Chapter 71: Priya.. call

The demon’s voice came again, completely flat.

"Maybe you should learn to control your own anger first. Before telling others."

It was obvious the demon wasn’t talking about the fight, but about herself. Himanshu had never thought the demon would change herself like this, so quickly. But now, in this silent ride, he was slowly starting to understand the reason behind this rapid change. It was her ’flexibility’, the art of adapting that she had learned throughout her entire life.

Getting out of that hell-like academy alive, then becoming a queen and ruling a whole kingdom, then acting like a fake girlfriend overnight, and the biggest lesson of all—killing every single one of her own desires by just treating herself as a comic or manga character. She knew how to mold herself into any environment, because she felt like she didn’t have an existence of her own.

This realization hit Himanshu’s chest like a lethal, poisoned arrow piercing right through his heart. His jaw tightened.

He just wanted to scream, to shake her and tell her that she was wrong! Letting that bastard go, silently taking such heavy insults, she was wrong!

But he wanted to keep these boiling emotions suppressed behind his lips. He didn’t want the demon to feel like he was getting ’close’ to her. At any cost, he didn’t want any feeling for the demon to take space in his heart that would only bring pain later. But now... now he was slowly, terribly starting to realize that he had already stepped way too far ahead.

He regretted that because of him, the demon was having to endure all this. He wanted to care for her, he wanted to protect her from every evil eye in the world, but he didn’t want to get close to her. And this was the dilemma forcing him to stay quiet over and over again.

But he also didn’t want the demon to push this flawed logic of ’controlling anger’ any further and just accept anyone’s insults.

He lowered his neck. His eyes fell on his hand resting in his lap, the one wrapped in bandages. He very gently stroked the bandage with the fingers of his other hand. When he started speaking, his voice didn’t have that earlier hesitation; instead, it had this low, painful, and deep echo that came straight from his heart.

"I’ve never felt this good for myself." He paused for a second, took a breath in, "And I... I’m glad I couldn’t stop myself."

Hearing this, the demon’s neck snapped toward him for the very first time. Her eyes locked onto Himanshu’s lowered face. That calm ocean in her eyes was suddenly disturbed. Her lips parted slightly. Looking at her, it was crystal clear that she had never, not even in her wildest dreams, expected to hear something like this from Himanshu’s mouth.

Himanshu stopped for a moment. Then he very slowly raised his head and looked straight into the demon’s wide, shocked eyes. Now, there was no filter in Himanshu’s eyes. A strange anger, a deep pain, and a despair that was impossible to put into words were reflecting right there.

"I felt bad that you didn’t say anything to them," there was a slight tremble in Himanshu’s voice. "I felt bad when he used those disgusting words about you."

He leaned forward a bit more, his gaze not breaking from the demon’s eyes for even an inch.

"And yeah... I have zero regrets about picking a fight with someone who talks trash about you."

The air inside the taxi suddenly got incredibly heavy. For a few moments, neither of them blinked. They just kept looking at each other. In that moment, every sound, every light in the world became completely meaningless.

Just then, a loose strand of hair fell over the demon’s face, right in front of her eyes.

Without thinking, Himanshu’s hand moved on its own. His fingers reached out slowly, and with extreme gentleness, he brushed the strand of hair behind her ear, barely touching her face. His fingertips felt the demon’s cold skin for a split second.

Himanshu’s hand was still hovering in the air when he suddenly realized what he had just done. It was like a spell had broken. That invisible wall between them instantly stood back up.

"Sorry... I..." Himanshu panicked. He immediately yanked his hand back and quickly ducked his head. His voice stumbled. "They... they were just falling on your face. That’s why... that’s why I just... fixed it."

The demon didn’t say anything either. In a panic, she quickly turned her neck back toward the window. Her breathing had gotten a little faster, which she was desperately trying to hide.

After this tiny, mindless mistake, Himanshu’s condition got even worse. The leg that had stopped bouncing earlier was now shaking even faster. His heart was hammering against his ribs. In a desperate attempt to look normal, he raised his left hand and checked the time on his wristwatch.

The hands of the watch showed it was almost 10:30 at night.

Seeing that glowing dial and the time, a weird sensation hit Himanshu’s chest. He suddenly felt like he was forgetting something. Something really important... a task he had to do no matter what, but in all this chaos, it had completely slipped his mind.

And right then, the loud, sharp ringing of a phone echoed inside that quiet, suffocating, and awkward taxi. The sound was so sudden that both of them jumped slightly.

The demon pulled the phone out of her pocket with her hands. The moment he looked at it, his face went completely pale. A very soft, almost whisper-like voice slipped out of her mouth—

"Priya..."

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Author’s Note

Hey everyone!

What did you guys think about this Chapter? Was there anything you liked, disliked, or found interesting?

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