I Stole The Princess And Refused To Let Her Go

The hall smelled of sandalwood and overripe fruit, the same cloying sweetness that drifted through every palace I had ever been forced to endure. I kept to the carved screen that separated the colonnade from the main floor, one palm resting on the hilt of the dagger that never left my hip, and watched the woman who was supposed to save my kingdom.

Subhadra moved between silk-draped courtiers like a blade sliding through silk: no wasted motion, no hesitation. A prince of some minor house bowed too low, blocking her path; she tilted her head, offered a smile so precise it could have been measured with a calligrapher’s brush, and stepped around him before his greeting was half-spoken. The smile vanished the instant her face was turned away. I felt the loss of it like a small, unnecessary wound.

I had been in Dwarka three days—long enough to learn the angles of the palace, the rhythm of its guards, the moment each night when the tide drowned the lower quay stones and made the air taste of salt and iron. Not long enough to speak to her. That part came tonight, whether she wished it or not.

Krishna had warned me she would be difficult. “She reads people the way fishermen read weather,” he’d said, lounging on the terrace with his legs hooked through the marble balustrade like a boy who owned nothing and therefore feared nothing. “If she thinks you want something, she’ll hand it over just to watch what you do once it’s yours.”

I hadn’t answered. My wants were simple: get the girl, seal the alliance, ride home before the rains swelled the rivers. Simple, and already ruined by the way she flicked a glance toward the shadows where I stood, as if she could feel the weight of my appraisal across the width of the hall. Her eyes—dark, unflinching—met mine for the space of a single heartbeat. Then someone called her name and the moment snapped, but the imprint stayed under my ribs like an arrowhead lodged too deep to dig out.

A musician struck a new raga. Subhadra clapped politely, the sound soft against the marble, and retreated toward the fretted doors that opened onto the sea terrace. The set of her shoulders told me she intended to be alone. Good. I had no patience for the choreography of courtship, the exchange of compliments as hollow as dried gourds. Better to step from shadow into moonlight and speak the truth like a knife laid flat on the table: Your brother will trade you to Duryodhana before the next full moon. Come with me instead, or I will take you. Choose.

I waited until the last courtier turned his back, then followed the faint scent of jasmine and salt that drifted in her wake.

Krishna was already leaning against the outer arch, arms folded, looking as if he had been carved there to hold up the stone. He did not speak; he simply angled his chin toward the narrow stair that dropped to the private quay. Then he stepped aside, letting the torchlight fall across his face long enough for me to see the smile that was not quite a smile—curiosity, maybe, or simple mischief. I passed him without a word.

The stair was steep, salt-bitten. Halfway down I heard the slap of water against the pier and, beneath it, the small sound of metal on metal: bangles touching, then separating. She was pacing.

Moonlight laid a white strip across the planks. Subhadra moved in and out of it, her sari catching the wind, the end fluttering like a pennant that had forgotten which king it served. She stopped when my shadow crossed the light.

“I wondered which of them would send a lackey tonight,” she said, not turning. “Did my brother promise you a purse, or only the usual worthless grant of land?”

I stepped off the last stair. “Balarama has already promised you.”

Her shoulders stiffened. “To Duryodhana. Yes. The elders whisper it as if I were deaf.”

“Three days,” I said. “The envoys ride south at dawn.”

She pivoted then, silk hissing across her calves. Anger made her breathing shallow, the gold chain at her throat rising and falling with each inhale. “And you came to gloat? To remind me my value is measured in horses and elephants?”

“I came to steal you.”

The words landed flat, without ornament, the way I might have told an archer his mark was too far left. She blinked once, the courtly mask slipping enough for me to see the raw intelligence underneath, rapid and unsparing.

“You are Arjun of Indraprastha,” she said slowly. “The one who hides behind pillars and thinks no one notices. My brother’s alliance is already yours if you ask. Why play kidnapper?”

“Because if you stay, you will be Hastinapur’s hostage, not Dwarka’s princess. Because your brothers will pretend it is honor while they barter you like salt. Because I can put you in my chariot tonight and let the bards call it love tomorrow.”

She studied me, arms crossed beneath her breasts, fingers digging into her own skin hard enough to leave half-moons. “And if I refuse?”

“Then I leave alone and tell the world Subhadra chose Duryodhana’s bed. Your clan keeps its treaty, you keep its cage.”

The wind snapped her pallu against my forearm; neither of us moved to free it. For a long moment the only sound was water gnawing the pilings.

She lifted her chin. “You offer me a choice the way a wolf offers the lamb a shortcut through the forest.”

“I offer you the only one you’ll get.”

Her eyes—black, bright—searched my face for hesitation, for softness. Finding none, she exhaled through parted lips, the faintest tremor running across her jaw. Somewhere inside the palace a conch sounded the third watch, marking the hour when honest men slept and the dishonest began to work.

“Then steal me quickly,” she said, voice low, almost amused. “Before I change my mind and steal you first.”

I stepped forward until the hem of her sari brushed my shins. Salt wind flattened the linen against my chest; I felt her breathing through it, small, fast pulses that lifted the gold embroidery at her collarbone.

