Hi!
So the ice king is here to take his bow. Do wish him farewell and enjoy the chapter which I hope you will do.

Are not caterpillars and butterflies sisters of same blood? But a butterfly is soft and innocent, colorful that their slight is welcome, they are sympathized and protected. They do not hurt the flower they feed on.  A caterpillar on the other and is disastrous, its hair poisonous and it feeds on the precious green in a garden, eat them away heartlessly. Do not the same people who love butterflies take measures to eliminate the caterpillars that threaten their plants? Are not they disgusted and thrown away?
They tend to forget the every butterfly has gone through a phase of being a caterpillar, but sometimes not every caterpillar turns in to a butterfly, the circumstance around them turns in to some twisted mutants too. The same had happened with Ragini.
The person she had fallen for did not reciprocate her love. But why, was he in love with another? Um, well. No. He was trying to be the king of his family’s empire. It was the throne he was in love with. As a king he could not fall in love with anyone but a queen right?
Years ago his brother was presented with the same logic. But he was made of different stuff, he choose his love over the glittering crown that would have well suited him. Ragini was not left with a choice. To attain a king’s love she had to turn herself in to a queen. Today, after finally making the mighty Durga Prasad bow in front of her in gratitude to the feat he thinks she had performed she had attained that.
He wanted to be a king right? She would crown him, no matter what she may have to fight against. After all in the pursuit of love she had reduced Maheshwari fortress in to dust, was there anything she was not capable of?
She had been right about Sanskar, he had eventually crumbled back. Although she had managed to conceal a certain part of truth he had come to realize that his assumptions about Durga Prasad were wrong. Her plan B, came to rescue as he refused to move ahead with his plan. After all, his devices were synced with hers, she came to know everything that pen drive contained the very moment he opened it. Sanskar may not have worked out yet what a game she had played. Before his retaliation, she had time to tie a few more loose ends.
Around her, in the present was the room decorated for her wedding night. But, around her soul was the tight wrapped coldness that came with Laksh’s rejection. He had left a moment ago, after closing the door behind him, saying he married her to save their falling empire…there was no feelings attached.
He had apologized whole heartedly for using her like this, but he could do anything for his father, anything for his family. He had already accepted Swara in his life, it would take him a long time to come out of her betrayal, to come in term with the twists his life had taken…to find strength to love again. At present he trusted her, more than anything and had faith that she would understand him, would give him space and be his friend until he heals.
What could have she said? Ragini cried in depression. Swara, her sister the butterfly! When would her ghost leave her life? She took a long breath, there were times when she shattered, but this was different.
After playing with everything she had, she would not let her sister sweep away the winning. Blood must be spilled if it ever comes to that. For this was the last day of the battle.
She came out of the room stealthily, no one noticed her as there seemed to be a commotion going on. They were talking about hospitalizing Durga Prasad. Ragini rolled her eyes. SK would have been happy. But she was not sure of Sanskar’s reaction. There was only one thing she could do for the old man; she could send him a companion on his journey towards heaven.
*
The city below the glass wall of his penthouse was ever so cheerful, earlier he had envied the sight, now…he felt disconnected with it. The glittering lights had a mocking sort of aura to them, as if laughing at his completely shattered self. What had he been doing for the past five years? Chasing a mirage that he had imagined himself; was that what he had done? As understanding seeped through his veins like some slow attacking poison, venomously criticizing his own actions, wickedly replaying his worst memories and eating his sanity away, he kept glaring at his reflection on the darkened glass through blurred eyes rimmed with burning tears that threatened to escape, trying hard to block the voices that rang through his head, trying hard to empty his mind. On the same time he couldn’t quite comprehend the pain his heart was wrenching through, he wanted to put that moment far away, push it away from him as far as possible so that the moment to go through those painful realizations may never come. He was not examining that reflection to remind himself of his task but to realize what his miss-judgment had done to his soul.
Then slowly footsteps approached, he knew who it was even before her reflection joined his in the dark glass. It was Ragini, still in her bridal, looking slightly windswept but otherwise her usual impassive self. He ignored her, although his jaw tightened a little at her sight.
‘Aren’t you going to curse me?’ She said in her low innocent voice. ‘I’ve double crossed you on the last step of our war, still you won’t attack me?’
