Disclaimer: I do not own A Great And Terrible Beauty. PLEASE DON'T SUE ME!

Prologue

Kartik stood at the window, gazing out at the marketplace, chiding himself for looking, but not able to take his eyes away, just in case. Just in case she appeared, winding her way through the streets of Bombay. Just in case she was still out there. Just in case she had escaped.

Just in case she came back. That she would still want to come back.

They had made a desperate run for it… what was it? A year ago now? Two? He could not even remember anymore. All he knew was that he and Gemma had found themselves in danger, and had had to abandon their old way of life, and England altogether.

They had escaped. Barely. Stowed away on a ship bound for India. Going home. The farthest place they could think to go. So far away that they could pretend, if just for a little while, that they were safe. That nothing was wrong. That the world was as it should be.

Which it was. For now. But for how long?

They had found a place in Bombay. It was small and cramped, but it was home. He had helped Gemma as she had struggled to regain her strength, had felt his feelings for her grow into love. Perhaps it had caught him more off guard than it should have, but it felt so right, and when everything was going so wrong…

The Temple had been destroyed. A battle had raged in the realms, and they had lost. Now the magic was truly unleashed, there for anyone to use, to be corrupted by. And there was no way to stop it.

How long before it reached their world? How long could they run from their past?

Not long enough. Kartik had discovered that the hard way one day as he was returning home and he had been set upon by a group of men. They had knocked him out, held him for days, torturing him, physically and mentally until he could not stand it anymore. They had laughed as they had broken him, torturing him further with tales of what they would do to Gemma once they found her. And they would find her now. Because of him. All because of him.

He rested his forehead against the windowpane, his eyes blurring with the strain of picking out faces in the crowded marketplace below. He had failed her. Miserably. Unforgivably.

The moment they had released him, he had rushed home, but, of course, they had already reached it first. She was gone. And he didn't know how to go on without her, knowing she was out there somewhere, going through unspeakable things, all because he had been pathetically weak.

He finally tore himself away from the window. He had to find her. That was it. He needed to get out of this hole—because that was what it felt like without Gemma there to brighten it—and start searching. That was all he could do.

He would find her. And hope that she could forgive him.

A/N: Ah, my first AGATB fanfic. The prologue is short, sorry. If y'all like it, I'll write more. My prologue's are always short. XD