“Abduction,” I said. “The old way. I break the bolt on your balcony, carry you down the rope, and by sunrise the bards will swear you begged me.” My voice stayed level, the same tone I used to count arrows left in a quiver. “Your brothers keep their honor—no betrothal broken if a princess is stolen. You keep your name. I keep my alliance. Everyone wins.”

She didn’t retreat. “Except me. I win a husband who begins by lying.”

“A husband who begins by listening.” I lifted my hand, slow enough that she could have twisted away, and laid two fingers beneath her chin. The skin there was soft, still warm from the hall’s lamps. “I will not drag you in chains, Subhadra. I will not gag you. But I will not leave this quay alone.”

Her lashes flickered. “You’d force me in front of my own city?”

“I’d force the world to admit you chose.” I tilted her face until moonlight filled her eyes, black mirrors showing me my own unsm mouth. “Say no and I carry you anyway. Say yes and the story is yours to write.”

The water slapped the pier, counting heartbeats. Down the stair Krishna’s torch hissed once, then died—his promise that no guard would come. I smelled wet hemp, distant fish, the jasmine oil she wore at her pulse points. My thumb brushed the corner of her lip; I felt the small, involuntary parting of her teeth.

“You stand there,” she whispered, “and speak of choice while your body tells me I have none.”

“Bodies lie.” I slid my hand to the nape of her neck, fingers closing lightly around the braid coiled there. “Mine wants yours. Yours wants freedom. Tonight they can have both.”

She laughed, a sound like steel leaving sheath. “You think desire is currency?”

“I think it’s the only coin that spends in the dark.” I leaned in until her breath mixed with mine, until the space between us held only the promise of friction. “Decide.”

Silence stretched, taut as bowstring. Then her palm came up, flat against my sternum—not push, not pull, simply measurement. Heat soaked through the cloth into my skin. I felt her thumb trace the ridge of muscle above my heart, counting beats the way a warrior counts enemy paces.

“Very well,” she said, voice steady now, almost amused. “Steal me, Arjun. But remember—tomorrow the song will call me willing, and every time you hear it you’ll know I let you win.”

She rose on the balls of her feet and brushed her mouth across mine, dry, deliberate, the seal on a bargain neither of us trusted. Then she stepped back, arms loose at her sides, waiting.

I bent, scooped her knees, and lifted. Her weight settled against my chest like a quiver finally slotted home. Overhead the moon hung low, a silver eye that would witness everything and tell nothing. I carried her up the stair, past the dead torch, into the corridor that smelled of salt and escape. Behind us the sea kept its rhythm, indifferent to kingdoms, to futures, to the small, fierce pulse of a woman who had just chosen the wolf.

“Fine,” she hissed, the single syllable cracking like a whip across the quay. No tears, no tremor—just the sound of something snapping shut inside her.

I set her on the chariot floorboards. She stepped back until the rail pressed her spine, palms braced behind her as though ready to vault into the night. The horses stamped, impatient. I gathered the reins, snapped them once, and we lurched through the unguarded postern gate. Dwarka’s torches slid away; the road opened, black and empty.

For the first hour the only noise was iron rim biting grit, the creak of axle-wood, the measured huff of the team. I kept my gaze on the pale stripe of road, yet every part of me tracked her: the shallow lift of her breasts beneath the wrap of silk, the pulse flickering at the hollow of her throat, the way her sandalwood sharpened when the wind shifted. She stared west, jaw locked, as if the horizon owed her an apology.

When the moon climbed higher she shifted one hip, just enough to increase the space between us by the width of a finger. I felt the withdrawal like a bruise. My hands tightened on the reins; leather creaked.

“Say something,” I muttered.

“Why?” Her voice came out flat. “So you can pretend this was conversation?”

I swallowed the reply. Silence settled again, heavier, until even the crickets seemed to abandon us.

We changed horses at a moonlit caravanserai. I lifted her down; she flinched when my thumbs grazed her waist, then walked to the trough without waiting for help. While I negotiated fresh tack she stood apart, arms folded, watching the stable-boys as if memorising weaknesses. When I returned she took the water-skin from my hand rather than let me pour.

Back on the road she wedged herself into the far corner, knees drawn up, chin on the rail. The jasmine in her hair had faded, replaced by dust and horse-sweat. I found myself cataloguing the angle of her collarbone, the small scar at the edge of her lip I hadn’t noticed in torch-light. My body responded with steady, inconvenient insistence; I shifted the cloak across my lap and kept driving.

Dawn bled into the sky. She hadn’t slept. Neither had I. When the outpost finally appeared—a squat mud-brick box beside a dried well—I reined in and set the brake. Dust drifted. She stepped down before I could assist, boots hitting dirt with a sound of finality.

Inside the single room: a cot, a cracked lamp, a table scarred by knife-marks. I dropped my pack, unrolled my blanket at the threshold. She stood in the centre, looking at the cot as though it were an insult delivered in furniture form.

“It’s yours,” I said.

