Shadow Seer [18+]

~ Sixteen ~

When Amir returned, he was clean. He wore a black robe over his bare chest and soft skinned slippers on his feet. His face, chest and hands were clean of blood and his hair hung damp around his shoulders. Sanaa struggled to breathe at the sight of him, her core clenching in a way that was still so unfamiliar. She cleared her throat as she stood up, desperate to be away from him while aching to stay. With a swipe of his hand, Amir snuffed out the candles in the room, cloaking them once more in the hush of night. When his shadows opened the door to the tunnels, he gestured for her to walk through. She obeyed.

Amir and Sanaa walked in silence in the dark but she trusted him to know the way. Her sense of time was completely lost, not just in the tunnels, but for the entire evening. She opened her mouth to ask him,

"How long have I been away?"

"It's after three in the morning," he answered, walking so confidently in the barely lit tunnel she wouldn't be surprised if he could see in the dark. "I told the guards I'd returned you to your rooms myself. They believe you're safe."

"Am I not?" she asked softly. She saw his head move in the soft glow of the candle he carried. "Safe, I mean."

"Perhaps," he replied but she didn't bother to push. She let the silence drag for a moment before she asked another question, "Do you know who attacked your father? I assumed it was Bashaii."

Amir took a shuddering breath, preparing to answer, but words didn't immediately follow. She didn't want to pry, but any information about the attack and whether Ghassan would make it was paramount to her freedom.

"Bashaii is in a state of mourning. They cannot retaliate while they grieve."

So not Bashaii. "And when they've finished grieving, will they come for you?"

"Most likely."

"Good," she thought she'd mumbled the retort, but when Amir whirled on her, it was clear he'd heard.

In the thick darkness that stretched around them, Amir came close enough to her that his eyes blazed out of his face, a poisonous green that would haunt her nightmares if she let it. The candle he'd been holding was by his side, the wax having burned down considerably since they'd left his room. She realised then that he didn't need the light to see her or his way through these tunnels. He'd only been using it for her benefit.

"What do you think will happen when enemies storm in here, ready to take all of my father's possessions?"

"Does it matter if they get their revenge?"

"If you have to ask that, Sanaa, I worry about your intelligence." Sanaa ignored the way her name on his lips made her feel. Her eyes narrowed, "Did you just call me stupid? Again!"

"If the shoe fits," he snapped. Sanaa bristled, angry. "You want so much for Bashaii or anyone to enter these walls with no thought to what that will mean for you?"

"Bashaii deserves their vengeance. You beheaded their queen, you killed their princess after allowing your father's men to rape her!"

"And what do you think invaders will do to you?" Amir hissed, stepping so close to her now that her neck tilted to maintain eye contact with him. His brows were knotted, his green eyes alight with fury. "Do you know what they do to women during war? If you did, you wouldn't be so quick to find worse evils than my father."

"There are no worse evils than your father!" she shouted, believing it. "He tore me from my family, my home when I was a child and now wishes to violate me in a sham of a marriage. What could be worse than that?"

"Torture, gang rape and, oh yes, death!" Sanaa went silent. "My father's enemies don't know you're not complicit in his warmongering, they don't know you're held here against your will. They'll rape and kill you faster than you could blink should they ever get their hands on you. Is that worth it just so I get punished?"