Sruthi stumbled forward.
Then she ran.
The chain dragged behind her, its broken anchor striking the floor with every uneven step. She had never seen these corridors properly before. Doors blurred past her through the smoke. Flames crawled overhead, and every breath scraped her throat raw.
She had no idea where the exit was.
So she followed the air.
Cooler.
Cleaner.
Somewhere ahead.
"STOP HER!"
Footsteps followed.
Sruthi turned a corner and nearly collided with a man emerging through the smoke.
She stopped.
He lunged.
Sruthi twisted aside, but his fingers caught her sleeve and ripped the fabric as she crashed into a metal cart. Trays scattered across the floor with a deafening clang. Pain exploded through her damaged knee, and darkness flashed across her vision.
The man reached for her again.
Sruthi's hand closed around the loose chain.
She swung.
The heavy anchor struck his arm.
He cursed and recoiled, and Sruthi didn't wait to see whether she had injured him. She wasn't trying to fight them. She wasn't trying to win.
She only needed one second.
Then another.
She ran.
Through the smoke ahead, something changed.
Darkness.
An opening.
Outside.
Sruthi stumbled toward it as the first rush of night air touched her face.
Cold.
Real.
She threw herself through the opening.
Her knees struck the ground, and for several seconds she couldn't move. Her palms pressed into dirt as she fought for breath, coughing until her entire body shook.
Then slowly, Sruthi lifted her head.
The sky stretched above her.
She stared.
There was no ceiling.
No wall inches from her face.
No locked door.
Only an endless night above her, wider than anything she remembered.
She had forgotten how large the world was.
Behind her, flames climbed into the sky, consuming the building that had swallowed years of her life.
Sruthi was outside.
For one terrible moment, freedom gave her back the one thing she had been trying to kill inside herself.
She wanted Druve.
The need came so suddenly that it hurt. She wanted to run to him. She wanted to hear him say her name and see his face when he realized she was alive. She wanted his arms around her, his heartbeat beneath her ear, that impossible feeling of safety from a life that now seemed to belong to someone else.
She wanted to go home.
Her eyes burned.
Then she looked down.
Scars crossed her arms. A rusted chain still hung from her wrist. Blood seeped through torn fabric, and her injured leg trembled beneath her.
The voices from all those nights returned.
One day, they would let Druve find her.
They would make sure he saw what had been done.
Sruthi closed her eyes.
No.
Freedom could not end with her doing exactly what they wanted.
She couldn't go to him.
Her hand trembled as she touched one of the scars on her arm.
"I'm sorry."
Her voice broke.
Somewhere, Druve was still searching for her. Tomorrow, perhaps, he would wake and search again.
And she was going to make sure he failed.
The thought nearly destroyed what little strength remained in her, but Sruthi forced herself onto her feet. Let him hate her. Let him believe she had abandoned him. Let him curse her for leaving without a word. And if one day he finally stopped searching and built a life in which her name no longer hurt—
She swallowed the sob rising in her throat.
Let him.
Anything was better than allowing these men to turn her suffering into the weapon that finally broke him.
A shout came from behind her.
"There she is!"
Sruthi turned.
Figures emerged through the smoke.
Her body begged her to stop.
She ran.
The broken anchor struck the ground behind her as she stumbled into the darkness beyond the compound. Her injured knee screamed with every step. Branches caught her clothes and tore at her skin, but she kept moving.
She didn't know where she was.
She didn't know where she was going.
She didn't even know whether she would survive the night.
But she knew why she was running.
Not because the fire had suddenly given her hope. Not because escaping those walls had made her want a future she had forgotten how to imagine.
She was running because Druve still had one.
And she refused to let them destroy it with what they had done to her.
For years, her prayer had been simple.
Druve, find me.
Tonight, Sruthi ran into the darkness carrying a different prayer in her heart.
Please, Druve.
Don't.
Keep her alive.
And one day—
No.
She forced herself up.
"They will not have you too," she whispered.
She grabbed the chain.
Pulled.
The wall cracked.
Again.
"Come on!"
Footsteps thundered closer.
Sruthi screamed and threw her entire weight backward.
CRACK.
A chunk of concrete tore from the wall. Sruthi crashed onto her back. For a second, she lay stunned. Then she felt the weight across her legs. The iron anchor. Still attached to the chain.
Her eyes widened.
She hadn't broken the restraint.
