Why would Veer choose to give importance to those feelings, when in his eyes, he was just killing animals? He needed to have a personal connection to show those human emotions.
Chandra stepped away from Makhadeva. What she was about to do was foolhardy in the extreme. If Veer were here, he would skin her alive for even contemplating her next action.
But what choice did she have? If she waited any longer, Veer would end up dead.
Chandra crept cautiously, keeping an eye on Makhadeva, who was too focused on the unfolding action to pay her any attention, before breaking into a run. Toward the prison cube. Toward Veer. Who had stopped investigating the cube and was looking in her direction.
She unsheathed her twin daggers as she ran, ignoring Makhadeva’s shout behind her to stop. Vaulting over one of the rods that was in her way, she came face-to-face with Veer.
Her invisibility helped her. Even if the beast sensed her presence, it was unable to anticipate her actions.
Chandra bent past his outstretched arm, turned, and swiped across his open wrist. She moved again, before he was able to reach for her with his other arm, then appeared on his other side, where she struck her knife into his kidney.
She kept turning and swiping across whatever vital parts she could reach. Killing him wasn’t her goal, but she did want him incapacitated enough that the yaksha would stop his imminent imprisonment.
Already the rods of the cube prison had stopped their advancement, hovering in the air, an incomplete open structure, as if waiting for Makhadeva’s command.
The beast-Veer’s roars were becoming more painful. His rage increased, and he windmilled his arms, trying to catch her invisible form. Unfortunately, one of his arms stuck her across the midriff and sent her sprawling to the ground. Before she could get up, he was on her and Chandra realized with a sense of dismay that she was now visible.
The invisibility spell seemed to have lasted only while she was untouched.
The beast grabbed her by the hair and slammed her to the ground repeatedly. Her nose cracked. Blood leaked from her scalp in a thin trickle into her eye, blinding her. She squinted it shut.
He flipped her over and reached for her throat. The knee he placed on her torso pinned her to the ground, causing so much pressure, she was hardly able draw in a breath.
The beast’s hands started squeezing her throat. Her lungs seized from the lack of air. Stars danced before her eyes, big black patches of nothingness encroaching on her vision.
How the hell was he even moving? She had sliced through most of his important joint tendons, and it didn’t seem to even faze him.
She gave up trying to dislodge his hands and blindly groped about for something useful to use against him.
“Veer, remember,” she choked out. Her hands closed on something in her hair, sharp and deadly. “Your promise.”
She thought she saw some glimmer of recognition in those beastly eyes. The fingers around her throat loosened. Horror slowly replaced the bestial expression on his face.
“Run,” he mouthed.
Sensing his weakness, she plunged the poisoned hairpin she had commissioned herself, straight into his neck, down to its blunt, ornamental edge. Laced with a strong sleeping draught, it was enough to knock a grown man to instant sleep.
A loud growl erupted from the beast’s throat. He took his hands off her, to scratch at his neck. One of his arms struck her in the scramble, knocking her a few feet, and Chandra hastily rolled away, coughing.
The beast stood up, his body weaving on unsteady legs. The poisoned hairpin was still embedded in his throat. The beast’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he crashed to the ground.
Chandra cataloged her injuries. Breath wheezed out of her lungs. She likely had at least a couple of broken ribs, and her left knee was swollen to twice its size. Her head hurt like someone had dropped a million-pound bag on top of her. She tried to put a hand to her forehead to wipe away the blood and realized her arm wasn’t working. Her shoulder was dislocated.
She was in a lot of pain, and knew it was going to hurt even more soon, once the adrenaline high wore off and more injuries made themselves known.
But at least it was worth it. She had a momentary glance of Veer. The real person behind the beast-like persona. A split second where his human nature won and had told her to run. It meant the curse could be broken. Hopefully.
She watched with apprehension as a dark miasma rose from Veer’s massive form as it returned to normal human proportions. He looked unkempt with twigs and scratches on his body, but it was him.
Veer was back! Albeit unconscious.
Makhadeva came to stand beside her. Chandra opened her mouth to thank him, but a human moan from Veer made herlook back at him. The lines of the grid began moving again, coalescing on him.
“What are you doing?” asked Chandra hoarsely. “You said you’d let him go.”
“I said no such thing. I merely told you the way to break the curse, but I didn’t say I’d let him go. He needs to still be punished for the damage he has done, the creatures he has killed.”
