Tiyasha walked towards Blikrot, head bowed, the cursed sword belittled in her palms, not looking back towards the man she loved, the man who had hit her, thrown her to the cold soil.

She walked, rage, shame, guilt, love, all jumbled up in her mind, a tempest of emotions storming inside of her.

As she walked towards the man who had destroyed her family, she thought, in blurred images, of what she had done. How she had lain, awake, the seeds of hatred cluttering in her brain...how she had sneaked out the Capture-Painting and the Shadowblade, how she had shed her blood...

When she had done it, she had wished Shivam dead. Back then, she could no longer accept the fact that Shivam had kissed her and then tossed her to the ground. But now, as she took small but firm steps towards Blikrot and his Infernos, some sense began to come back to her burning brain. She would hand over the Shadowblade...but that was to only ensure that Shivam would give up this idea of finding a dragon and turning it into a girl. Shivam was hers now. Hers. Last night's kiss had decided that, at least. And she will do what she had to do to ensure it.

The sharpness of these thoughts blurred again, as tears fogged up her eyes. "I love you, Shivam. Once and forever, my love for you is pure, independent of whatever happens now," she whispered, too inaudibe for anyone to hear.

***

"Well, I must say, I am surprised," Blikrot said, looking at the approaching witch, her black saree rippling ever so slightly in the breeze. "Looks like I was hurried in forming my opinions about witches. Welcome, lady, to the Infernos."

The witch handed him the Shadowblade, which had reduced to the shape of a knife in her hands. As soon as Blikrot grabbed its grip, though, it expanded, smoke-like at first, then forming into a sharp blade of silver colour. In Blikrot's hand, the Shadowblade grew longer than it had in Shivam's.

The neon-blue armour also appeared and latched itself on Blikrot's figure. "Impressive," he said, satisfied. "Powerful," he said again, moving the sword in practiced manuevers.

"Kill the rest," Blikrot commanded the Infernos, and gestured towards Shivam, Arthur, and Josh.

***

Tiyasha. She was the one who had betrayed them, not Arthur. Shivam still had trouble getting his head around the fact, even as he saw, with his own eyes, Tiyasha handing over the Shadowblade to Blikrot. Why had she done it? Why had she betrayed them all to Blikrot? Had his behavior really been so bad that Tiyasha decided not only to ensure his death, but Arthur's and Josh's death as well?

It made no sense. Absolutely no sense at all. Tiyasha wasn't a stupid woman. She could have hit him back last night if she had wamted. But she didn't. Then why alert Blikrot about their whereabputs? What did she hope to achieve by doing so? Yet in front of his eyes, the Shadowblade formed itself in Blikrot's hands and the magic armour came.

"Why?" He asked Tiyasha, but his voice was drowned out by Blikrot's command.

"Kill the rest," he said.

***

As the Infernos started moving towards Shivam, Tiyasha finally broke her silence and spoke.

"Emperor Blikrot..." she said.

"Yes, my beauty?" Blikrot said, completely absorbed in the newly acquired sword.

"Take your sword, but please leave them alone, sir. They cannot harm you without the Shadowblade," Tiyasha muttered, softly so that only Blikrot could hear.

"It does not work like that," Blikrot said.

Tiyasha sighed. "Well, then. Skulls of Hecate, I conju..."

Tiyasha didn't get the chance to complete the invocation.

In a smooth sweep, Blikrot slit open her throat by using the Shadowblade.

***

As the Infernos began advancing towards them, Shivam saw that Tiyasha was speaking in the ears of Blikrot. Conspiring? Seducing? Begging? What could she have to say to the man who had killed her family, and burned her town?

Arthur clapped his hands, and a spear made up of bright white light formed in his hands. "Don't just stand there! Get ready to fight!" Arthur's voice boomed.

Shivam looked around him uncertainly. He understood he had to fight, but with what? How?

And then he saw that Josh had picked up some stones and was getting ready to chuck them at the Infernos. For some reason, that broke Shivam's heart. He realized that this time, there was no escape, no turning back. No one would come to their rescue now.

Shivam looked at Arthur again, and found that he was glaring at him. "I will protect Josh with every drop of blood that I have," he said, stepping forward. "I cannot allow myself to become a villain in the eyes of a kid."

Shivam stepped forward too, and saw how casually Blikrot slit open Tiyasha's throat.

"NO!" He screamed.

***

'Shivam will never know,' Tiyasha thought, as she died. As her breathing stopped and the blood drenched her saree, she could only think of her mistake, her blunder made in anger...but Shivam had driven her to it...or had he?

This is the unseen price, Tiyasha realized, dropping to her knees. Her fate had been sealed back when she had brought Shivam back to life...Shivam, her love.

Tiyasha fell to the ground, again, remembering last night. She thought she could still feel Shivam in her lips. What had she done? Had she really...?

"Don't forgive me...but don't forget me," she thought she should say.

But didn't. For she died before that.

**********

Author's Note

*******************

Yes friends Tiyasha is no more with us :-(

But I have promised one of my most consistent readers, @ShumeazMadden that Tiyasha won't fade to the background in the end of the story.

And I promised that because I know she won't. We won't see her again for the rest of the book (about 13 chapters remain), and there can't be a ReRaising Ritual to bring her back, but she won't fade to the background.

I can't allow that, and she doesn't deserve that.