Page 175 of A King's Oath

Before she could think of more creative cusses the line went dead. Enraged, she pressed the call button again. It rang once and got disconnected. She called again and the same response.What the actual fuck? He had blocked her?

Avantika stared at the wallpaper on her phone — the sunrise from their window in Arezzo, taken when she had been closed in his arms and he had been laying kissing across her back. Bile rose to her throat and she tossed the phone on the bed, running to the bathroom. Like a pathetic, wretched teenager, she cried and puked, her saree soiling, her hair in the way, everything in the way. Who would she fight for this now? Samarth, time or god?

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Seven days. Seven days of her digestive system growing weaker and weaker. If it wasn’t vomiting in the day then it was loosies by night. She would feel hungry by midday and even eat to keep her family happy. But nothing worked to bring her body and mind any semblance of peace.

For a girl who had the rest of her life figured out at 15, she was clueless at 26. With a job in hand, an apartment in Paris, a set routine in that city with good friends, she was suddenly free-floating in space. And this feeling in the middle of glitter and sparkles of joy in the palace as Kresha’s wedding came closer.

Fittings, jewellery trials, hair and makeup sessions, event meetings… Avantika bore it all with her gut growing weaker and weaker. Until…

“Can we reschedule the hair trial, Raje?” Kresha’s hair stylist asked her over the phone. “I have had to undergo an emergency procedure and am at the hospital.”

“Oh, of course. What happened? Do you need anything from us?”

“No, no, it’s good news actually. I am expecting. I had to undergo a…” The rest of her words fell garbled into her ear. Expecting. That means missed periods. She had missed hers, hadn’t she?

“Of course,” Avantika winged it. “Take care and keep Ananya updated with when you can reschedule or if there will be a replacement.”

She immediately switched the call to her period tracker app.

Week 6 — You Might Be Pregnant

The world spun. She glanced around at the palace activity going strong even at this late evening hour. Avantika caught the back of a patio chair and steadied her body.

“Raje?” Ananya came running to her. “Are you fainting?”

“No!” She immediately opened her eyes. “Of course not.”

“You look like you are…”

Avantika’s eyes began to shut. “Shit… Ananya, don’t let anyone know,” she grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight.

“Ok… but what happened?” She helped her into a chair. Avantika sat down, blinked open her eyes and gulped air through her mouth. The coldness in her ears and throat seemed to subside.

“I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything.”

“Kaki Maharaj or anybody cannot know.”

Ananya nodded.

“Promise me, Ananya.”

“I promise, Raje.”

“I need you to go to the medical store.”

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Avantika parked the car on a street behind the Palace of Nawanagar. It wasn’t as heavily guarded as she had expected. She righted her white duppatta on her white pair of salwar kameez, checking her reflection in the mirror. In nothing but her lip balm, with her already sunken face and eyes, she looked farthest from a princess, forget a princess from Gwalior. But she did pass as a citizen in mourning.

She got out of the car, locked it, and followed Google Maps to the public entrance. It was 12.45 pm, the time for their court to end. The sweet spot between the palace accepting entrants and closing gates for commoners. She slipped in like the many mourners in white. Nobody stopped her.

Avantika stared up at the humungous palace rising in the distance as people meandered the long, winding road throughthe gardens. There was a metal detector and standard frisking for men and women in separate chambers. Nothing out of the ordinary. Avantika passed those and walked. Again, nobody stopped her or asked where she wanted to go.

She pulled open Harsh’s contact and dropped the bomb —

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