She didn’t answer. The door groaned shut behind us, sealing the two of us and the silence we had dragged across fifty miles of road.

I knelt to unlace my boots, the leather stiff with dust. Behind me her sandals whispered across the packed earth, once, twice, as she measured the room’s perimeter the way a prisoner tests bars. The lamp’s single flame threw her shadow large against the wall; it trembled when she stopped at the window-slit, a palm-sized hole plugged with rag. She pried the cloth loose. Gray evening light and cricket noise spilled in.

“You can bar it from inside,” I said. “The latch is yours.”

She replaced the rag without answering. I spread my blanket parallel to the threshold, close enough that any intruder would have to cross my body first. The cot creaked when she sat—no collapse, just the small surrender of rope mattress accepting weight. She eased one foot beneath her, silk riding to mid-calf. A bruise bloomed on the inside of her knee, purple from the chariot rail. I looked away.

Water sloshed into the tin cup I carried. I set it on the floor between us, halfway mark. She stared at it so long I thought she’d refuse, but thirst won. She drank, throat working, then placed the cup exactly where she’d found it, rim turned so the single dent faced me. A message: nothing given, nothing owed.

I broke flatbread with my thumbs, tore it in two. The piece I offered stayed suspended until her fingers brushed mine taking it. Contact lasted less than a breath, yet heat lodged under my ribs. We ate without tasting. Crumbs salted the blanket; she brushed them off her side onto mine.

Darkness thickened. I trimmed the wick. Flame shrank, intimacy enlarging with it. Her breathing grew audible, not anxious but awake—measured, considering. She lay back, arms crossed over her ribs like a guard. The cot ropes groaned again. I folded my cloak beneath my head, eyes on the ceiling beams. Every splinter felt knowable.

Minutes, or an hour. A scorpion scuttled along the wall. I rose on one elbow, sword half drawn, but she was faster: sandal in hand, she crushed it, then remained standing, barefoot inches from my chest. In the weak light her toes looked oddly vulnerable, nails trimmed short, henna faded at the tips. She returned to the cot without comment. The insect’s carcass stayed where it fell, between us and the door—a small corpse neither claimed.

When her breathing finally leveled into sleep, I watched the cloth at the window lift with night breeze, listened to horses shift in the corral, to my own pulse. The room smelled of crushed chitin, of extinguished wick, of jasmine struggling against dust. I did not close my eyes. Tomorrow the road would demand answers, but tonight the silence itself was the only honest thing we shared, thick as mud and just as hard to move through.

I woke to the sound of her pacing. The lamp had burned itself out; dawn seeped through the rag-plugged window, painting the mud walls the color of old blood. She moved barefoot, eight steps to the door, eight back, the cot ropes creaking in protest each time she turned. I watched through slitted eyes. The bruise on her knee had darkened overnight.

“You’re awake,” she said without looking at me. “Stop pretending.”

I sat up. My neck had stiffened from the packed earth; vertebrae clicked like dice. “Did you sleep?”

“Don’t.” She halted, arms folded so tight her knuckles blanched. “Don’t pretend concern.”

I rubbed grit from my eyes. “I asked a question.”

“And I’m answering the one you didn’t.” Her voice cracked like a whip. “You’re a brigand in prince’s clothing, Arjun. A delivery boy for your brother’s ambition.”

The words struck hotter than I expected. I rose; the blanket slid from my shoulders. “If I were a brigand you’d be gagged and tied.”

She laughed, sharp enough to cut. “You think this—” she flicked two fingers at the room, at the space between us, “—is better? You stole me like a goat from a market.”

“I offered you the story you wanted.”

“Story?” She stepped closer; jasmine and dust and female anger rolled off her skin. “You want a story? Here’s one: a man who can’t tell the difference between duty and desire convinces himself they’re the same thing. He calls it strategy so he can sleep at night.”

My jaw tightened. “You think I slept?”

“I think you lie even to yourself.” She spun away, then back, hair snapping across her shoulders. “Tell me, did Yudhisthir hand you a script, or did you improvise the noble abductor on your own?”

Silence ballooned, thick as the dust motes dancing in the gray light. I felt the words lining up behind my teeth, polished defenses every warrior keeps ready. I let them fall, useless.

“I did it for Indraprastha,” I said. “And for you.”

Her brows arched, mocking.

“I watched you dismiss six princes in the space of a song,” I went on, voice low. “You smiled, you bowed, you never let them see the blade. In Hastinapur that blade would rust. Duryodhana collects trophies, not partners. He would break you in a season.”

Color drained from her cheeks, then rushed back twice as hot. “So you decided to save me?”

“I decided the world was wrong.” The admission felt like stepping off a cliff. “I thought—if I could get you out, maybe the world could be less wrong.”

She stared as if I’d spoken in a foreign tongue. Her throat worked; the small sound she made wasn’t quite laughter, wasn’t quite protest. Outside, a rooster crowed, absurdly ordinary.

I took one step, no more. “I’m still my brother’s pawn, Subhadra. But I’m also the man who would not watch them cage you.”

