If

hide

"If I were you, I would hide, Padmavati."

 With his one kick to the door knob, whole lock falls apart and he barges in. His arms are tensed in rage, ready to turn Padmavati's world upside down, like he didn't before.

 He looks around the dimly lit room, unable to recognize her figure anywhere. 

"You would be in less trouble if you did what I said first..." He growls silently, checking under the bed. "Now I will have to find you."

Khilji stays still for a moment, trying to hear her breathing. "I like the thrill of hunting very much, so I told you to hide but... It isn't so fun for you, is it?"
He hears nothing and it worries him, he runs to look if she jumped from the window. In the dark, he can't see the ground but he was almost sure that she jumped, untill he felt the cold metal touching his throat.
Khilji sighs in relief, smelling her in the air. "Poetic, but not today." He says and turns to her while holding her arm in place, letting the knife cut his skin, deep enough to draw few drops of blood but enough to cut the vein.
He sees her face, stained with dark trails of tears mixed with kajal, the strands that escaped her loose braid framing it.
He never realizes but seeing her weakens him, his extreme anger dies down slowly, leaving its place for neutrality.
Then, he stares deeply in her eyes, knowing he can only reach her this way. "Ratan Singh isn't worth a single tear from your precious eyes." He says, raising his hand to caress her cheek but Padmavati pushes the dagger closer to his skin, warning him. "Don't touch me."
"Your husband loved his manners more than you, why can't you see it, Padmavati?" He mocks, not feeling any pain from the cut. She's the one who'll lose blood, because Khilji knows the words of devil can cut better than a knife.
"Don't!" She yells, her eyes wide open with anger. "Don't mention him ever again, you disgusting, heartless monster." She speaks behind her clenched teeth. She pushes the dagger further on his skin, causing more blood to come out.

"Your heart tells it all but you are covering your ears. Can't you see that you and I, are the same?" Khilji pushes an invisible sword deeper in her wounds. "If someone wanted to see you, I would chop their head off in a second. But your husband chose his manners over you."
"You would've wanted him to kill me, wouldn't you? The moment I mentioned your name, he should've killed me. But he risked you. He let you to show yourself, knowing your shadow would be enough to drive a man crazy."
Padmavati shakes her head, tears making new trails on her face. Her stomach burns and aches, like Khilji is tightening a knot continuously with his words.
"It is your sinful gaze that destroys everything it touched." She says, her voice shaking with anger. He can see the fire he pulled her out of is still burning inside and he can't stand it. The cut on his throat starts to hurt, driving him over the edge. He takes advantage of the momentarily weakness of Padmavati and throws the dagger away from her grasp.

As if the fire within her isn't enough, Khilji is determined to burn her more with his own flames. He hates not having control over his sea of emotions when Padmavati's every tear and every expression is like a storm, causing destructive waves to rise and crash his humongous ego.
Padmavati watches Khilji with wide eyes as he wipes the blood on his throat with bare hands. Now she wonders what made her think that he might have a heart. He looks inhumane, he acts inhumane. Even if he does have a heart, there are no seeds of mercy in it that Padmavati can water with her endless tears. It was false hope.

As if hearing her thoughts, Khilji grabs Padmavati by her wrist and starts dragging her out of the room, not hearing her protests or useless efforts to resist. He is proving her right about being a heartless monster again, but he couldn't care less.
"Clear the way!" He shouts to the guards before taking her outside.
Padmavati knows that she can hurt him badly enough to escape his grasp but then, with one proper slap of Khilji's, she'll be laying unconscious on the floor which won't help at all with this situation.
  He doesn't look back to see her condition, if he did, he wouldn't be able to face what he is doing to her, destroying his unique victory by breaking her to pieces.
Her hand keeps going to her belly protectively, while the other one is being pulled by Khilji continuously, not even letting her to take proper steps, causing her to trip on her own feet and dress many times. Her saree is falling apart and she's struggling to keep her modesty in place while women of harem are watching her humiliation in silent shock. She does her best to not to make any sound of displeasure, because she knows all that Khilji wants is to make her beg. Admit his power and her own helplessness. And that is hard not to do, when her mind screams in fear, for her child.
When she's about to collapse mentally, Malika reaches Padmavati's chambers and starts running towards Khilji, seeing her ruined state. "Sultan, what is happening?" She questions, raising her voice.
Khilji immediately stops and points his finger to Mehrunisa, making her freeze in her place. "You." He growls loudly. "You will stay out of this."
While analyzing Khilji's extremely furious expressions, she sees the cut on his throat.
She would be angry with Padmavati for her mindless behaviour if she could but now she's deeply in fear for her. She knows he will take revenge for his blood, it's impossible to stop him from doing that. What matters is how he is going to do it. Her relatively weak imagination is already creating horrible scenes in her mind and Khilji is the devil himself.

