Sapphire Flame

TEN

Sapphire Flame  -  Yasmeen J.

   What. The. Hell. Was. I. Thinking? she repeated over and over again in her head. She shifted and fidgeted anxiously as she stood by Griffin's side high on the platform where his throne sat. She watched as dozens of people swarmed into the room dressed extravagantly and mingling with one another.

   "Are these the survivors?" she wondered aloud, but hoped not, as it would be idiotic of him to put the rest of the ones who weren't slaughtered in the crossfire of the coming confrontation. Also, she doubted anyone would still look that happy in the aftermath of such a grim situation.

   "Of course not. Everyone you see here is a trained warrior. Nothing but the best from both realms," he explained. "A mix of my regiment and Akantha's best assassins."

   She still felt uneasy about it. But she did see them take their time planning this out so it reassured her that things would go their way and their way alone. It'd also been three days since, so she had time to think to herself and recover from the horror she'd seen, but she unfortunately still couldn't unsee it.

   Griffin's hand unexpectedly wrapped around hers. 

   "It's going to be okay. Relax." 

   She craned her neck to look up at those concerned silver eyes.

   "I wanna believe that... I just don't."

   Val came up and mumbled something to him.

   "I'll be right back." 

   He let go of her and walked away to handle whatever he needed to.

   Val had her hair down in a beautiful mess and wore tight leather jeans with a leather jacket over a simple black shirt. She was tall for a woman, standing at a height of 5'8 next to her.

   "About Ryker the other day..."

   "It's okay, you don't have to apologize for him... Plus, he wasn't wrong anyway."

   "I wasn't going to apologize for him. In fact, I was going to acknowledge how much of an asshole he was but he's always like that. He was wrong for snapping like that though."

   Kaena didn't respond at first. "Do you think I should leave? Do you think I'm putting the people in danger?"

   Val sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "No. You need to be protected and more importantly... Griffin needs you. I couldn't imagine having my wife away somewhere and I couldn't protect her fully." 

   Her gaze shifted to Cya who was having a close conversation with Griffin.

   "But if she asked you to let her go, wouldn't you care about her enough to do that?" Kaena asked, staring right into her face. Her gaze only moved down and she pursed her lips in thought.

   "I don't know..." 

   It got quiet for a moment until Val's hand fell down on one of Kaena's shoulders. 

   "I like you, and from what I've seen and heard so far, you're good to my friend and I hope you can see I'm not just some hardass and that I care about him and the realm. I can see you could be best for both."

   "Thanks, Val... I hope we can be friends."

   "We already are."

   Sounds of the people's whispers interrupted their moment. They crowded the doors of the throne room but then moved aside to make a path for whoever would walk through.