Love is a currency Rudra never dealt it. Why? Because he was a dragon. And Dragons only dealt in golds.
There was another reason he didn't deal in love. He couldn't.
For it was a curse to dragons.
But Rudra had never given a much thought about it. It was a simple transaction his family had to do. That no person would ever love a Dragon except the power itself. Rudra's father had assured him that, "Fickle thing as love doesn't matter, Rudra! Your throne will be secured. Your life will be secured! What is love in the face of wealth, comfort and all things you can crave in your life?"
"But father," he had yet asked, as young and naive had he been for being no more than an eight years old boy, "What if still a dragon finds love?"
His father had paused and had given him an uncanny smile, "Then the dragon dies Rudra, or dies the Love."
And Rudra had taken his advice for granted. Well, until he had sat amidst crumbling structures of Parthan Castle with flames licking everything he had ever treasured and Tish limp and pale in his arms.
Not the present Tish, though, the one who had stood atop the walls looking at Rudra like he was a monster. That Tish? Her , he understood. People should be scared of Dragons. They should be repulsed at the thought of marrying one. Present Tish was just one among many. Someone predictable.
But it had been a different Tish. Someone who was both Rudra's past and future now. Someone who had thrown herself infront of a golden Arrow and died for him. And when Rudra had asked her- why?
Her mouth had opened. But instead of sound, she had poured out blood the colour of ruby and her eyes had gone glassy.
After that, even after that Rudra still hadn't dealt in something fickle as love. But he had realised he wanted Tish as close as possible consequences be damned.
And marriage had been nothing but the cage he aimed to put Tish in to stop her from flying away.
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Waking up was somehow worse than passing out.
Rudra found himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, mouth dry, shoulders burning with acute pain, bed too soft, air too hot.
He had been awake for almost five minutes now but he couldn't really sit up. Three days he had spent battling with Benevian soldiers- the exhaustion from all of that was finally starting to catch up.
Along with the humiliating sting of Tish's rejection.
It wasn't like Rudra hadn't expected Tish to reject his offer. If he had been a hopeless fool who had believed Teresa Williams would accept him after all the shits he had made her go through when they had been engaged, Rudra would have walked right into the Benevian Court with a white flag. He would have tried to woo the girl into submission.
But he knew Tish didn't just hated him. He was probably more repulsive to her than insects. Yet, he had hoped she would atleast hesitate a little- not out of non-existent love for him but atleast from sheer fear for the life of her countrymen.
He had been wrong.
She had flat out rejected him infront of the entire Benevia. And Rudra suspected it was partly because of that black haired man, well, probably entirely because of him. He vauguely recalled Tish declaring to choose him.... HIM?! Someone who looked leaner than the body-selling wenches that danced on his father's lap every Sunday. And Tish had chosen that poor excuse of testosterone to reject him!
The thought was so irritating, he vaguely wondered if he should start another war?
It was then walked in Nayan, Rudra's right-hand woman. Her eyes were hollow, her once-glamorous magically enchanted armour had been reduced to a mere metal scrap which was barely attached to the front of her body. She looked dead in Rudra's eyes and uttered, "You are fucked."
Rudra shrugged. He knew he was fucked. "Anything else?" He asked. "The half the Benevia is pinning for your execution, the other half is demanding a sum so hefty that no way Partha would be able to pay it even in next few centuries combined."
"Father -," Rudra started, clearing his voice, nervous for the first time.
"- is pleased," finished Nayan. Rudra looked up, eyebrows raised. Nayan nodded, "He is willing to pay."
A suffocating silence fell into the room, so thick that Rudra could swear he could cut it with his blade. "But you said," he spoke slowly, carefully, "That Partha cannot-"
"It won't be paid out of Partha Royal Treasury," Nayan hissed, "It'll be paid out of his own pocket."
Nayan looked pale. She looked like panicking. And it was exactly how Rudra felt. "I'm... I'm better getting-" he stuttered.
"-Executed, yes," finished Nayan, promptly. Eagerly she moved at the foot of the bed, lifted the duvet off his legs. Rudra noticed the shackles there.
"They put me in chains?" He asked, offended, "They think those fragile things can hold me?" Nayan rolled her eyes so hard it made Rudra's eyebrows twitch in annoyance, "It is a statement, you dumb ass! That you're a prisoner here!" Nayan started fiddling with the chains, "It doesn't matter now, I'll escort you to the gallows myself. You can get executed and I can go home back to my wife."
Rudra gaped, "No loyalty, huh?" Nayan looked up, irritated and angry, "So you want your creepy father to pay the amount and get you out of here?"
"No, thanks."
"That's what I've thought."
Nayan produced a hairpin and started stabbing every hole in the lock. ''Do you even know how to pick a lock?" Rudra demanded.
"You try it, genius!" She snapped. Rudra took the pin. It was too little between his thumb and index finger. He pocked through the keyhole, acted like he knew what he was doing.
"Oh right," He suddenly recalled, "I can just break the chains! I'm strong enough for that!"
Nayan just threw her hands in the air and muttered something under her breath. She looked like she was at the verge of tears.
Rudra ignored her. He gripped the chain and twisted. The metal groaned in protest and then with a sharp sound it snapped. Rudra looked up at Nayan with a smug face.
Nayan stared for two seconds and then gave a nonchalant shrug, "Well, you had to somehow make up for your lack of brain."
"You little-"
The door fell open.
Nayan's demeanor changed from a slightly concerned (more for herself and less for Rudra) friend to the Commander General of Partha, "This room is strictly prohibited-"
"I know which rooms are prohibited in this palace, you need not inform me about that."
It was Tish.
Her eyes bore into Nayan, "I live here," she reminded Nayan, "I am one of the people who decide which room is prohibited and which isn't."
And then she looked at Rudra. She didn't look angry. She didn't look afraid.
She looked ..... disappointed.
And that was somewhat worse in Rudra's book that fear or anger.