Chapter 125

Oh and one more thing...just like how I did for the 100^th chapter, I will be available to reply to comments and answer your queries in person at the Inn the whole of this night. We got a party on the way...(for information of which you will have to Scroll Down) And I sincerely hope the MODs will understand the reason why we are celebrating and let us remain in the IPK Forum for the night before chucking us to the FanFictionForum.

(Erm. The above gif also is a reflection of how restlessly excited I am...*sheepish grin*)

Chapter 200: What the Word Hate' Really Means

The moon shone down upon the balcony floor, the light washing over the girl standing there, watching the lake glisten as she plaited her hair.

A long drawn sigh escaped Kushi's lips before she turned about and stepped back into the room.

Lord Arnav sat in his bed, inspecting the wound on his arm which he'd been gifted by his wife ten hours ago. It was just a harmless little cut on his skin, already healing, but the gash was long and he stared at it displeasingly.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" her voice floated to him.

He looked up passively, only to have his gaze study her from head to foot as she stood leaning against the door of the balcony.

Aye, she certainly looks delicious in this black satin robe. But not as good as she would in red.

"Beautiful it is," he said, a wicked glint in his eye.

She narrowed her eyes, "I was talking about your wound, Lordy."

He smirked, "I was talking about the wound as well, kitten."

Pride punctured, she walked to the wardrobe and fetched a spare blanket.

He was confused, "What is that for?"

"I told you," she reminded him as she moved towards the door, hugging the blanket to her chest, "I am sleeping in the living room from tonight."

"Nonsense!" he sat up, furious, "You are my wife and you will stay here in this room with ME."

Kushi looked at him over her shoulder, "You keep forgetting: I am not your wife."

"Kushi! Don't anger me," he moved to get out of the bed.

Kushi's hand was on the door handle, "What you need is not a wife, but a slave."

He was out of the bed, walking towards her, dressed only in his dark night pants.

Kushi stood her ground, though her heartbeat had begun racing with each step he took closer to her.

He was before her but she held the blanket hugged to her chest as a shield from his proximity.

It was a straining enterprise to keep her eyes trained away from his bare chest.

"Step away from the door, Kushi," he warned.

She was looking only at the wall behind him, "I can't."

"Why not?"

She looked at him coldly, "Because I despise you."

"As do I loathe you," he stated matter-of-factly, "And now that we have assured each other of our mutual hatred, let's not stall before this door anymore."

He turned around and moved towards his bed, expecting her to follow.

But she stayed where she was, unmoving.

He stopped and frowned at her over his shoulder.

Her gaze was firm, "Why did you change your mind?"

"What?" he turned to her, puzzled.

She stepped forward, "Why do want me here now when it had been you who insisted I stay away?"

He looked away, "I don't know what you are talking about."

She dropped the blanket down and marched to his side, "Why is my painting by Master Hari in your desk?"

"What the!" He stared at her as though she had blasphemed.

Kushi was full on steam, "Why did you import for me a bottle of Sweetened Chocolate Liquor?"

"I have no idea what you are speaking of, woman," he said, his hands fisting.

She snorted, "Of course you wouldn't. You are Lord Arnav Singh Raizada, the one who knows everything but will never admit to his own feelings."

"Shut up, Kushi!" he barked at her, "You overstep your limit."

"You have overstepped yours a million times already," she hissed, "You play with me like I am a piece on one of your chess boards. If you think you can have me in your room and throw me out whenever you feel fitting, well think again: this is not Kushi Kumari Gupta you are dealing with but Kushi Singh Raizada."

"Well, Kushi Singh Raizada," his tone changed to one of mockery, "You seem to be forgetting whom you are presently addressing. It's Lord Arnav Singh Raizada, the one after whom you are named."

"I may be named after you but I am not LIKE you."

"Of course, you are not. I am a born Lord. You, on the other hand, are a beggar who won Ladyship by a fortunate marriage."

Kushi paled in shock, "Arrogance and spite...they never do leave you, do they?"

"Not as long as disrespect and heedlessness accompany your speech."

