Broken [Raakshyan Series Book 3]

Chapter 28 - [Aarvind]

I opened my eyes and saw myself sitting on the roof of our home. I was suddenly at peace. This was my one of my favourite parts of our home and I haven’t been here for years.

      Blinking a couple times, I looked around. I realized that I was not wearing a shirt… and my wound was still fresh… but it didn’t hurt. Not at all.

      Finally, my eyes fell on my wife.

      I lifted myself up and looked at her. “Thara?”

      She gave me her warmest of smiles. “You’re finally awake.”

      I looked at her. “Darius killed me?” I asked, shocked.

      Thara chuckled. “No.” She said. “That criminal would never be able to kill you.”

      “Then what… what am I doing here?”

      “With all that’s been going on… you’ve been weakened, my love.” She said. “You’ve been focusing all your strength on Aathiray and our son… and you were not prepared to fight Darius when you went… he got to you. And I needed to get you away before he took your powers from you.”

      I ran my fingers through my hair as I remembered it all. I then looked at her. “How are you here?”

      She hugged her legs and looked out at the land.

      There was still smoke coming out of the explosions that had occurred… and right now, the sight of this land wasn’t as beautiful as it once was.

      “I never left these lands.” She said. “I couldn’t.”

      I watched her carefully.

      “My body died seeing the misery on Keroshan’s face…” The smile on her face faded. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave.”

      “You stayed and watched over him and Kat…”

      She nodded and turned to me. “And you.”

      I smiled as I took her hand in mine. “You’re too good to be true.”

      She chuckled.

      “But you must have been lonely.”

      She shook her head. “Never.” She said. “Watching you all… I could do it forever…”

      “But you didn’t need to stay for that.” I said. “You didn’t need to stay to be able to watch over us.”

      “But I knew something like this would happen.” She said. “Honestly though… I expected that the battle I intervened in would be the one between you and our son. And I must say… I’m so happy to say it wasn’t that.”

      I shook my head with a smile. “I can’t believe you.”

      “The goddess gave me the strength to take you away from that battle.” She said. “But she didn’t give me the strength to return you to your strongest state.”

      I nodded. “So I’m not in any state to take on Darius.”

      “You could probably do it. But even if you killed him, it would kill you too.” She said. “I know it would.”

      I looked at her. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take, Thara.”

      “You can’t.” She said, suddenly looking desperate. “Our children have lost their mother and I cannot let them lose their father as well.”