Her eyes shone, angry or tearful I couldn’t tell. She opened her mouth, closed it, then turned abruptly so I saw only her profile, rigid as carved wood. The admission hung between us, pulsing like a fresh wound we’d both forgotten to bind.

We reached the river by late afternoon. It had risen overnight, brown and swollen, tearing at its banks with a sound like continuous thunder. The ferry sat tethered to a post that leaned dangerously outward; the boatman refused to cross until morning. I paid him anyway to keep our place, then led the horses upslope to a patch of coarse grass where the chariot wouldn’t sink.

Subhadra climbed down unaided. She had said almost nothing since the outpost, but her silence now felt porous, charged with the argument still lodged in the air between us. She paced the grass once, twice, then drew the small dagger she kept tucked in her sash and began working through a sequence I recognised as a Yadava drill—short, vicious thrusts meant for close quarters. Her wrist was too rigid, her weight on the balls of her feet instead of the heels.

I told myself to leave her to it. Instead I crossed the clearing.

She heard my step and spun, blade raised. I stopped just outside its reach, lifted both hands palm-out, then closed the gap. Her eyes narrowed but she didn’t retreat. I took her right hand in mine, thumb pressing the heel of her palm until her fingers loosened, then slid my forefinger along hers to straighten the grip. Her skin was hot, the ridge of callus from bowstring rubbing mine. I felt her pulse jump.

“Wider stance,” I said. My voice came out rough. I set my left hand against the small of her back, nudging her hips down and apart until her centre dropped. The silk of her sari bunched under my palm; through it I could feel the knobs of her spine, the flex of muscle as she adjusted. Heat flared under my ribs and travelled south.

I stepped back. The imprint of her body stayed against me, a ghost pressure. She held the corrected pose, breathing hard, then executed the next thrust. The blade sliced air with a clean hiss. She looked at me, eyes bright, colour high.

“Again,” I said.

She repeated the sequence—four strikes, turn, parry, riposte—each motion now fluid, grounded. Sweat gathered at her hairline; a drop slid to the corner of her mouth. She paused, chest rising, and for a moment neither of us moved. The river roared below, but the clearing felt sealed, humid, the space between us crackling like damp kindling about to catch.

She sheathed the dagger with a decisive snap. “Satisfied?”

I wasn’t, not even close, but I nodded and walked back to the chariot. My palm still burned where her back had curved into it; the scent of crushed grass and heated jasmine clung to my skin. I busied myself checking girth straps, yet every sense tracked her behind me: the rasp of her sandals, the small exhalation that might have been frustration or something gentler. When I finally looked up she was seated on a stone, sharpening the dagger with slow, deliberate strokes, eyes flicking to me each time the steel rang.

The boatman cast off at dusk, muttering that the river’s temper had eased. I stood at the bow, reins looped over my wrist, watching the current seam itself around the hull. Subhadra sat amidships, knees drawn up, fingers curled around the gunwale. The ferry was little more than a plank raft; every plank creaked like old bone.

Halfway across the sky split. Wind slammed down the valley, driving rain sideways. The river rose in sheets, slapping the deck. A rope snapped with the sound of a whip crack; the raft yawed violently. Subhadra’s hand slipped. I saw her boots skid, silk sole useless on wet wood, and then she was falling backward toward the black water.

I moved without thought. My arm hooked her waist, yanking her hard against me. Her momentum slammed us into the mast; my spine took the blow, breath punching out. I locked both arms around her, palms splayed across the small of her back, her breasts crushed to my chest. Rain plastered her hair to my neck; her mouth pressed just below my ear, gasping. The boat pitched again, but I had planted my legs wide, knees bent, anchoring us. Water sluiced between our bodies, cold, but where her thighs brushed mine the heat was sudden, shocking.

Her hands found my ribs, fingers spreading for purchase through soaked linen. I felt each digit imprint skin. She didn’t push away. Instead her grip tightened, nails scraping bone when the raft dropped into a trough. Spray exploded upward; we were drenched, breathing the same wet air. My heart battered against hers, impossible to tell whose beat belonged to whom.

Lightning cracked, illuminating her face inches from mine. Rainwater clung to her lashes, slid over her upper lip. A droplet hung, trembled, fell. I tasted river and storm on the breath we shared. Her hips shifted, seeking balance; the movement slid her lower belly along the hard line of my cock, already half risen from adrenaline. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t recoil. The next roll of the deck pressed us together again, deliberate as a pulse. I felt her inhale, sharp, felt the shudder that wasn’t entirely cold.

The boatman screamed at his oarsmen. Rope hissed through cleats. None of it reached us. Inside the circle of my arms the world had narrowed to the slick skin of her inner wrist sliding against my ribs, to the heat of her thigh lodged between mine, to the way her breath stuttered when I shifted, easing her closer still. Time stretched, elastic, measured in heartbeats and rain.

Then the raft lurched upright, finding calmer water. The spell snapped. She drew back first, palms sliding to my shoulders, putting an inch of storm-cold air between us. My arms loosened reluctantly; fingertips grazed the final drip of water trailing her spine before letting go. We stood apart, breathing hard, clothes clinging like second skins. Her nipples showed dark against soaked silk; I tasted blood where I’d bitten my own lip.

