Kissed by Chaos

Kissed by Chaos (29) - Weakness

Kissed by Chaos

Chapter 29 - Weakness

Finally, Raafi gave into his greatest weakness. After what seemed like aeons of resistance and waiting, his heart accepted it with open arms.

In that moment, the only two people that existed in that cruel, cruel world were him and Claire. Just the both of them, allowed to be together for a few rare moments that Raafi knew he would carry with him for the rest of his life.

Claire’s resolve was so strong that Raafi thought maybe he had read it all wrong. Maybe she did not yearn quietly for him as he did. Maybe those glances had only been that – glances, and not something more. Maybe she was pining for a gallant knight waiting for her at home. But finally, that seemingly unbreakable resolve shattered into a million pieces before his eyes. He watched the internal storm raging inside Claire through her eyes until all of a sudden, she closed her eyes for a brief moment that seemed like an eternity. When her eyes opened, she was already in Raafi’s arms.

He felt like laughing and crying at the same time. Why had this moment come to them now, when the world around them was crumbling into pieces in front of their eyes? Why hadn’t Claire arrived, with her enchanting eyes and stubbornness in tow, earlier in his life when he did not face the prospect of having to marry a woman he barely knew? But Raafi knew that he should have been thankful for meeting Claire at this time of his life. Only God knew what would have replaced Claire, but Raafi guessed it must have been something close to insanity.

Despite how hard Raafi was trying to hold Claire to this world, she was clearly clinging to the last threads of reality. Her entire body was shivering uncontrollably, as if she had just walked in from the furthest ends of the earth and not the sweltering Arabian desert. Her breathing came in frantic gasps almost as though she were choking. Though Raafi did not want to break the moment, he knew that they had to answer to the world outside waiting to close in on them.

“Claire?” he said yet again. “Please Claire, answer me. You have to-”

The almost silent reply cut him off. “Elisabeth,” Claire whispered into his shoulder.

“What happened to Elisabeth?” he asked, a rock of anxiousness settling in his gut. Just today, he had been talking to Sami about Elisabeth. What could have happened to that headstrong girl to put Claire in such a state? What had Claire seen?

“D-dunya took her. And m-maybe… maybe sh-she’s dead. Her body was in Mother's room... but it was not really her body, and the d-dagger..." Claire stammered almost unintelligibly.

Raafi glanced over at Susannah hunched over on the floor, her body shaking with the force of the sobs still ripping from her body. The only other time he had seen Susannah in such a state was the day she had found out the witch hunts had begun in Europe. Even then, she had managed to pull herself together. Now, as she tugged at her hair and coughed out meaningless words, Susannah was unrecognizable. Her wisdom was nowhere to be found. She was nothing but a mother who had lost one of her children for the second time.

Gently, Raafi took his arms away from Claire and walked over to Susannah. He pulled her up into a standing position and said, “We will find Elisabeth, Susannah.” He vaguely remembered making the same promise to another parent who now paced another room, waiting for his daughter. Had that been years ago?

He called over one of the guards at the end of the hallway. “Take her to her room and ensure that she has something to eat,” Raafi instructed the guard in Arabic. The guard only raised his eyebrows at Claire’s shivering form, then wordlessly guided Susannah back to her quarters.

With a wave of the hand, Raafi dismissed the guard’s partner so that nobody would be able to hear the next words that would be exchanged between him and Claire. Obediently, the guard receded into the shadows and out of sight.