Darkness pressed at the edges of Teju's vision as Sunehri's braid crushed her windpipe. Her thrashing slowed, consciousness fading—until:
*A vision flashed—*
A beautiful woman in red silk wept over an infant, her tear striking the baby's star-marked palm. The mark *glowed* as the woman whispered, *"Live, my Bishwa."* The basket floated into the river's current just as torchlights appeared in the distance...
**Back in the present—**
Teju's own right palm *burned*. The identical star mark blazed golden, its light racing up her arm. Her eyes flew open—no longer Teju's soft brown, but glowing with ancient power.
Sunehri shrieked as Bishwa *grabbed* the braid strangling her. "You should have killed me faster," Bishwa murmured.
Lightning crackled from her touch. Sunehri convulsed, her hair smoking as she collapsed. Bishwa landed gracefully, palm still pulsing with energy.
Sunehri rose from the scorched earth, her golden skin crackling with dark energy. "I won't spare you, Bishwa!" she shrieked, her reversed feet digging trenches in the dirt as she summoned swirling black daggers between her clawed hands.
Teju—no, *Bishwa* now—stood rooted in place, her star-marked palm still tingling from its first discharge of power. The memory of that weeping mother's face lingered at the edges of her mind.
"Die!" Sunehri hurled the daggers.
Bishwa reacted on instinct. Her right palm thrust forward—
**WHOOSH!**
A massive golden star-shield materialized mid-air, each point thrumming with energy. The daggers shattered against it like glass, dissolving into foul-smelling smoke.
Sunehri staggered back. "Impossible! That mark shouldn't—"
Bishwa advanced, the shield morphing into a blazing star-sword. "You had your chance." The weapon hummed as it cleaved through Sunehri's defensive braids. "Now I'll send you back to Mohana in *pieces.*"
Bishwa's star-shield pulsed with primordial energy. Sunehri's sneer faltered as golden light blazed between them.
"You don't know what you're holding, daayan," Bishwa whispered.
With a roar, she unleashed the shield's full power—a supernova of divine energy. The blast:
1. **Incinerated** Sunehri's daggers to dust
2. **Melted** her braids to sizzling threads
3. **Engulfed** her body in celestial flames
The daayan had time for one shriek before dissolving into ashes, her silhouette crumbling like charred paper in the wind.
Bishwa collapsed to her knees, the star-mark fading from her palm. As darkness claimed her, three sapphire-feathered birds materialized from the smoke:
- Their wings caught her limp body mid-fall
- Divine light shimmered in their wake as they soared
- They deposited her gently on a wrought-iron bench outside Kashyap Mansion's gates
The last thing Teju heard before unconsciousness was the distant *thud* of wedding drums from the mansion's henna ceremony—and the caw of a watching crow that might have been Mohana's eyes.
Teju gasped awake on the wrought-iron bench, her throat raw as if she'd been screaming. The scent of burnt sugar and jasmine from Kashyap Mansion's gardens clashed with the acrid memory of—
*Sunehri.*
The daayan's face flooded back—the backward feet, the braids like whips, the claws at her throat. Teju's hands flew to her neck, expecting wounds... but found only unbroken skin.
Kailashi's arthritic fingers traced the ancient parchment in her study, where ink lines spontaneously reformed themselves. Before her eyes, the illustration morphed:
- A woman with Teju's face stood bathed in golden light
- A star-shaped mark blazed on her raised palm
- Divine birds circled her like a living halo
The oil lamps flickered without wind as Kailashi exhaled sharply. "So it begins."
She turned the page with reverence, revealing an adjacent illustration—Sahir Kashyap's silhouette entwined with Bishwa's beneath a crescent moon, their clasped hands forming the same star symbol.
"Bishwa's powers awaken," Kailashi murmured, tapping the image where Teju's glowing eyes mirrored Sahir's in the prophecy. "The union must happen before the blood moon."
Outside, a peacock screeched. Kailashi's gaze snapped to the window where the Kashyap mansion's lights glittered in the distance. Ruby's henna ceremony was underway—but the true bride's destiny had just asserted itself.
Teju staggered toward the Kashyap mansion's gates, her head still throbbing from the forgotten battle. The henna ceremony's music drifted over the walls, each drumbeat making her chest ache with—
Her phone buzzed. Savi's caller ID flashed.
"Teju! Thank god you—"
A shadow moved behind her.
Before Savi could finish her warning, a damp cloth clamped over Teju's nose—chloroform's sickly sweetness flooding her senses. Her phone clattered to the pavement as Raj's familiar voice growled in her ear:
"Game over, runaway bride."
Darkness swallowed her as strong arms dragged her toward a waiting Thar jeep.
**Maira's Arrival - 60 Seconds Later:**
Her red scooter skidded to a halt where Teju's phone lay screen-side up, Savi's frantic voice still calling through the speaker. Maira's head snapped up—just in time to see a black jeep disappear around the corner, its Delhi license plate caked in mud.
Her palm pressed against her suddenly racing heart. *Teju was here.* She could feel the girl's residual energy like static in the air. But the gates stood empty, the only evidence a single sapphire feather dissolving near the gutter.
Inside the mansion, the wedding drums reached a crescendo.
Maira stood frozen outside the mansion gates, the fading tire marks the only sign of the vanished jeep. Her skin tingled with residual energy - someone powerful had been here moments ago.
From her bag, she drew out the sinister ring found in the flowers:
- Twin serpents coiled around the band
- The metal unnaturally warm against her palm
- A faint smell of night-blooming flowers
"The daayan who owns this..." Maira's fingers tightened around it. The ring burned in protest, but she refused to release it. "I'll find you."
Inside the mansion, laughter and music spilled from the henna ceremony. Maira's gaze swept across the lit windows, unaware that in a third-floor room, a ruby's hand suddenly jerked - her own ring finger burning where her missing ring should be.
*Sahir's Bedroom - Moments Before the Ceremony**
The heavy silk of Sahir's sherwani clung to him like a second skin, the gold embroidery scratching at his wrists. Outside, the laughter of wedding guests and the rhythmic thump of the dhol rose from the courtyard. The scent of henna and roses thickened the air—sweet, cloying, suffocating.
His phone buzzed violently against the dresser.
*Unknown number.*
He almost ignored it—until he recognized the panicked breathing. "Savi?"
"Professor Kashyap!" Her voice was razor-thin with fear. "It's Raj—Teju's ex-fiancé. He showed up at campus, searching for her. Someone told him she came over to the kashyap mansion for ceremony sir—he has your address and I think he might have gotten her—"
A crash. A muffled scream. The line went dead.
Sahir's grip on the phone turned white-knuckled.
*Teju.*
"I won't let anything happen to her," he said to the dead line, the promise raw in his throat.
The sherwani hit the floor before he'd even made the decision to move. Keys in hand, he threw open his bedroom door—
**And nearly collided with Ruby.**
Ruby stood framed in the doorway, her hennaed hands clasped too tightly, her smile not reaching her eyes. "Sahir? The ceremony is starting—"
"Not now." He sidestepped her, already moving down the hall.
"But the ceremony —"
"I'll explain later."
The courtyard blurred as he pushed through stunned guests. Let them whisper. Let them stare. None of it mattered.
Only one thought burned through him:
*Find Teju before Raj does something they'll all regret.*