He moved towards his bed but she stepped before him, blocking his passage.

"What do you want?" he gritted his teeth.

"I want to know why. Why you did all this, why you want me here-"

"I have better things to do than answer your stupid questions," he muttered, annoyed, and moved to climb into his bed again, but her hands shot out and held his arm.

"I will not let you pass my questions unanswered."

With a swift wrench, he pulled his arm free of her grasp and glared at her, "You know what, I don't think I want you here. Get out and sleep in the living room so I may have some peace! The very day you appeared in my life, I have been poor of peace."

"I-"

"I said LEAVE, DAMMIT!!" He yelled at her, his eyes flashing darkly and she staggered backwards.

He looked away suddenly, his knuckles pale from the strain of being held fisted hard.

Without a word, Kushi picked up the blanket off the floor and left the room.

She was disturbed. Greatly.

Not just by the way he had evaded her questions but the way he had looked at her in the end.

So much hatred...for her.

Tears filled her eyes as she sat curled in the huge armchair in the dark living room.

The moonlight, shining through the tall window before her, glistened on the trails of teardrops on her cheeks that she'd shed for the past one hour after parting from his room.

Sniffing sadly, she wrapped the blanket more tightly around her, seeking its assuring security.

"Amma...Babuji... I can't understand this world, I can't understand him...I feel lost...please, let me come home..."

She broke into tears again, for now she missed her home dearly.

The child in her was so affected by the loneliness and the incomprehensible life she was having to live in the Castle that she wished she had never come there, she wished she was at home, safe and happy...

In the midst of her longing and her silent crying, she felt her mind weigh and sleep overtook her pain.

But even sleep offered her no peace.

A flurry of indiscernible images and faces crossed her mind, some horrible and too fearsome to be looked at. No dream was long: a sequence of uncomfortable dreams followed one after another, some seemingly a lot realistic.

Her disturbed sleep discovered a huge snake slither over the floor towards where she was sitting in her armchair. Fearfully, she watched as it crawled up one of the forelegs of the chair, creeping towards her.

Her sleeping head that leaned against the armchair cushion was the only part of her that was exposed, the rest hidden under the blanket.

The snake stretched its head towards her face, its mouth opened to disclose wet fangs that glistened ominously in the moonlight.

An eerie growl rose from within the snake's throat before it lurched for her.

Yelping, Kushi woke up in a fright, upsetting her armchair and tumbling it backwards to the floor. Thankfully, the cushions pillowed her fall, and she scrambled out of the fallen armchair, the blanket draped around her.

Her eyes searched the dark moonlit floor for any signs of snakes but she knew it was absurd for, though it had felt real, it was certainly a dream.

Muttering under her breath, she bent down and righted the fallen armchair.

She didn't know where her night slippers were but knew they were around somewhere and decided to find them when there was more light in the nightly room.

She was about to place herself back in the armchair to try and get some dreamless sleep when she realized there was too much moonlight in the living room.

That was when she noticed the central doors: they were wide open.

Her mouth opened in astonishment of the discovery and, with great caution, the bare-footed girl stepped towards the doors.

The garden and paths outside remained still and uninhabited.

There was no one outside.

She paced forward to close the doors when she stepped on something wet.

She looked down and, to her dismay, realized there were drops of blood on the floor.

Her gaze followed the trial that came from outside and her heart sank when she realized the blood drops led toward the stairway.

She was reminded of another night, quite similar to this, and knew it was happening again.

Hastily closing the doors, she picked up the blanket that had slipped off her shoulders, and raced to his room.

How much ever she tried to avoid them, she kept stepping on the drops of blood trialing up the stairs to his room.

Her red footprints stopped before his slightly open door where she stood to consider if she should dare to see to him especially after he had supposedly killed something or someone...

No, please don't let it be a someone. Something I can bear, but not someone.

She put her head through the space between the door and the frame and peered into the room. There seemed to be no one there, the breeze blowing at the curtains of the open balcony and the moonlight shining on the empty bed.