‘I feel like murdering you,’ Sanskar agreed. ‘But the fact that you had to come here on your wedding night, the fact that even after attaining your so called fairy tale ending you’re as lonely as I am, satisfies me. Still, I have to ask this Ragini, why? What was the need to do this?’
His facts made her frown faintly. The change it brought to her features was not pleasant. But however her tone remained impassive. Gently she took his injured hand in hers, and tied her handkerchief around the wound, softly. Sanskar winced at her touch, her fingers were so cold. Then she looked up at him.
‘If you know me so well SK, you might know the answer to that question as well. Those who have nothing to lose and everything to gain don’t hesitate like you did. You wouldn’t have made that last stroke, even the idea frightened me, so I had to take your sword and make the last blow myself.’
Sanskar gave her a faint smile.
‘All this time I thought you were my pawn. I even repulsed myself for using such an innocent, in such a cruel game. But no, neither are you the doll I was under the impression you are and neither am I the player here.’ He turned to face her and his eyes bored in to hers. ‘You’re the queen; I unknowingly become your huntsman to kill Snow white right?’
‘Yes,’ her voice was a little more than a whisper. She placed a hand on the cold glass and sighed. ‘But as the queen did I later realized the huntsman would never kill Snow White, so I had to play myself.’
Something, almost like a flash of fear crossed Sanskar’s face.
‘What did you do?’
‘Although you know half of it, let me start at the beginning. I have synced my devices with yours. The moment you opened the pen drive, I knew what was in there. Then you opened the microchip, you realized that Kavita had other enemies, you realized Durga Prasad was not the culprit…and I, I was frightened. I knew you would not take the last step, instead you would rush to their aid if I tried to, and so I had to take measure.’
She stopped and breathed.
‘I made Durga Prasad believe you are trying to overtake him, when in fact it was I who passed those information, I used the plan we had made earlier and trapped Swara for the entire blame, but I also made sure you get trapped in there with her. My father rose to help the Maheshwaris against the fall, to merge our shares Laksh had to marry me…’
She stopped again.
‘He wanted to be a king, I wanted him. Now I am a queen and he’s a king as long as he is with me. He can’t leave me like he kept doing, I am his destiny. But no, Snow White is still alive, the mirror tells me. I am not a queen as long as she lives, no matter how distanced she is from the palace, she’s still the queen. No, I can’t let that happen.’
This time she did not stop, instead Sanskar grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently. She watched him with her innocently big eyes and the impassive expression.
‘If I don’t get a second chance you won’t either,’ she said. ‘I killed her,’ then she laughed, as if some silly joke was going on. The laughter did not suite her serene persona; it had a cold edge to it. ‘‘I gave her a drug laced with poison and pushed her off that bridge she kept visiting, off she went… to the place especially meant for people like her…heaven!’
*
The possibility of death is the best trigger for mind. Swara had read so, somewhere. The idea had some truth to it. She realized as she felt her almost foggy brain, being filled with memories and her overworking mind analyzing each situation. The mistake of the Trojans was taking the Trojan horse inside their fortress. Her mistake had been trust; her trust in various people had led her to this situation. Had she not come to meet Ragini, she would not be dangling from a bridge in the middle of the night, her sense going in and out of focus.
‘It’s a paralyzing drug,’ Ragini had told her.
True, the feeling of her body was slowly fainting. The hold she had on which her life depended was slipping as her fingers turned numb. The night air, swept past her, the river growled angrily below her and above the stars were no longer as clear as they had been. In a steak of cold fear her nose started to bleed.
Sanskar, was the first painful thought that came to her mind. How ruthless had his game been? Had he ever, ever felt any remorse? Had he ever genuinely felt the friendship she considered worthy above her life? Had there ever been an ounce of truth in his antics?
Ragini, the goddess like sister! When had she turned in to the monster who could even take a life? How could she so wittily play such a game? How did she manage to wear her serene mask all the time? Had she shared the others’ opinion about her sister, hated her just like her father and Dadi?
Laksh, was there ever a time when he truly love her? If so, how could he turn his back to her so quickly and so bluntly? How could he not trust her to this extent? Or was it the place she held in his family that triggered his affections?
