To Love A Murderer | ✔

26 | A Rescue and A Story Told

Satyaki's grinning face met her eyes, and Lilavati had to swallow a cry of shock as her friend pushed his sword back, immediately stabbing the man who was about to attack her.

"Satyaki?"

"In the flesh!" he winked at her as they stood back-to-back, scanning the room for the guards.

The fight resumed, and as Lilavati ducked under the whizz of a sword, and from the corner of her eyes she could spot the dark grey robes that Kritavarma too favoured.

They had come for her after all.

Her eyes misted even as she continued to fight, her throat tightening.

The deafening low hum of the Sudarshana whipped around her, rendering the lives of the guards cut short, and she stumbled, her gaze now filled with tears.

Soft hands caught her own, and looking upon him in that moment, Lilavati knew there would never be a moment so beautiful and precious as this in her life again.

Eyebrows arched like the clouds of heaven creasing in worry as lotus eyes that held the universe watched her watching him. His lips were pulled up in a half-smile, half-frown, relief evident on his beatific features. His curls were scattered, cascading down his upper back as her gaze shifted to their entwined hands.

It was all she could do in that moment not to weep.

He pulled her to her feet.

Lilavati leaned into his arms, a half-embrace that had her husband's arms coming to encircle her shoulders loosely, as her breath hitched.

His breathing was similarly lightly ragged, relief trembling through his entire frame.

"Krishna."

Her mind had sang his name for years uncounted, always resting in her mind as an idol, immovable and revered beyond breath. It was the only thing that had kept her going through the darkest of her days, those two holy syllables entwined with every molecule of her being.

It was the first time she had let it slip from her mouth in front of him, in a broken, haunted whisper.

A soft hand reached up to her unkempt hair, stroking it.

"Lila."

An iron grip enclosed itself around a few of her loose strands of hair, yanking her back.

Lilavati let out a cry of pain as her hand immediately flew to her head.

The leader of this circus of monkeys had come, and her eyes shut for what was only a moment but seemed forever as she lost her balance, nearly falling to the floor.

The man chuckled.

"I bet you would love to watch your dear murderer wife die in your arms, O Krishna! Welcome, welcome!"

She blinked her eyes open to feel something cool and metallic pressing against her neck. A dagger.

There was unbridled horror on Satyaki's face and barely-shown anger on Kritavarma's. Her husband stood, seemingly serene but his frame shook with tension.

"Let her go."

It was Kritavarma who spoke those words to her surprise.

Was she even surprised?

The light was blurry, even as she blinked to try and get rid of her double vision, but the ache that was thrumming in her head seemed to get louder by the second.

She distantly heard the man say something as his grip tightened on her, but she was too inattentive to catch his words.

Lilavati swallowed.