Where is he? She wondered, stepping into the room with her bundle of blanket, Is he in the bath chamber, washing away the blood off his hands?

She closed the door behind her with her back and leaned against it, listening for sounds from the bath chamber. But there was only a deadly silence.

Suddenly, from the darkness beside her, a shadow lunged at her and, with a scream, Kushi fell to the floor, the shadow falling upon her. She thrust the blanket at it and, before it tossed away the blanket to grab at her, she had scampered away.

But she had no route for escape, the door barred by its presence on the floor.

She saw from the corner of her eye as it threw her blanket aside and crouched on the floor, its cold gaze on her.

Her husband's handsome face a cruel distortion of wild obscurity.

"No," she whispered as she staggered backwards.

He dived at her, crashing her to the floor again with him above her, and his rough, blood-wet hand was on her mouth, smothering her scream.

Panicked beyond her capability, she struggled against his hold as he grappled at her arms and legs, trying to keep her from wriggling free.

She could smell the blood on his hands, staining her unblemished skin.

She dug her fingers into his naked shoulders and kicked at legs.

Taken by surprise at her kicks, he fell to the side, giving Kushi a fraction of space to leap for escape.

But that was all she could manage: leap away from his hold, but before she'd taken two steps forward, his steely grip was on the hem of her night robe.

Unwilling to stop, Kushi took another step.

A loud rip sounded in the air. The black satin had easily torn in his resilient grip.

Kushi stilled, tears rising in her eyes as the cold breeze from outside lashed against her legs where a long slit had been made on the side of her night robe.

He still had a hold of one end of the robe.

He yanked at his end and she stumbled backwards, towards him.

She would have fallen onto him and that was what he had been expecting too, but she didn't.

She pressed her heels to the ground and forced her legs to run the other way, knowing that that would mean tearing her robe further.

But she realized she was willing to shed her robe if it meant she can be saved from the grasp of his wildness.

He yanked at her robe again, but this time the strain was too much on the feeble cloth that the hem tore off and she was free of his hold.

She was relieved it was only the hem that had torn away and not more than that.

He was suddenly on his feet, his hungry eyes on her.

But she was already flying through the room, the only unbarred way to the door being OVER the bed.

She had to make it before he reached her.

She leapt onto the bed and scampered hastily to its other end, her desperate gaze on the nearing door.

But she had barely reached the other end than cold fingers circled her ankles and pulled her down, dragging her to the center of the bed.

"No, No!" she cried and struggled as the dark shadow kept her under him, his arms on her either side and his chest crushing upon hers.

In the struggles, the slit on her robe had slid to expose her legs.

A burning hand pressed on her exposed thigh.

Gasping, she reacted on impulse: She struck him hard on his cold cheek.

With a malicious growl, he leaned down to her face, but her hands had found the end of a pillow which she thrust into his face.

Angered by the intrusions she was levying upon his attempts, the shadow seized the pillow, dug his angry fingers into it and ripped it into two, the freed feathers fountaining all over the bed.

Kushi stared in shock as the rain of feathers fell over them, and she saw how wild his eyes were, indiscernible in her husband's face.

If you fight it, you anger it...

He was leaning towards her again, his teeth barred, as the feathers kept flying about them in the breeze from the open balcony.

Kushi took a deep breath, Goddess Mother! Be with me...

She looked away, forcing her arms and legs to not move, to not ire him.

His hot breath was on her neck.

She closed her eyes, praying hard.

He sniffed her skin and something stilled inside him.

Kushi waited and then felt his warm wet mouth on her neck.

She gulped, straining to keep herself from pushing him away.

Be still...be still...she reminded herself, as he licked and tasted her skin.

He nibbled at her shoulders and she panicked when she felt his teeth graze on her skin, but he didn't harm her.

"Please don't hurt me..." she whispered agitatedly, tears stinging in her eyes.

His guttural grunts of satisfaction rose in the air and she closed her eyes, trying to not think of how his tongue burned her and how his teeth nearly hurt her.

And then, in the dizziness of his torturous ravishing, she moaned, "Arnav...ji..."