Her surrounding had gone completely silent, and her eyes were heavy with their hazy vision. Her toes, legs were already numb and one of her hands slipped. She wanted to scream, but realized with a jolt that her throat no longer abided her command. Slowly, as she knew it would happen, the fingers of her other hand too started to slip.
At least her senses would be gone soon. She might not feel the suffocation as she drowned. The tips of her fingers still hanging, she managed to let a low yell, it turned in to a whisper out of her mouth. Who would hear that?
Finally the fingers slipped, completely. She closed her eyes waiting for the cold water to embrace her, no, it did not come.
Instead, someone caught her wrist, and pulled her upwards.
It was that comfortable, familiar embrace that surrounded her, warm against her numb coldness. He was the only inseparable thing in her life, it seemed. Her hands with the faint life left in them, rested against his chest. She could feel his heat beat and the warmth of life there, even against her better judgment she felt protected. This was not SK, but Sanskar.
‘Shona?’
‘I don’t want to die,’ she whispered, before the utter darkness surrounded her.
Her brain was not completely shut down. She could feel him shaking her. She was not sure what his purpose of coming was. Perhaps he came to see if Ragini’s attempt was a success or not. But he was the only one she would ever humble herself and ask for something. She had learned a long time ago, that he was the only one who had a potential of fulfilling her wishes. And she wished to live, to be granted with life.
He kissed her forehead that was the last thing she remembered. Her wish was granted.
*
The two of them had been in this journey together, for so many years to be exact. But as in all battles, the victory had to be obtained through treachery. Ragini looked around herself. None of the eyes here in this hall had the ability to look in to her soul, to know exactly what ran in that devil mind of hers underneath this mask of innocence. With such a thought, one could say she missed Sanskar, her commander of arms all through the emotional bloodshed they did. It was her wedding reception, in other words the first celebration of her sweet victory. But none of the faces that mattered to her was smiling.
Lakshya looked torn between mourning his own fate and cursing Swara a worst fate. Annapurna was not even here as Durga Prasad had not regained his consciousness yet. The others, even in the darkest of times were here for her and had organized the event yet were in no mood to celebrate the occasion. After all it was not a union of two souls who were in love; it was simply a contract between two families who were in desperate need of each other. 
Had her father did not put the condition of her marriage to Lakshya in order to agree to the merger, she would not have been standing here.
In the joyous atmosphere that looked mismatching to her current state of mind, her thought back to the moment Sanskar opened that Microchip and the video was automatically shared with her.
But then again, this was already a story she knew. But listening to it addressed to Sanskar in Kavita’s own words woke an unsettling emotion of fear inside her.
‘If all went well and we’re still together at the end of the day it would be I who empty this Omamori. But since you’re watching this video it means it didn’t go as planned. Sanskar, I am so sorry for keeping you in darkness for so long. But trust me when I say this I do love you…An infinite amount and I did this for your own safety.
I’m sure growing up with a widowed mother is a feeling although you don’t know you can imagine. But think of knowing the reason for all your mother’s tears you witnessed was not god’s will. Yes, my father was murdered and now I know it for sure.
Remember I told you he used to be a journalist? He was an honest man and this led to his doom. He had been uncovering some illegal transactions connected to a certain constructing company. He had evidence that would shake some high chairs at their director board. Before he could publish what he had unearthed, they sealed his fate.
I have recovered that evidence, and right before our wedding tomorrow I’m going to hand them over to an old friend of my father’s. He had helped me get this far and had protected me in your absence. I’m sure he would see the end of what my father had started.
If he does by any chance betray me, I will be in a grave danger. That evidence and a way of obtaining them are somewhere within your reach… Yes, I have given them to Ragini the night I did not manage to see you. I’m sure by now she has given you that note. The link for the Google drive will answer your questions.’
Here Ragini had stopped watching, knowing that her commander will instantly switch loyalties she had gone to her plan B. 
Although Sanskar will not fight alongside her, she was sure he will not be accepted in to the other party as well. He had hurt them far too deep, that forgiveness would come so easily. Leaving her would be him leaving the entire battle. The castle was hers at last.