Neither spoke. The ferry scraped mud on the far bank. Rain eased to a hiss. I stepped off first, extended a hand. After a beat she took it, fingers steady now, and stepped onto wet sand. The touch lasted only until her feet found purchase, but the imprint of her body stayed burned into mine, a map of heat beneath the cold river water still streaming from us.

The shrine squatted a hundred paces inland, roof half caved, stone blackened by old cook-fires. I kicked the door open, smelled damp ash and mouse droppings, and decided it was shelter enough. Subhadra followed, arms wrapped around herself, water still dripping from her hem. The single room was dark except for the storm-light leaking through a hole in the tiles. I found dry tinder in a corner, coaxed a flame from my flint, and fed it scraps someone had left. The fire caught, threw long shadows across her face.

She moved to the hearth, extended her hands, and steam rose from her sleeves. Neither of us had spoken since the raft. Words felt dangerous now, edged. I stripped off my outer cloth, wrung it, spread it on a broken crate. She watched the muscle jump in my forearm, then looked quickly away.

“We’ll reach the capital tomorrow,” I said.

Her shoulders stiffened. “And then?”

“Then you are received as my wife. My brothers will honour you. The city will—”

“Will what?” She spun, eyes glittering in firelight. “Will teach me which smiles belong to which faction? Will instruct me how to hand out alms without offending the treasurer’s mistress?” Her voice cracked. “I know that syllabus, Arjun. I wrote half of it for Krishna.”

I stepped closer. “You’ll be free to—”

“Free?” She laughed, a short, ugly sound. “Freedom is choosing the cage, not having the door renamed.”

Heat surged up my neck. “You think Indraprastha a cage? It is the only place your uncle cannot sell you to Duryodhana.”

“I think every court is a cage,” she shot back. “The only variable is the quality of the silk on the bars.” She jabbed a finger toward my chest. “You dragged me out of one betrothal to lock me into another. Don’t dress it as salvation.”

The fire popped, sparks rising between us like angry fireflies. My pulse hammered so loud I thought the rotten rafters shook.

“I offered you a choice on that quay,” I said, low. “You made it.”

“I chose the storm,” she snapped. “Not the harbour.”

“Then walk.” I gestured at the door, voice raw. “The road splits three miles north. Gold in my saddlebag—take it, go wherever the hell your freedom lives.”

Her chin lifted, but her eyes glistened. “You’d let me go? Just like that?”

“Yes.” The word tore out, leaving a hollow in my chest. “I’d rather you vanish than hate me from inside my own walls.”

Silence slammed down. Rain drummed on the broken roof; wind hissed through cracks. She stared at me, chest heaving, and I saw the moment her fury cracked open into something hungrier. Two strides closed the space between us. My hands found her face, thumbs scraping across rain-cold cheekbones, and I crushed my mouth to hers.

There was no gentleness. It was teeth and breath and the salt of river water, a kiss meant to punish, to possess, to finally admit the current that had snapped between us since Dwarka. She met it with equal force, nails raking up my neck, fingers knotting in my hair to drag me closer. I backed her against the rough wall, slate grit scraping her shoulders, and felt her gasp into my mouth. My tongue slid against hers, demanding, receiving. Her thigh hooked over my hip, pulling our centres flush; the heat of her burned through soaked cloth. I ground against her, cock hard as iron, and she answered with a roll of her hips that tore a groan from my throat.

Hands tore at lacings, linen ripping. I palmed her breast, thumb dragging across a nipple already peaked from cold and want. She arched, head knocking stone, and I bent to close my teeth over the pulse hammering at her neck. She tasted of rain and skin and defiance. When I bit down she shuddered, a low sound vibrating against my lips. My other hand slid down the curve of her waist, past the soaked knot of her sari, finding the slick folds beneath. She was wet, swollen, ready as if the storm itself had primed her. One finger slipped inside, then two, curling; her inner muscles clamped hard, a silent, furious promise.

She dragged my head up, kissed me again, open and filthy, tongue stroking in the same rhythm my fingers moved below. When I added a third she broke the kiss on a ragged inhale, eyes locked on mine, daring me to stop. I didn’t. I couldn’t. The shrine smelled of smoke and sex and wet earth, and the only sound was our breathing, harsh and syncopated, the wet slide of my fingers, the creak of old timber as she rode my hand.

Her climax hit sudden and violent—back bowing, mouth open on a silent cry, inner walls fluttering around my fingers. I kept the pressure steady until the last shudder left her, then withdrew slowly, bringing the taste of her to my tongue while she watched, pupils blown wide.

She reached for my belt, but I caught her wrist, pinned it above her head against the stone. “Not yet,” I growled against her lips. “Tonight I take what’s mine when I decide.”

The answering flare in her eyes told me the argument was far from over—and that she wanted every round.