His hands were sliding down her breasts and hips, the burning warmth of his rough hands seeping through the satin robe which smelled now of the blood on his hands that he had brought from outside the Castle.

He was crouched over her, his hands running down her slender legs.

"Arnavji..." she gasped when his scorching tongue licked on her exposed knee.

He paused, and stared down at the girl sprawled on the bed.

"Kushi...?" he blinked blankly, his voice rough.

The moonlight glistened in his eyes and Kushi saw the warmth in his confused look as he noticed the feathers and the torn slit of her robe.

"Arnavji," Kushi assured gently, tears of relief rising in her eyes.

"Kushi?" The worry in his voice undid her and her arms reached out and embraced him, "Arnavji... I was...I was...so scared."

"Kushi," his arms were around her, "Kushi, are you alright? Did I hurt you?"

"I am not hurt," she inclined her head against his warm shoulder, her tears sliding down the skin of his neck.

With slow carefulness, he laid her on the bed.

She looked up at him as he held her face in his hands, his anxious gaze studying her face, "Are you certain you are not hurt?"

She nodded, tears glistening in her eyes.

Relief coursed over him and he pulled her to his chest, crushing his arms around her in an inseparable embrace.

"Why, Kushi?" he moaned against her head, "Why did you leave me? Why did you stay away?"

Kushi couldn't stop her tears from flowing down her cheeks, "You said you didn't want to see my face."

His hold on her hardened, almost hurting her, but she ran her fingers through his hair, holding him close to her.

"Kushi, of all people, do you not know...what I want, my words never reveal."

Kushi was taken aback by his admission but she had no words to offer in return.

Lying down beside her, he held her to him and pressed his cheek against her breasts to sleep by the sound of her beating heart.

"Kushi...promise me you will never leave me again."

"I will not, my lord, I will never leave you again," she whispered with tears in her eyes, as she caressed his hair.

Upon her words, he pulled her closer to him, his arms tightly wound around her to never let go.

They lay thus for a while, the feathers lying around them and the moonlight dancing with the shadows in the room.

She wanted to ask him about the blood that was on his hands but she refrained when she saw how his tired eyes slowly weighed.

Kushi herself was far from sleep, but her mind was at peace and her spirits rose in a new-found delight.

She thought back to what he had disclosed ...what I want, my words never reveal...

Every word he had said, he never meant them.

That would mean...

When he said he wanted her with him, he wished she wasn't...because he was afraid he would hurt her.

But when he mustered the courage to say stay away, he secretly longed for her to stay with him.

Visiting him in his troubled nights, feeding him, spreading the essence of her presence in his room and in his library...he had found solace in them...and in the painting he had hid in his drawer, to see her when she was not to be seen.

Kushi's eyes filled with tears. What you wanted was not what you worded...the truth you always hid...

Lord Arnav shifted in his sleep, turning on his back that was pressed to the mattress, but his arms were still around her, pulling her to him, possessively owning her even in his sleep.

Kushi draped her arm around his lean waist, the side of her face pressed to his warm chest.

The many times he had said he hated her, he was actually telling that he...

Kushi gasped when the realization hit her.

She remembered what Di had said: He protects the ones he LOVES...

A tear slid down her eye and fell upon his chest.

She looked at his sleeping face, the beast's face now a child's in calm serenity.

She kissed him tenderly on his chest where her teardrop had fallen.

"I hate you too, my lord..." she whispered, as she lay on his chest, "And never shall we part again..."

Immeasurable distances away, the Lady in the Dark Hood leaned back and smiled.

"Are they together at last?" asked a male voice from the darkness beside her.

"Not quite," said the Lady in the Dark Hood nonchalantly.

"Is it time?" the voice was eager.

"Not yet," the Lady in the Dark Hood decided as she stood up and walked towards the mouth of her cave, "There is still a lot to be done."

A sigh was heard from within the darkness, "I am stiff bored in that Castle."

"Patience a while more, my dear," said the hooded Lady, her hidden eyes studying the moon, "All in good time...all in good time."