She had successfully sent both Siya and Ram to the exile. Now was the time to enfold Kaikai. Her mission does not end with her being the queen but it would end when Lakshya would be the king bowed down by Durga Prasad.
After a long while of thought she smiled. The game was going exactly her way. Durga Prasad will not wake up to this chaos, instead when he wake up it will be their reign. Meanwhile his wife with his power of attorney will be her new pawn.
She smiled once more.
Oh, Kavita. Her favorite person in the world! She had given her the commander she needed. Also she will now give her the army she wants. If that construction company wants to survive the storm in her hands they will have to kneel at her feet. Or she knew exactly where that evidence should be sent.
She smiled again.
No, Sanskar or Swara will be able to save the Maheshwaris this time. She was protected by their own walls and their own name; no traitor will be able to snatch her crown. Or stop her from crowning her husband. This is the last bow.
*
The glass of the ICU reflected his image exactly as broken as he left inside. Sanskar’s brain had stopped seeing through his eyes, unable to take the sight of her fighting for life anymore. Still he glared at his own reflection in the dark glass door. Pain, it is a different kind of a drug, that numbs the rest of the feelings and fill your insides with lava of agony that neither burns you to dust nor cool off. It simply throbs against every cell of your being, wrap itself around you soul and torture you for the whole time you keep breathing.
Sanskar could still feel her cold skin against him, as he carried her to the hospital, hear the sound of her faint yet determined breathing, see the weak flattering of her eyelashes as they tried to open up and sense no matter how hard he prayed the life was fainting inside her. He had somehow survived Kavita’s departure but he realized in that night of white hot agony he would not see the day where the world was empty of Swara. The mere thought was poisonous.
‘Sanskar?’
The moment he had feared was here.
‘Dida?’
It had been many years since they met. Her hair had turned further gray and there were new lines in her face. But the twinkle in her wise eyes was still the same. In a fragment of a second Sanskar recalled warmer evenings spent in her affectionate company, the crunchy smell of the snacks she backed for them or the jokes they shared. The ghost of their childish laughter and her booming older one rang in his ears.
He folded his shaking hands with a bow.
‘Don’t hate me please,’ it was all he could utter, after all how could he ask for forgiveness for all the hideous deeds he had let happen.
He had never completely understood Shobha as a person. He could have never imagined her actions either. In the next moment she gripped his shoulder.
‘She’s going to make it!’ she said in a firm tone. ‘Don’t let the thought eat you up.’
‘But,’
‘Sanskar it’s not my place to forgive you or hate you. You haven’t wronged me… Let Shona wake up let her decide. Meanwhile keep an eye on the monster you’ve unleashed, you are the only one who can defeat it.’
‘What?’
‘Ragini.’ she said shortly. ‘Durga Prasad’s power of attorney in Annapurna’s hand with Ragini around is not my idea of the ideal climax.’
‘How did you know this Dida?’
‘Why? Shoumi was the lawyer who made those documents.’ She smiled a little. ‘You owe that man something Sanskar, at least try to save his fortress in his absence.’
‘I have lost my right to enter the place Dida.’
‘Oh, there are ways of reclaiming right. Ragini thinks she is the queen of Maheshwaris. But there is something she is overlooking. To be a queen you must marry a king.’
Her words were followed by a wistful pause. Sanskar turned around and glanced at his reflection once more. For a mere eye he stood at the end, but something inside him was telling that this was just the beginning. With a jolt he realized that even though he had an urge to outturn Ragini, it was nothing like the cold hatred he felt earlier. The frozen binds around his soul had somewhat melted in that lava of agony. He took a breath and felt the warmth of that gulp of air seep through his insides.
That warmth did not come from the atmosphere. Instead it came from the thought of Swara’s survival, the thought of talking to her once more, the thought of earning her forgiveness one day. In simple words, the warmth came from thinking about her and in the coming few days he had a lot of that to do.
*
And the Snow Queen is unleashing the winter. Do pay her a visit if you wish to know what will be their fates beyond this point.
This is the last part of the ice king and I hope it was up to your expectations. If you have any doubts feel free to ask me. If you’re disappointed with the turn of events I am really sorry.
For one last time in the thread of ice king, write down what you feel about the chapter, I am still keen to know.
Thanks for reading.