The building had broken around it.
Sruthi scrambled up.
Part of the chain still hung from her wrist, the heavy anchor dragging behind her.
The door.
She stumbled toward it and grabbed the handle.
Locked.
She didn't waste strength hitting it.
She already knew she couldn't break it.
Smoke curled through the widening gaps around the frame.
The fire had reached the wood surrounding the reinforced door. One side was blackened, flames eating through the outer frame.
Sruthi looked at the chain.
Then at the handle.
She looped the loose chain around it.
Pulled.
Nothing.
She repositioned herself.
Again.
The door held.
But something around the frame groaned.
Sruthi stared.
Not the door.
The frame.
She pulled again.
Burnt wood cracked away.
"She's awake!"
Sruthi's heart slammed against her ribs. They were almost there. She pulled harder. A section of the frame splintered. The door shifted outward by an inch.
Enough.
Sruthi shoved her fingers into the gap. Heat burned her palms. She didn't care. She pulled. The opening widened. A shadow appeared through the smoke at the end of the corridor.
"There!"
Sruthi forced herself sideways through the gap. Burning wood scraped her shoulder. Her clothes caught briefly on something sharp. She tore free.
A hand reached for her.
Sruthi stumbled forward just before the fingers closed around her arm. Then she ran. The chain dragged behind her, the broken piece of its anchor striking the floor with every step. She had never seen these corridors clearly before.
Doors blurred past her. Smoke burned her eyes. Flames crawled along the ceiling. She had no idea where the exit was. She simply followed the rush of cooler air.
"STOP HER!"
Footsteps followed. Sruthi turned a corner. Someone emerged from the smoke ahead.
She stopped.
The man lunged.
Sruthi twisted aside.
His fingers caught her sleeve and ripped the fabric as she crashed into a metal cart. Trays scattered across the floor.Pain exploded through her knee. She nearly blacked out. The man grabbed for her again.
Sruthi's hand closed around the loose chain. She swung it blindly. The heavy anchor struck his arm. He cursed and recoiled. Sruthi didn't wait.
She ran.
Not fighting him.
Not trying to win.
Just buying herself one second.
Then another.
Ahead, through the smoke—
darkness.
An opening.
Outside.
Sruthi stumbled toward it.
The night air struck her face before she even crossed the doorway.
Cold.
Real.
She threw herself through.
Her knees hit the ground.
For several seconds, she couldn't move.
Then slowly, Sruthi lifted her head.
The sky.
She stared.
No ceiling.
No walls.
No darkness forced upon her.
Just an endless night above her.
She had forgotten how large the world was.
Behind her, the building burned.
Flames climbed into the sky, consuming the place that had swallowed years of her life.
She was outside.
Free.
And for one terrible moment, all she wanted was Druve. She imagined running to him. Seeing his face. Hearing him say her name. Feeling his arms close around her.
Home.
Her eyes closed.
Then she remembered the voices.
One day, Druve gets what he's been searching for.
Sruthi opened her eyes.
No.
She couldn't go home.
She couldn't go to him.
That was exactly what they wanted.
Her freedom couldn't end in Druve finding her.
She touched the scars on her arm.
"I'm sorry."
Her voice broke.
Somewhere, he was still searching.
Tomorrow he might search again.
And she was going to make sure he failed.
The thought nearly destroyed what little strength she had left.
But she forced herself upright.
Let him hate her.
Let him curse her.
Let him believe she had abandoned him.
Let him someday love a life that had nothing to do with her.
Anything.
Anything was better than letting those men use her suffering to make Druve live worse than death.
A shout came from behind.
"There she is!"
Sruthi turned.
Figures emerged through the smoke.
Her body begged her to stop.
She ran.
The chain struck the ground behind her. Her injured knee screamed with every step. Branches tore at her skin as she disappeared into the darkness beyond the compound. She didn't know where she was going. She didn't know whether she would survive the night.
And somewhere beneath the fear and pain was a truth she couldn't deny.
She still wasn't running because she wanted a future for herself.
She had forgotten how to want one.
She was running because Druve had one.
And she refused to let them destroy it with what they had done to her.
So Sruthi ran.
Not toward the man she had spent seven years praying would find her.
Away from him.
For years, her hope had been simple.
Druve will find me.
Tonight, with every painful step into the darkness, Sruthi prayed for something else.
Please, Druve.
Don't.