The fire spat embers as Ruby's ring dissolved into a pool of molten silver. Maira watched the twisted serpents melt-**their ruby eyes still gleaming** like they knew a secret.
Then the air **warped**.
Urvi Daayan stepped from the smoke, her bare feet hovering above the scorched earth. The stench of **buried menstrual cloth and rotting temple flowers** hit Maira like a slap.
**"Looking for this?"** Urvi crooned, holding up an identical twin-serpent ring on her clawed finger.
Maira's dagger trembled. **Impossible.** She'd trapped Urvi some days ago-**with holy potions and golden sand.**
Urvi's laugh cracked the stillness. **"Did you really think burning a decoy would summon me?"** She **crushed** the ring in her fist. Black blood oozed between her fingers.
Urvi Daayan stood three feet away. Her bare toes curled in the dirt, the left foot bent backward at the ankle. The stench of **milk left to sour in a corpse's mouth** rolled off her.
Maira's dagger was already drawn. "This isn't yours."
Urvi's smile showed too many teeth. "It's not yours either, hunter-girl." She extended a hand, fingers unnaturally long. "Give. It. Back."
**What Maira Doesn't Know:**
- Ruby felt the ring burning through their psychic link
- Sent Urvi before her disguise could unravel
- Mohana will flay them both if they fail
Maira kicked dirt over the dying fire. "Come take it."
The attack came faster than human eyes could track-Urvi's nails grazed Maira's throat as she barely dodged. Cold spread from the scratches like **winter vines under skin**.
"You'll wish you'd obeyed," Urvi crooned, circling.
Behind them, in the mansion's west wing, **Ruby clutched her finger** where the ring should be-her human glamour flickering like bad film.
Urvi's fingers tightened around Maira's throat, her jagged nails drawing **thin lines of blackened blood**. The daayan's breath reeked of **rotten temple offerings and charred flesh** as she leaned in, her yellowed eyes gleaming with cruel amusement.
**"You are a newborn Revanshi,"** Urvi sneered, her voice like **glass grinding against bone**. **"A child playing with her grandmother's tricks. Do you truly believe you can kill a daayan who has walked this earth for a hundred and fifty years?"**
Maira's vision blurred at the edges-but her lips curled into a bloody smirk.
**"That's the problem with you old monsters,"** she choked out. **"You think like relics. Not like the young."**
With the last of her strength, Maira **slammed her palm against Urvi's chest**-where a **sacred rudraksha bead**, soaked in neem oil and whispered prayers, seared into the daayan's flesh.
**"AGH-!"**
Urvi's shriek split the air as **smoke erupted from her skin**. She recoiled, clawing at the burning bead, her form flickering between beauty and decay.
**"You-!"**
Maira collapsed to her knees, gasping, as Urvi **dissolved into a whirlwind of ash and curses**, her final snarl lingering:
**"Mohana will flay you alive for this!"**
Then-**silence.**
The jungle exhaled.
Maira clutched her throat, her fingers coming away stained with **blackened blood**. The fight was won-**for now.**
But in the Kashyap mansion, a **mirror shattered** in Ruby's room.
And the bead at Maira's feet **cracked down the middle.**
Maira wiped the blackened blood from her neck, her fingers trembling only slightly. The sacred bead lay cracked at her feet-**a warning.** Urvi was gone, but the ring's true owner was still out there.
She stared at the **melted remains** of the twin-serpent band, the rubies now dull and lifeless.
**"Urvi wasn't the owner,"** Maira muttered. **Which means..."**
Her gaze lifted to the **Kashyap mansion**, its windows glowing like watchful eyes in the dusk. Someone inside had felt that ring burn. Someone powerful enough to send a 150-year-old daayan to retrieve it.
**And their disguise would be crumbling by the second.**
Maira tightened her grip on the dagger. **"Time to go fishing."**
The grand chandelier flickered as Mihir descended the staircase, his wireless headset buzzing with some upbeat English song. He was halfway to the kitchen when he noticed them-**Sapna slumped on the divan, Moti Baa's rudraksha mala snapped in her grip, Akhil pacing like a caged tiger, Uma's face pale as curdled milk.**
Even Maira stood frozen in the foyer,who had just came in and saw the tensed atmosphere
Mihir tugged off his headphones. **"Uh...did someone die?"**
He ignored Sapna's outstretched hand-always the mother he barely acknowledged-and went straight to Moti Baa. **"What's got everyone looking like they've seen a ghost?"**
Moti Baa's voice was gravel and grief. **"Sahir...he's gone to Bandhap."**
**Reactions:**
- **Mihir's** cocky grin vanished. His fingers dug into the banister hard enough to **splinter the wood**.
- **Maira's** breath hitched. *Oh god. Mohana is in Bandhap.*
**"When?"** Mihir demanded.
**"An hour ago,"** Sapna whispered. **"He took the Thar. He wouldn't listen he left for his student-"**
Mihir's headphones slipped down around his neck as he took in the scene-Sapna's tear-streaked face, Moti Baa's trembling hands, Akhil pacing like a caged tiger. He rolled his eyes so hard it looked painful.
"Let me guess,"he drawled, plucking an apple from the fruit bowl with deliberate calm.
"Golden Boy's run off to play hero again?"
He took an exaggerated bite, chewing slowly as Uma opened her mouth to explain.
"Oh wait, don't tell me-"He held up a finger.
"It's for that *medical student* he's been tutoring, right? What was her name... Tanya? Tina?"**
**"Teju,"** Maira snapped.
**"Right, right."** Mihir tossed the half-eaten apple over his shoulder. It hit a porcelain vase with a *crack*. **"Because obviously, Professor Perfect needs to personally rescue every damsel in distress in a fifty-kilometer radius."**
Moti Baa's cane slammed against marble. **"Enough! Your brother-"**
**"-is an idiot who's walking straight into hell,"** Mihir finished, his smirk vanishing. His knuckles whitened around the banister. **"Bandhap isn't some fucking picnic spot, Baa. Or did we all conveniently forget what happened last time with our family?"**
A beat of silence. The grandfather clock's ticking grew louder.
Maira watched Mihir's throat work as he swallowed-the only tell that his sarcasm was armor. **"So who called him?"**
Sapna wrung her hands. **"He wouldn't say. Just kept repeating 'Teju's in trouble' before he-"**
**"Classic Sahir."** Mihir's laugh was razor blades wrapped in silk. **"Always the martyr, never the details."** He pushed off the stairs, shoulders tense. **"Well? It seems I have to drag his noble ass back before he gets himself killed?"**
Sapna lunged forward, her trembling hands clutching Mihir's shirt. "No! Mihir, you can't go to Bandhap!" Her voice cracked, raw with desperation. "Mohana-she needs *both* of you! If you and Sahir are there together, she'll-"
Mihir caught her wrists, his grip firm but not unkind. "Ma, enough."His voice was low, stripped of its usual mocking edge. *"This emotional drama won't stop me."
Sapna's breath hitched. "But-"
"Sahir didn't think twice before running into danger,"Mihir said, his jaw tight. "If he won't protect himself, then I will."
The words hung in the air-simple, unadorned, and devastating in their sincerity.
Maira's breath caught. This was the Mihir no one saw. The one beneath the sarcasm, the eye rolls, the careless arrogance. The brother who, despite everything, loved Sahir enough to walk into hell for him.
Moti Baa's cane struck the floor with finality. "Then go. But you bring him back."
Mihir didn't smile. Didn't quip. Just nodded once-a soldier accepting orders.
As he turned toward the door, the grandfather clock struck midnight.
Somewhere in Bandhap, Mohana's laughter echoed through the ruins.