"To love in silence is a tragedy.To fight for love with fire in your blood—That is destiny."
Two Weeks Later — Midnight in Mumbai
Meher stood on the roof of an abandoned mill near Worli, her hair whipping in the wind like a flag of war. Below, the darkened alley led to a hidden elevator—the entrance to the Order of the Shroud Flame's Mumbai compound.
Tonight, she was going in.
Not as Meher Sharma.
But as Lyra, Wildflower Queen of Velundor.
Her fists were wrapped, knife strapped to her thigh, and ancient Velundor symbols drawn across her back in ash and vermilion.She carried a tiny vial of blood.Kiaan's.
If the scroll was true… blood can awaken lost souls—if the soul hasn't passed on.
And hers hadn't.
She felt him in her chest.
Every. Single. Night.
The Betrayer Returns
She descended into the compound—steel walls, cold air, red lights humming faintly.
A hallway opened. At the center of the room stood someone she hadn't seen in weeks.
Rishaan.
He looked calm. Confident. Clothed in black ceremonial robes.
"I knew you'd come, Lyra," he said.Not Meher—Lyra.
Her heart stopped.
"You remember?"
He nodded. "I always did."
She stepped back. "Then why… why the engagement? The lies?"
His face twisted with heartbreak—and something darker.
"Because I loved you in every life. But you always chose Kael. Even when he chose a throne over you, you still chose him."
His fingers glowed with red light. The same symbol from her nightmares—the Cursed Sigil of the Broken Flame—appeared in the air.
"This time, I get to choose what's left of you."
The Fight
Meher didn't hesitate.
She threw the first punch. Rishaan caught it midair, twisted her wrist, and kicked her into the wall.
"You think street training can beat someone who was once Captain of Velundor's Elite Guard?" he smirked.
Meher spat blood. "No. But rage might."
She remembered Kael bleeding on her chest. Her child's soul drifting away in smoke. And she snapped.
Power surged through her veins—ancient, wild, forbidden. The air cracked. Her eyes lit gold.
She screamed—not in pain, but command.
The ground beneath them shattered.
Rishaan stepped back, stunned. "That's… impossible. The Flame of the Widow Queen was buried—"
"Not buried," Meher growled. "Just waiting."
She struck.
A punch of energy blasted him through the steel wall. Sparks flew. Sirens screamed.
She ran.
The Soul Chamber
She reached the lower vault.
Dozens of glass sarcophagi lined the circular room. Souls floated like fireflies, trapped. Stored. Whispering.
But only one made her heart stop.
Kiaan.
His body—intact, floating in blue mist. He looked peaceful, eyes closed, a flower pendant on his chest.
The same one she once wore.
She rushed forward.
A voice echoed from the speakers above:
"You cannot take both."
Priya Vareth's voice.
"If you shatter the vault and awaken him, the energy released will destroy this entire facility. The Order dies. But so do the souls we protect. Including his."
Meher froze.
Kiaan's voice echoed in her head, faint but clear:
"Lyra… save the world… or save me…"
Her hands shook.
"No…"
She fell to her knees.
Tears poured freely now. The kind she had held back since the day he died.
The Choice
She took out the blood vial.
Held it over the glowing altar stone.
If she poured it—
Kiaan would awaken. But the chamber would overload. The vault would collapse. Everyone inside—destroyed.
But if she walked away…
He'd remain trapped.
The Order would continue its twisted experiments.They'd find the child's soul.And the flame would rise again.
"One life… or all."
But she remembered what Kiaan had said while dying.
"I'll come back. Always."
She rose.
Looked at his body one last time.
Whispered:
"Not yet, my love.I'll come back for you this time."
She turned—and lit the Order's soul records on fire.
Not him.But their control.
And escaped.
The Final Vision
Back at the fort ruins that night, Meher sat under the willow tree. Burnt. Bleeding. Alive.
She pulled out Kiaan's pendant.
And there—on the wind—she heard his voice.
"One more death to go, Lyra.Then we're free."
She smiled through her tears.
"Then next time… I won't let you go."
End of Chapter 4