Dawn leaked grey through the broken tiles, turning smoke to ghostly ribbons. I woke on the packed-earth floor, blanket half under her hip where she’d shoved me in the night. My shirt was gone; she’d used it as pillow. One of her breasts lay exposed above the torn choli, nipple dark against pale skin, marks from my teeth faint purple along the slope. I stared, throat dry, remembering how she’d climbed me right here, knees grinding dirt, demanding I finish what I’d started. I had—twice—before we collapsed, too exhausted to care about modesty.

Now she sat by the dead fire, knees drawn up, sari draped like armour. Eyes red, not from tears but from staring at nothing. When I stirred she didn’t look over. The space between us felt wider than the river.

I went outside to piss, cold air biting my bare back. The stream behind the shrine gurgled, swollen from the storm. When I returned she was gone. Panic spiked until I spotted her downstream, washing her face with quick, angry splashes. Her movements were precise, ritual, as if scrubbing away evidence.

I approached slowly, boots crunching frost. “Subhadra.”

She flicked water from her fingers without turning. “Don’t.”

I crouched, forearms on thighs, watching current divide around a stone. “The next town is two kos. I’ll give you two hundred gold pieces, a horse, whatever name you want to use. No one will follow.”

Her spine straightened. She looked at me then—really looked—like I’d turned into some creature she couldn’t name. “You’d abandon your mission? Let me ride off while you explain to Yudhishthir how you lost the Yadava alliance?”

“I’d rather explain that than explain to myself why I kept a woman who hates me.”

She laughed, brittle. “I don’t hate you.”

“You don’t like me either.”

She plucked a pebble, hurled it; it clacked against a boulder mid-stream. “I don’t know what I am around you.” Her voice dropped. “Last night I begged for your cock like a common whore. This morning I can’t decide whether to kiss you or kill you. That uncertainty is worse than chains.”

I swallowed. “Then take the gold. Find certainty on your own terms.”

She turned fully, eyes glittering. “You think freedom is a purse and a fast horse? You think I’ve never imagined running? I used to draw maps in Krishna’s ledgers—trade routes, ports, places where a woman can own land. I know exactly where I’d go.” Her chin wobbled. “But I also know what it costs. Your brothers will call you failure. Balarama will call me ruined. My mother will wear white and starve herself for shame.”

I dug the pouch from my belt, set it on the grass between us. The coins clinked, heavy. “Cost is mine to carry, not yours.”

She stared at the pouch as if it might explode. Then, suddenly, she swept it up, weighed it in her palm. “You’d really let me leave?”

“I would.” My chest felt caved in, but the words were steady. “I’d ride back alone, tell them I misjudged the tide, that you slipped away in the storm. They’ll rage, then find another bride. The world won’t end.”

Her fingers tightened around the drawstring. Tears slipped, silent, tracking through the droplets on her cheeks. “I spent my life preparing to be given. No one ever asked what I wanted.”

I stood, giving her my back—an archer’s trust, exposing the spine. “I’m asking now.”

She didn’t speak for a long time. The stream kept moving, indifferent. I listened to her breathing settle, the way it did when she practiced with that little knife—sharp inhale, slow release, like she was lining up a blade with a vein.

Finally she said, “I used to pray for a raid.”

I turned. She was staring at the water, pouch still clenched in her fist.

“A raid?”

“Pirates, mountain bandits, anyone. I imagined them crashing the feast, blood on the marble, torches everywhere. And me—dragged out screaming.” Her mouth twisted. “I’d scream so no one would guess I was grateful. So no one would see I was already halfway in love with the idea of being stolen.”

The admission hung between us, raw as windburn.

She lifted her eyes. “You showed up with your bow and your silence and your stupid noble face, and I hated you because you weren’t a fantasy. You were real, and you saw me.” Her voice cracked on the last word. “You saw the part I’d stopped showing.”

I crouched again, slower this time. “I didn’t know that.”

“Of course you didn’t. Men never do.” She wiped her cheeks with the heel of her hand, angry at the wetness. “But when you said ‘abduction’ on that quay, I felt my heart flip like a fish. I called you bastard because if I’d smiled you might have changed your mind.”

The pouch dropped to the grass. She didn’t notice.

“I’m terrified of Indraprastha,” she said. “But I’m more terrified of anywhere that isn’t with you. That’s the sickness, Arjun. You gave me a door and now my legs won’t walk through it unless you’re holding my wrist.”

I reached, not for her face but for her hand, the one that had just let go of escape. Our palms met, cold to cold. She interlaced her fingers with mine immediately, like she’d rehearsed it in secret.

“Then stay,” I said. “Not as alliance. Not as duty. Stay because we’re both already guilty of wanting this.”

She studied our joined hands, the calluses on my bow-hand, the ink stain she still had from signing Krishna’s tax scrolls. “Equals?” she asked.

“Equals.”

“Co-conspirators?”

“Till someone hangs us.”

A shaky laugh escaped her, half-sob. She used our grip to pull herself up; I rose with her. For the first time since Dwarka she stepped forward voluntarily, chest to chest, and rested her forehead against my collarbone. I felt her exhale, long and unguarded, warming the skin above my heart.

