PROLOGUE
When Love Meets Destiny
The night was unusually quiet.
No laughter drifted through the open windows of the old Raheja mansion. No music played in the garden. Even the wind seemed to have forgotten how to move.
But someone was awake.
Shivanya stood alone on the terrace, her long hair moving gently with the cold breeze. Her eyes were fixed on the full moon hanging above the dark sky.
There was something unsettling about tonight.
She couldn't explain it.
For the past few days, she had been feeling as though someone was watching her.
Not following her.
Watching her.
Waiting.
She closed her eyes and took a slow breath.
"You're awake."
The familiar voice behind her instantly softened the tension in her shoulders.
She smiled.
"Ritik."
She turned.
Ritik stood near the terrace door, wearing a simple white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His hair was slightly messy, and there was a sleepy smile on his face.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" he asked.
Shivanya raised an eyebrow.
"No."
"Three in the morning."
"So?"
"So..." He walked toward her. "Normal people sleep at three in the morning."
She smiled. "And you're normal?"
"Definitely not."
She laughed softly.
That laugh.
Ritik had fallen in love with it long before he had admitted that he was in love with her.
He stopped in front of her.
"What are you doing here?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Just looking at the moon."
Ritik looked toward the sky.
"Beautiful."
Shivanya smiled.
"The moon?"
He looked back at her.
"You."
Her smile disappeared for a second.
Ritik grinned.
"Got you."
She lightly pushed his shoulder.
"You're impossible."
"And you're beautiful."
"Ritik..."
"What?"
"You always flirt when you don't know what to say."
"Who said I don't know what to say?"
He reached for her hand.
His fingers slowly intertwined with hers.
"I love you."
Three simple words.
Yet every time he said them, Shivanya felt something inside her become impossibly warm.
She looked at him.
"I love you too."
Ritik smiled.
For a moment, everything was perfect.
Just the two of them.
No family.
No worries.
No secrets.
No past.
Or at least, that was what Shivanya wanted to believe.
Then she heard it.
A faint sound.
Hissss...
Her smile vanished.
Ritik noticed immediately.
"What happened?"
Shivanya stared toward the far end of the terrace.
Nothing.
Only darkness.
"Shivanya?"
She slowly pulled her hand away from his.
"I thought I heard something."
Ritik looked around.
"What?"
"A snake."
He laughed.
"At three in the morning?"
She didn't answer.
Because she had seen it.
For barely a second.
Two glowing eyes between the shadows.
Then they disappeared.
Shivanya's heart began beating faster.
She knew those eyes.
She had seen them before.
In her dreams.
Every night.
For the past seven days.
A woman standing beside an ancient temple.
A red moon above her.
A giant serpent coiled around the temple walls.
And always the same words.
"He will love you."
"He will lose you."
"And when the time comes..."
The woman's eyes would turn completely black.
"...you will have to choose."
Shivanya had never understood what the dream meant.
Until tonight.
Because beside the glowing eyes in the darkness, she saw something else.
A symbol carved into the stone floor.
An ancient serpent.
Wrapped around a crescent moon.
The exact symbol she had seen in her dreams.
Her blood ran cold.
"Shivanya?"
Ritik touched her shoulder.
She immediately turned toward him.
"Are you okay?"
She forced a smile.
"Yes."
But Ritik knew her too well.
"You're lying."
She looked into his eyes.
For one terrifying moment, she wanted to tell him everything.
About the dreams.
About the strange feeling.
About the symbol.
About the fear that had been growing inside her.
But she couldn't.
Not yet.
Instead, she stepped closer and rested her head against his chest.
Ritik wrapped his arms around her.
"Whatever it is," he whispered, "you can tell me."
Shivanya closed her eyes.
"I know."
"Then tell me."
She held him tighter.
"Just stay with me."
Ritik kissed the top of her head.
"Always."
Neither of them noticed the shadow moving beyond the terrace wall.
Neither saw the pair of eyes watching them.
And neither heard the ancient whisper carried by the wind.
"Always is a promise humans should never make."
The moon suddenly turned crimson.
For exactly one second.
Then everything returned to normal.
But Shivanya felt it.
Something had awakened.
Something ancient.
Something that knew her name.
And somewhere far away, beneath the ruins of a forgotten temple, a stone door slowly opened for the first time in a hundred years.
Behind it lay a secret that would change Ritik and Shivanya's lives forever.
Because their love story had already begun.
They simply didn't know yet...
that destiny had been waiting for them.
Edited by Mystic_Muse - 14 hours ago
Cricket
11