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“Neera,” Zavian shifted closer to her, closing the gap between the two of them. “I should have told you since, but I was just afraid. When you lose someone you love with all your heart, saying the words again becomes painful, scary, even. But I should have said it a long time ago, because I do love you, for a long time, and will continue to do so.”

Neera let out a quiet sigh and closed her eyes. Zavian waited; waited for her to open her eyes and for the softness to return in them. It took like forever, and when she finally opened them, they were still the same ice-cold purple.

“I am tired of staying in bed all day,”,” she said. “I feel my legs cramping up. I should take a walk.”

A wave of disappointment washed over the King. He must have overwhelmed her, for someone coming out of death. Zavian mustered up real quickquick and he offered her a hand out of bed.

“Let’s go then.”

“And I am also tired of company”, Neera eyed the hand and ignored it as she stood to her feet.

Even her gait as she swept across the room was different. Neera always had calculated quiet steps, like a mouse, but the Neera now flourished around in a dramatic flair as she opened the wardrobe and browsed through her clothes. She picked each of them, shook her head, and dumped it on the floor.

“Neera, your ankle…”

.....

“Oh, it’s fine. First thing I returned to its normal position”, she said. Zavian wanted to ask how but kept the question to himself as he watched her throw one gown after the other on a now-forming pile of clothes on the ground.

She picked a gown of delicate fabrics that looked like it was made of waterfalls, the one she had worn to the royal wedding, and inspected it. She shrugged, discarded the clothing on her body, and donned the special garment.

“This should do”, she said. She ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to style it.

Before Zavian could suggest helping her brush her hair, she was out of the doors.

….

The news had spread like wildfire in the palace.

The concubine had finally woken up from her ‘illness’ and was hale and hearty. Except Jasmine knew it was no ailment, and, she was in deep trouble.

Jasmine could barely keep herself from running all the way to the maids’ quarters when some workers had the news confirmed. They had seen Neera walk in the garden, and she was very much alive.

Jasmine had expected Neera to stay in bed much longer, for someone supposedly to have faced a death experience. So when she reached the maids’ chambers, it was Rue who had spotted her first, eyes wide with panic and neck shining with sweat that soaked up her collars.

“Your Majesty, you heard the…”

“Yes, I heard the news”, Jasmine shushed her. She cast her gaze around, and she bent to Rue’s ear. “Zoe, where is she?”

Rue pointed past the Queen, her whimpers coming out of her like a wounded dog. Right behind the Queen, Zoe was hurrying to Jasmine, her face an identical expression to Rue’s, her fingers wringing together as if she wanted to break them herself.

“Follow me”, Jasmine ordered. How incompetent can they be to kill someone and get it done properly? Jasmine had to contain her fury as she trudged on, and she only stopped when she reached the end of a hall, where she was sure ears cannot take their conversations.

“How hard can it be to drown a human?!” Jasmine unleashed, her voice loud and the echo disappearing within the brick walls behind her.

Rue didn’t take too well to the shout. Her frantic eyes travelled everywhere, and tears began to flow from her eyes.

“We killed her, your Majesty”, Zoe insisted. “We are sure of that.”

“Oh, really?” Jasmine stepped up to Zoe, and the maid lowered her gaze to the Queen’s feet. “So the person roaming the halls is a ghost. Is that what you are telling me?”

“She wasn’t breathing, your Majesty”, Zoe said in a low voice.

The whimpers from Rue grew into loud wails. Jasmine looked at the maid who crumpled to the floor, strong fingers gripping her bonnet and her skin was fast colouring into a formidable red.

“He will have our heads!” Rue cried out, rocking on her behind. “He will have our heads!”

“Rue!” Zoe called to her, rushing to her side.

“He’ll kill us all! The King will kill us all! He will kill us and our families!”

Jasmine bent down before her. With one raised hand, she landed a slap on Rue’s face. The maid toppled from the force of it to the ground, the pain blooming hot and sharp across her face. Zoe gasped, Jasmine was riled.

“Get yourself together or I will kill you myself”, Jasmine hissed.

Rue dragged herself back to sit, and when she looked at the Queen, there was a line of blood streaming down from her mouth and specks of red on the floor.

“I want the two of you to lay low for some time”, Jasmine said. “I will have you only assigned to kitchen duties. There should be no contact whatsoever with Neera. From what I can see, she has not said anything yet. So stay away from her.”

“Should we have her meal poisoned?” Zoe asked.

“No”, Jasmine said. “And even if I wanted that, not you two fools again.”

There was a trancelike mumbling from Rue. Then she coughed, and continued mumbling again.

“The witches”, Zoe caught onto Rue’s jumbled words. “Yes, we saw a lot of them, they might have had something to do with this.”

And how would they have succeeded in that? Bringing a soul back to life was barely heard of in the demon world, but it was not farfetched from the truth. There had been several trials of it followed by several failures and very few successes over the centuries Jasmine had been alive, but it couldn’t have worked on Neera.