chapter 14

Chapter ThirteenShadows That SpeakRain tapped against the palace windows.Soft. Relentless.Rani sat in the study, a black shawl wrapped around her shoulders, a whisky glass untouched beside her. The fire crackled low, casting golden light over the file Maya had left the day before.She’d read it three times already.Now, her eyes weren’t reading anymore — they were remembering.The file contained one name:Veer Raichand.Dev’s brother.Officially, Veer had died in a border shootout nearly six years ago — part of a smuggler’s convoy gone rogue.Unofficially, he’d vanished a week before that… with two million rupees and a hard drive full of classified cartel contacts.Rani hadn’t thought about him in years.Until now.Until Maya’s intel pointed to a single, grainy photo taken three nights ago outside the Jaisalmer safehouse:A man.Tall.Wearing a scarf that didn’t match the local heat.Half his face visible.But enough.Veer was alive.Across the palace, Dev stirred in bed.Healing. Restless.He didn’t know what Rani knew.Not yet.Later that evening, she stood by his door.Knocked once.“Come in,” his voice rasped.She entered, holding the file.He was propped up now. Stronger. Color back in his cheeks.But his eyes, when they met hers, immediately narrowed.“What is it?” he asked.She didn’t speak.Just handed him the file.He opened it slowly — and froze.His hand tightened around the paper.Silence stretched.“Is this real?” he asked finally, voice thin.“Yes,” she said.“Where?”“Near the old border trail.”He swallowed hard. His throat moved like it hurt to breathe.“I buried him.”“You thought you did.”Dev closed the file.Stared at the wall.“Why show me this?”“Because you need to be honest with me now,” Rani said softly. “Who was he, really?”Dev ran a hand through his hair, frustration leaking from his every breath.“He was my shadow,” he whispered. “My older brother. My protector. My rival. And my worst mistake.”Rani waited.“He got into deep work. Things I walked away from. Said I didn’t have the stomach for blood money. So he kept climbing. Until one day he disappeared. I thought... I thought they killed him for taking too much.”Rani sat beside him.“He didn’t die, Dev.”“No. He just changed sides.”“And now he’s circling back.”Dev looked at her, something wounded behind his tired smile.“You think he’s working for Sircar?”“I don’t think,” she said. “I know.”Later that night, after Rani left, Dev sat in silence.The pain in his ribs had dulled.But something deeper had cracked open.Veer.Not just a ghost.A threat.Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Jaisalmer…A jeep rolled to a stop beneath a dying tree.A man stepped out.Tall. Leather boots. A burn scar along his jaw.He lit a cigarette, looked out at the desert, and smiled.“Tell her I’m coming,” he said to the man beside him. “And this time, I don’t plan to miss.”(Nxt)