All I Need ✔️

Chapter 28

Safania's POV

"You've understood us the whole time."

It wasn't a question. I didn't respond. Instead I listened to my heartbeat pounding in my eardrums.

"You've used your language skills to spy on us. You lied to me."

"If that's lying, then have you also been lying to Emalina all these years?" I asked accusatorily.

"What are you talking about?" Cassius asked slowly.

"You speak Anguinese! You spoke it during dinner with your family! Did you honestly think I wouldn't notice?"

He sighed. "I was hoping you would be so relieved I was helping you that you wouldn't notice. I wasn't trying to give it away."

"You gave it away long before that," I responded. "Did you honestly think that I would believe you know Eirlin, a small island nation's language, before you learned the peasant language of your own people?"

Cassius looked as if I had slapped him. Then he smiled briefly before responding. "I don't know how it's possible, but I keep underestimating you." He walked towards me until only a few inches separated us.

"I'm a prince. I don't have to justify my actions to you or anyone else," he said quietly, but sternly.

"I know that," I replied. "But I also know you're not a hypocrite. So you wouldn't punish me for doing the same thing you do."

He looked at me with a strange smile on his face, as if I amused him. "Are you sure about that?"

Was I? No. But I was confident that he wasn't mad - he was clearly enjoying this exchange and my boldness. I looked him straight in the eyes.

"I guess I'll find out," I replied.

It felt as though a magnetic force were pulling us together. We stayed there for a few moments, both of us looking for something in each other's faces. The air around us felt heavier; the rest of the room seemed to fade away.

Cassius finally broke the connection, walking away from me. "I don't let my staff know I speak Anguinese because I appreciate hearing the truth. When people speak to me they try to sugarcoat things and tell me what I want to hear." He turned around, looking at me intently.

"Why didn't you let anyone know you speak Ledish?" he asked pointedly. "Are you some kind of spy?"

"No!" I exclaimed.

"Then why?"

I looked down submissively. "I was scared about what you were planning for me," I confessed. "I thought you might tell someone what you were planning on doing with me in front of me, if you thought that I couldn't understand you."

I felt Cassius softly grab my chin, tilting it up gently to his. He was looking at me with a curious expression on his face. "Are you still scared?" he asked me softly.

Yes. I was always scared. But I could tell by the way he asked the question he didn't mean afraid in general. He meant was I afraid of him.

"No," I whispered, surprised that I was telling the truth. I was still afraid of him finding out about my marks, but I wasn't afraid of him.

His piercing blue eyes swept over me as if searching for something. Then he abruptly turned and walked back to the chessboard. "Accompany me to the ball," he said as he walked away from me.

"What?" I asked. The random question threw me completely off-balance.

"There's a ball in a little over a month. Elegant outfits, boring conversation, delicious food, and beautiful music," Cassius explained, reaching the chessboard and surveying the game. "If Avus is correct, you should be walking without crutches by then. Come with me."

"I don't understand," I said confused.

"Which part is confusing you?"

"Just go to the ball with you? Nothing else?"

"What else would there be?" the Prince asked, seemingly still amused by me.

"I just want to know if there are strings attached," I replied.

"No strings," Cassius said, gesturing with both his hands the way a magician would show off a trick. "You already told me our relationship is purely platonic."

"Is this a command or a request?" I asked.

"I thought we agreed, no more commands."

"Then why on earth would I agree?" I asked.

"Because it's the least you could do after lying to me for weeks. And if you go with me, you save me from having to go with some almost certainly obnoxious woman my father chooses for me."

I couldn't figure out why, but the thought of Cassius with another woman just seemed wrong. He's not yours, I reminded myself. And the sooner he found someone else, the sooner he would lose interest in me. But... I had always wanted to go to a ball. I had dreamt about it since I was a little girl - my father would read me stories about princes and princesses dancing the night away. I wondered if actual balls were anything like the stories. Also, agreeing might make the prince more comfortable - maybe comfortable enough to let his guard down so I could escape when my leg healed fully.

"Okay," I replied. "I'll go."

The prince looked at me for a moment with the same amused expression on his face. Then his eyes drifted back to the board. He saw the move I made - sacrificing my knight to take his queen - and his smile got even wider. He knew that I had beaten him . . . we were only about a dozen moves from checkmate. He made eye contact with me while he tipped over his king, conceding.

*************

"So...he knows you speak Ledish?" Emalina asked after I recounted the whole tale to her.

"Yes," I replied.

"And he wasn't even mad?"

I shook my head. "No...he seemed more like he was...amused."

"And then he asked you to the ball?" she asked.

"Yes."

Emalina whistled. "Whoo boy, you've got him."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean he is falling for you. Hard."

"Don't be silly," I said dismissively. "We're friends. And even if he did like me, there's no future for us. He has to marry strategically. The most I could ever be to him is a mistress."

"Hm," Emalina responded.

"What do you mean hm?" I asked her confrontationally.

"Nothing, just hm," she said, smiling to herself. "This is so exciting. Now I get to help design your dress for the ball. It's going to be incredible." Emalina started rattling off all sorts of ideas of colors, embellishments, sleeve designs...I couldn't even follow half of what she was saying.

"Well, I'm glad someone is excited," I replied.

"Oh, hush, you know you're at least a little excited! Your first ball!"

I shook my head no without acknowledging her, but she was right. But even worse than being excited was the reason why I was excited - despite how hard I tried to stop myself, I couldn't stop thinking of how handsome Cassius would look in his formal suit, and how I would have an excuse to be close to him the whole night.

Cassius isn't the only one falling, I told myself.

I had to get out of here soon.