Behind us the stream kept arguing with the stones, but the sound had become ordinary again—background to a choice instead of a dirge. She squeezed my hand once, hard, the way warriors seal oaths before blood is drawn.

I squeezed back. No more maps, no more pouches of gold. Just the two of us, equally ruined, equally saved.

The cabin smelled of cedar and old smoke. One lamp burned, enough to gild the angles of her face while I bolted the door. She stood in the centre, arms loose at her sides, watching me fasten the latch as though the click were a signal rather than a barrier.

I crossed the boards slowly, giving her seconds to shift, to speak, to refuse. She stayed. When I reached her I lifted the first pin from her hair, then the next, the heavy braid uncoiling down her back. My fingers undid it until dark silk spilled over my wrists. I brought a handful to my face, breathing sandalwood and river water.

“Tell me to stop and I stop,” I said.

“I know.” Her voice was low, almost hoarse. “That’s why I won’t.”

I undressed her one garment at a time, palms gliding under cloth, letting it fall. Each exposed inch I kissed—collarbone, the hollow above her breastbone, the soft inside of her elbow that made her shiver. When her breasts were bare I closed my mouth over a nipple, tongue circling until it tightened to a peak against my teeth. She exhaled, a shaky sound, fingers spearing my hair, holding me there.

I knelt. The last length of her sari pooled at her feet. I pressed my face to her stomach, hands curving around the backs of her thighs, parting them. She widened her stance without prompting. I tasted her slowly, one long stroke through slick heat. Her knees buckled; I steadied her hips, kept the pace deliberate, learning what made her breath catch, what made her grind forward, chasing. When I slid two fingers into her she clenched, a broken moan echoing off the timber. I worked her open, mouth steady on her clit, until her thighs trembled and her voice cracked on my name, climax pulsing hot against my tongue.

I rose, wiping my mouth with the back of my wrist. Her eyes were glassy, cheeks flushed. She reached for my belt, unbuckled leather, pushed cloth down until my cock sprang free, hard and aching. A bead of moisture gathered at the tip; she caught it with her thumb, spread it, watching me shudder.

We moved to the cot. I laid her down, spread her thighs wide, settled between them. Entry was slow, deliberate, her heels hooked over my hips, drawing me deeper. She was slick, soft, impossibly tight. When I bottomed out we both stilled, foreheads touching, sharing breath.

Then I moved—long, steady strokes, angle shifting until her gasps sharpened. I slipped a hand between us, thumb circling where we joined. Her second climax rippled through her, inner walls fluttering, dragging me to the edge. I let go, thrusts turning rough, spilling inside her with a groan muffled against her neck.

We stayed locked, sweat cooling, heartbeats slowing. I kissed the corner of her mouth, tasting salt and cedar and the faint iron of bitten lips. She traced my spine with lazy fingers, voice barely a whisper.

“Stay inside me.”

I shifted enough to keep the connection, blanket tugged over our hips. The lamp guttered, shadows dancing across the rafters while sleep pulled at us, bodies still joined, breaths matched, the world outside reduced to skin and choice and the quiet vow that neither of us would ride alone again.

We left the cabin at first light, hooves drumming east. The road widened; traders’ carts and herds of goat blurred past, but inside the chariot it felt as though someone had drawn silk across the world. She sat between my knees on the driver’s plank, back against my chest, my arms bracketing her as I held the reins. No shackles, no barbed silence—just the steady roll of wheels and her hair lifting in my breath.

We spoke in low voices, the way people do when they finally have time. She told me how Krishna used dice games to teach her probability and power, how she’d forged her first seal at twelve to authorise a grain caravan while her mother slept. I told her about the year I lived on forest roots, stringing my bow only to hunt, learning that hunger was a sound inside the skull. She laughed when I admitted I’d named my arrows after stars because the sky was easier to read than people. I laughed when she confessed she’d practised signing marriage decrees on old palm-leaf, practising the moment she would refuse them.

At midday we left the highway, following a cattle track into scrubland. When the sun dropped, we were alone under a bowl of indigo. I unhitched the horses, rubbed them down, then spread my cloak on a flat stretch of grass. No fire; moonlight was enough. She peeled off her bodice herself this time, slow, watching me watch her. My shirt followed. We knelt facing, knees touching, and I traced the faint scar on her ribs—an old fall from a mango tree she’d never told anyone about. She mapped the burn on my shoulder, souvenir from a sacrificial spark that jumped during a fire ritual. Touch became conversation: fingertips asking, skin answering.

I lowered her onto the cloak. Entry was unhurried, her hips tilted, ankles crossing behind me, the slide slick from wanting and from what we’d already spilled hours earlier. We moved like people learning a song by heart, repeating bars until they sing themselves. Her breath hitched; I slowed, circled, pressed deep, waited for the exhale that told me yes, there. When she came it was noiseless, mouth open against my collarbone, pulse fluttering around me. I followed, release drawn out, thick, her palms cradling my skull as if holding the thought inside.

