All I Need ✔️

Chapter 47

Safania's POV

He wasn't serious. Was he? Emalina was his closest servant. He saw her as a sister. But am I willing to gamble with someone else's life?

No. I'm not.

I let out a deep breath. "I'll tell you," I said, defeated. "Or I guess, show you."

My heart started pounding. The adrenaline pumping through me helped get rid of the sluggishness I was feeling. Was I seriously going to tell a prince the secret I had held for seven years?

Yes. He hadn't left me with a choice.

I stood up and slowly untied the front of my dress. "Safania?" Cassius asked, sounding confused.

"Do you want to know or not?" I snapped. Something, maybe regret, flashed across the prince's face. But it disappeared quickly.

I continued taking off my dress. With the lacing loose, it was easy to let it slip down past my shoulders. I let the sleeves of the dress fall to reveal my upper back. He would only be able to see the top of the marks, but that was enough. I pulled my hair over my right shoulder, fully revealing my skin. Then I turned around to expose my upper back to him.

The silence in the room was deafening. My mind started to race with all sorts of terrible possibilities of what Cassius could do to me. 

My thoughts were so intense, and my pounding heartbeat so loud, that I didn't even hear him walk toward me. I had no idea he was behind me until I felt his fingertips on my back. I flinched away from him, but he didn't retreat. Instead, he gently traced the lines on my back, sending shivers down my spine.

"You're marked," the prince finally whispered. 

I didn't respond. 

"I didn't think marked women actually existed," he said, still tracing the intricate patterns on my back.

"Safania, look at me," he said finally, taking my shoulders and turning me to face him.

"What are you going to do with me?" I asked, trying, unsuccesfully, to stop my voice from trembling and the tears from falling.

"What do you mean?"

"What are you going to do with me?" I repeated more aggressively. "Are you going to keep me all to yourself as your personal sex slave? Or pass me among your soldiers to create a super army? Tell me what my fate is going to be." I tried to sound angry and accusatory, but my shaking voice gave away my fear.

"Safania . . . " Cassius began in a calming tone. But his attempt to pacify me just infuriated me further.

"Don't you dare lie to me!" I yelled, angry tears falling from my eyes. "I told you the truth, I deserve the truth back."

Cassius didn't say anything. He sat there, watching me glare at him like a caged animal. Then without warning, he wrapped his arms around me. I tried to push him away, but even with adrenaline coursing through me, I was still extremely weak. I quickly gave up and collapsed against his chest, with ugly, deep, heaving sobs.

The prince held me close, gently rubbing my back. "It's okay," he whispered. Why was he comforting me? And why did I feel comforted?

Cassius helped me back down to the ground and walked to the cell door. Was he leaving? I tried so hard to keep my eyes open, but I was suddenly hit hard by the loss of all of the energy I had just expended.

I heard Cassius knock on the door, and heard the cell door open. "Release her," I heard the prince command the guard.

Release me to where? What was going to happen to me?

I felt a pull on my shackles. With considerable effort, I opened my eyes and saw the guard unlocking me from my chains. I shifted my gaze back to Cassius, who was standing next to the guard. His silence and the undecipherable expression on his face made it impossible for me to guess what he was thinking.

Once the shackles were off, Cassius picked me up easily. "What are..." I tried to ask a question, but Cassius cut me off.

"Hush," he commanded me, gentle but firm. He then turned to the guard. "You will release my maid into the custody of my guard, Alton. I will send him down to retrieve her in a bit."

The guard gave one quick nod.

Cassius proceeded to carry me upstairs to his wing of the castle. What was he going to do to me? Was he going to hurt me? I tried so hard to keep my eyes open, but they kept fluttering shut. I was so tired, and it was so cold.

"Please..." I tried to say, but Cassius cut me off again. "Quiet Safania. You need to save your energy."

I realized that we were back in my room. Cassius put me gently on the bed and covered me with the sheets and a large quilt. He sat next to me on the bed and stroked my cheek with his thumb.

"Just sleep. You need your rest. We can talk about everything once you're better."

The sheets felt so soft, and my eyelids felt so heavy. But I couldn't sleep. Not without knowing what my future held.

"Cassius please," I said, trembling, tears reforming in the corner of my eyes. "What are you going to do with me?"

He sighed. "You're so stubborn, do you know that?" He tucked my hair behind my ear. "I'm not going to hurt you," he told me. I could hear the honesty in his voice, but for some reason that made me cry more.

"I know why you ran, and I don't blame you. I can't imagine how you must feel, constantly worrying about being discovered. The kinds of stories there are about marked women...I would imagine it's near impossible for you to ever feel safe. And if even half the stories about your kind are true, I know how powerful you are, and how much people would have to gain by exploiting you."

Cassius leaned in closer.

"But I would never do that to you Safania. I would never hurt you like that. And I sure as hell wouldn't ever share you with anyone. Even if using you like that would make me King, even if it would make me the most powerful man in the nine kingdoms, I would never do that to you."

My head was spinning. I looked up at the ceiling.

"Safania?" Cassius asked.

"I just . . . I'm confused. Why not?"

"If you knew how I felt about you, you wouldn't have to ask why not." Cassius stood up. "We can talk about this more when you're better. But right now, you really need to rest."

"I'm scared," I admitted. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

He gave me a small, reassuring smile. "I have an idea. But you need to rest for me to see if I'm right."

I nodded. Cassius leaned down and kissed my forehead.

"I have to go get Alton so he can get Emalina out, but I'll be here when you wake up."

A thousand tangled thoughts occupied my mind, but the warmth and comfort of sleeping in a bed for the first time in five nights was too strong to resist. I fell asleep before I even heard my bedroom door close.

Hello lovely readers,

He knows! He finally knows!

Now that Safania doesn't have to worry about Cassius finding her marks, it's going to get a bit steamier...

If you're enjoying the story, please leave a comment! Or a like! Or tell your friends! Or just keep on reading! And if you're hating the story, how on earth did you get to chapter 47? That's actually pretty impressive...

Happy reading!