"Sultan, let me take care of this." Mehrunisa tries to sound calm but fails, her voice shakes with panic when her gaze turns to see Padmavati holding her lower stomach tightly with obvious maternal instinct.
"Go to your room Mehrunisa." He commands as he begins dragging her again.
She stands in front of him. "She's my maid. Not your concubine." She sounds clear this time, looking Khilji in the eye.
He jerks Padmavati's wrist and brings her next to him. Now he looks Mehrunisa in the eyes and leans close to her ear. "Did you pull her out of fire? Did you burn under desert heat and stand in the middle of a storm? I did. She's mine. She's whatever I want her to be. Slave, concubine, queen... Mine!" He yells the last part, making everyone flinch.

People watch from their corners but even in their hearts, they can't dare to find Khilji guilty or evil. It's more of lesson for everyone, when they see his chest moving up and down heavily with every breath, like an untamed, monstrous animal. It's Padmavati's fault, she tempted him. Khilji won't bend, so everyone else has to, if they don't want to face hell.

Mehrunisa moves out of his way and stands aside, making a small curtsey.
She looks down, as her husband pulls Padmavati to the unknown.

***

Malik Kafur is proud and excited, as proud as a slave can be. The sandy ground he is standing on has a dark red color now, watered with Khiljis' and enemy's blood. It literally became a swamp with thousands of dead bodies and blood but the land of Malwa is theirs.

Kafur was always filled with passion to fulfill all his desires, be it Padmavati or the land of India. Every victory they won together added to their connection and Khilji's trust in him. He shared his deepest feelings with him, his dreams and darkest fantasies. Kafur only wanted to make them true and be the reason of his happiness, at least a part of it.

He wrote to Sultan the good news, the success of their conquest. He wrote down every detail he knows Khilji would want to know and invited him to claim his sovereignty.

The letter Malika sent earlier lays on the table front of him now, the worrisome news of Padmavati's illness. Kafur can't get Khilji's furious look out of his sight, he left the tent like he was going to the battlefield.

If something happened to Padmavati, he thinks. There is nothing on this earth that can make him happy again. The slap Khilji landed on his cheek months ago, stings his skin again. Not even me.

***

When Khilji steps into this room one of them will surely die. Padmavati can't think of a plan but she knows, with the Rajput blood she's carrying, she'll never let Khilji to taint her.

He threw her into his room and locked her in, not saying a word. She didn't hear him giving any commands, or any servants talking, the palace burried into a dead silence when he shut the doors to her face.

Where is he, and why the time is so slow since he left? What is he planning to do, what is he trying to tell?

She looks around for answers and when she was convinced that voices in her head can actually blur her view and she will never find them, the door to Khilji's great room opens slightly, letting a small figured, young maid in.

She closes the door behind her, as quietly as possible. Padmavati steps closer to the girl, ready to hear any kind of words from Khilji even though she doesn't know if she'll be able to handle it.
The girl watches Padmavati with tears in her eyes, covering her mouth with her hands in shock. She looks ashamed and sorry but Padmavati grows impatient, being unable the guess the reason behind her reaction.
"What is it? What does he want?"
The girl shakes her head. "Ranisa..." She hands Padmavati a gold ring, a very old and small ring that has little gem stones on it. It's the first jewelry she had, a handmade gift her father made for his precious daughter. She immediately recognizes it and grabs the maid by her shoulders, as if she's going to squeeze out the answer from her. "Who are you and where did you get this?"
The girl introduces herself quickly, bending her knees with respect.
"Your father sent this you, Ranisa. My name is Ila and we are here to take you home."

I know it's been a long time. I hope you liked this, I wanted to keep the tension as long as possible and I really hope it worked. Let me know what you think! Love you all by heart xx