After, we lay on our sides, faces close. I brushed knuckles along her arm, counting gooseflesh. She hooked a leg over mine to keep me inside, not for sex now, just for tether. A meteor scratched white across the dark. She whispered its name like a secret she’d been saving for me. I answered by kissing the corner of her eye, tasting salt and night air. Around us insects stitched quiet seams of sound, and somewhere a horse sighed. We breathed with it, bodies cooling, hearts slowing, the sky indifferent and intimate at once.

The hill commanded the plain like a watch-tower. Below, Indraprastha’s watch-fires stitched gold across the dark, each flame a pair of eyes that would soon judge us. Tomorrow the heralds would shout, the court would measure her by bloodline and me by obedience. Tonight the city was only light, not yet law.

We pitched no tent. The chariot stood empty, horses tethered to a stunted neem. Subhadra spread a wool blanket over last year’s grass and sat on her heels, staring at the glow she was born to rule. I crouched behind, hands on her shoulders, feeling the tremor she refused to name.

“One more mile and we’re property again,” she said.

I answered by opening her choli laces. The cloth parted; night air tightened her nipples. She leaned back into me, skull against my collarbone, letting me strip her until moonlight lay silver across skin. I kept my touch clinical long enough to prove I still could, then let it fracture. Palms closed over her breasts, thumbs dragging across stiffened peaks. She exhaled through her teeth and twisted, reaching for my waistband.

We undressed each other without ceremony, garments tossed beyond the blanket. Naked, she pushed me down, straddled my thighs, hand closing around my cock. She gave one slow stroke, root to crown, spreading the bead that had already gathered. I lifted her by the hips, angling her above me; she sank, deliberate, until I was seated to the hilt. Her head fell forward, hair curtaining us both.

She began to ride, knees grinding into the blanket, pace hard enough that our joined flesh slapped. I met her downward drives with upward thrusts, hands clamped on her waist, guiding the rhythm she set. Sweat broke across her chest; I licked a drop from between her breasts, salt and smoke. When her breath fractured I slipped a thumb between us, pressed her clit in tight circles. She came with a choked cry, inner muscles clamping, hips stuttering. The pulse around me dragged my own climax up my spine; I spilled inside her, thrusts turning ragged, groan muffled against her throat.

She collapsed forward, chest to chest, my cock still half-hard inside her. I rolled us, staying joined, and hooked an arm under her knee, opening her wider. The second rhythm was slower but deeper, each stroke grinding against the wet mess we’d already made. She bit my shoulder to stay quiet, teeth breaking skin. When she climaxed again I followed, cock jerking, filling her until spend leaked onto the blanket beneath.

After, I stayed inside, forehead pressed to hers. The city lights blinked, indifferent witnesses. She whispered, “Remember this when they call me treaty.” I answered by flexing once, still buried, a silent vow that tonight’s shape of us would outlast every seal and scroll.

Dawn bled pale gold across the plain as we rolled the last mile. I kept the horses to a walk; every hoof-beat shortened the distance between what we had been and what we would become. Subhadra’s hand rested on my thigh, fingers unconsciously kneading muscle through the travel-stained dhoti. Neither of us spoke. The city gates rose—sandalwood planks bound in iron, banners snapping with the Pandava crest. Guards snapped to attention, eyes flicking from my face to the woman at my side.

I swung down first, boots hitting dust. Instead of lifting her like loot, I reached up, palm open. She placed her hand in mine and stepped onto the earth of Indraprastha unaided, sari hem brushing my ankle. Her chin lifted; the same gesture that had once been defiance now looked like ownership of the moment. I laced our fingers, knuckles whitening, and walked the straight avenue my brothers had cleared.

They waited on the palace porch: Yudhishthira in white, Bhima massive and scowling, Nakula and Sahadeva flanking like matched blades. Courtiers pressed behind them, a rustle of silk and speculation. I felt Subhadra’s pulse jump against my wrist, but her stride never faltered.

Ten paces out I stopped. The silence was a living thing, hungry for explanation. I drew breath, tasting road dust and the faint salt of her skin still on my tongue.

“This is Subhadra,” I said, voice carrying without shout. “Daughter of Vasudeva, sister of Krishna, and my wife.”

A collective inhale rippled through the assembly. Betrothal contracts, dowry scrolls, alliance clauses—everyone heard them crack like dry kindling in that single sentence. Yudhishthira’s eyes narrowed, reading the clasp of our hands, the set of her shoulders, the mark my teeth had left visible just above her collarbone when the wind moved her veil. Politics rearranged itself behind his gaze, calculations reforming around the simple fact that could not be negotiated: she had arrived, and I had claimed her in the open.

Bhima’s brow furrowed, ready to demand the story, but Subhadra spoke first.

“I come of my own will,” she said, clear as temple bells. “And by the rite of marriage, witnessed by road and river and sky.”

She turned to me then, public yet intimate, and for the space of a heartbeat the court vanished. Only the two of us remained, bound by memory of rain-soaked cloth, river squalls, the taste of sex and freedom. I squeezed her hand once—promise, not reassurance—and led her up the steps past the stunned rows of ministers. Behind us the gates groaned shut, sealing the city and sealing us, the alliance now flesh instead of parchment, the abduction rewritten into vow.