Till Fate Tie Us Together...

Chapter 24:

"Where are you going?" Ada asked the very exhausted Jellal who was trekking ahead of her. She had seen him walking that exact same path in the same time for almost a month. His hair was messy and he seemed as if he was half asleep. "Hmmf?" His sleepy voice asked her. "Nowhere." He bushed it off. "What about you?"

"I'm going back to my chambers." She said honestly.

Jellal let out a loud yawn. "Where are you coming from then? This dead of the night?"

"Somewhere." She said. Honestly, she was in Salim's chambers. She went there to read because she had developed insomnia since a year to his death. It didn't yield her any results but she did it because she felt close to him, that way. It helped her from slipping into insanity.

She then watched him open the door to Ruh's chambers and her heart clenched. He'd been visiting her. Not because she had feelings for him, because she missed Salim, terribly.

"Is this what you wanted to do? This isn't how you wanted to live your life."

She heard his words in his head. She certainly didn't want to live like this. That moment, she decided that she'd apply for divorce.

***

A year ago....

Salim paced inside his chambers. How dare they, how dare they replace someone as her? His head ached and his heart ached as he found, she wasn't alive anymore. The doors to his chambers opened and entered a person with a veil. The doors closed again.

"Make haste." He ordered, removing his tunic. The other person, a close replica, if not exact, hastily removed his veil and female attire.

Salim walked out of the room in a dress with a veil covering his face. Only when he was escorted out of the palace, he changed into pantaloons and tunic. He charged his horse to run off as fast as it could.

Inside the room, the doppelgänger was offered a platter of sweetmeats that he could not refuse. In an hour, he choked and his soul had left him. But to everyone outside the world, The Emperor Salim had died.

***

He had reached the Brotherhood office in Fadeh, extremely south, almost near the great sea; in a week. That was where the records were kept. The records of deaths was what he was concerned with. He checked them and indeed she was dead. He was so much engrossed in the sorrow that he didn't notice someone creep behind him.

***

Now...

Ada was reading when Ila, Ruh begum's maid entered into her chambers. "Ruh baisa told me to inform you that Shehzaade Salim is back. He is currently meeting with the dowager queen."

Ada stared at the woman before dismissing her. Her lungs ached from the deep breaths she took. She almost believed that she was dreaming. That it was one of her fantasies. He was dead. How could he back? She needed to see him, to feel him, to smell his scent, only then would she believe he was back.

She rubbed her face with a wash cloth. No matter how hard she scrubbed, her dark circles wouldn't vanish. After dressing up, she walked hastily towards, the garden in front of the dowager queen's chambers.

Then she stopped when she heard a whistle. And she knew. She didn't need to see her or smell him. She knew it was him. She turned around to find him smiling brightly, the brightness only touching his lips and not his eyes. His hair longer and some knotted behind his head and the rest falling on his broad yet frail shoulders. He was thinner. Much much thinner.

Her eyes snapped to his handsome face again, "How have you been, Ada?"

She snapped out of her daze, "So it's true. The devil has risen from the dead."