All I Need ✔️

Chapter 93

Safania's POV

I woke up gasping for air.

"Saffy, it's okay, you're okay," a familiar voice said.

"Where is Cassius? I need Cassius," I said, looking around frantically. My eyes settled on Emalina in the corner of the room, her face lined with concern.

"He's at the fort Saffy. Remember?"

Right. I did remember. He was with my mother, Ari, Alton...all of them were at the fort preparing to march on Peria. They had taken the fort easily, with no casualties. But one person had escaped.

Edward.

I closed my eyes, trying to shake the thoughts out of my head, but all I could hear was Edward's voice. I shuddered.

"Safania? Stay with us okay?" 

The different voice startled me. I looked up to see Iris sitting alongside my bed, looking at me with concern.

"Iris?"

She smiled warmly. "Maria is incapacitated, so I'm here to fill in. Though, I have to admit, my talents have always been more on the side of causing nightmares than alleviating them. So let's hope you don't need me. How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," I told her, trying to smile.

"I can also detect lies," she reminded me gently. "Not like I need to when you're that bad of a liar. You don't have to talk about it. But don't pretend for our sakes."

I nodded.

"What do you want to eat?" Iris asked, changing the subject.

"Nothing," I replied, my stomach rolling with nausea. She looked at me disapprovingly.

"Safania, think about the baby."

Right. The baby needed me to eat. I nodded reluctantly. "Whatever everyone else is having is fine."

"I'll get it Iris," Emalina said, standing to leave. "In the meantime, you should probably write Prince Cassius back," she told me. "I wrote him about your episode..."

"You did what??"

"I had to Saffy," Emalina told me, sighing. "You've been out for a whole day. If he didn't hear back from us before now, he would have thought something happened to us."

A whole day...I was shocked. It only felt like a few hours. While Emalina retrieved breakfast, Iris helped me move slowly from the bed to the desk so I could write to Cassius. But once I had paper and ink in front of me, I completely blanked.

"What do I say?" I muttered, meaning it as a rhetorical question. Iris didn't take it as one.

"You tell him you love him, silly girl," Iris said. "And try to calm him down because he's probably getting ready to set everything on fire, if he hasn't already. That man cares about you so much. You should have seen him when we rescued him and left you behind."

I realized I had never heard anyone else's perspective of Cassius while I had been stuck in the Perian dungeon - Cassius told me it was the hardest thing he ever had to do, but that's all I knew.

"What was he like?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

"Furious. Devastated. Relentless," Iris said, remembering. "And keep in mind I slept for four days after we left to recover from the illusion I did, so I probably missed the worst of it. We had to keep him under constant surveillance because he kept trying to ride back to Peria to rescue you. When he finally gave up on that, he kept coming up with different ways to rescue you. At least 30 of them, one of which we were actually going to use, if we had gotten there before your friends. Cassius would do anything for you Safania. He would die in a heartbeat for you if it came to it."