All I Need ✔️

Chapter 37

Safania's POV

I sat in my bedroom, waiting for Emalina but still thinking about the previous day I had spent with Cassius. We walked around outside for hours. Even though it was the coldest I had ever felt, the winter air whipping around us as we strolled, it was still an enormous relief. Being stuck inside for three weeks had driven me crazy.

We watched the guards train for a bit, and then watched the caravan leave for the Western Fort. I smiled thinking of Liasa escaping as Cassius and I waved them goodbye. Then we had walked to the river running past the castle. Cassius had made a small fire, and we laughed and talked just like we did before he had left. We stayed out well past the sunset, only returning when the last embers of the fire died. I found myself smiling as I remembered the day. Everything seemed brighter now that he was back. And the more time I spent with him, the more I realized how much I had missed him.

Was there a way for us to be together? I had tried to push the thought out of my head over and over again, but I couldn't. The thought of being with Cassius...since the war I hadn't wanted anything except to be safe. But now there was something else, something I wanted so badly I couldn't even admit it to myself. Something that had kept me up most of the night.

"Good morning!" Emalina shouted, bursting into the room and startling me.

"You look happy," I commented. "Does this have anything to do with your time with Alton?" I asked.

"Before we talk about that, there's something I want to get off my chest."

"...okay?" I said hesitantly.

"I was thinking about it a lot and you were right about Liasa. I hate to admit it, but I think I've been in the castle too long. Your sense of morality here just kind of changes. You start to accept that things are the way they are."

Emalina sat next to me at the table. "You are the best thing that has happened to this kingdom in a long time. And no matter how much anyone, me included, tries to get you to accept messed up things, don't. Okay?"

I smiled. "Okay Em."

"Good. I'm glad that's settled. And I'm so glad that Liasa is out of here. Thank goodness Prince Cassius came back when he did. I don't know what we would have done without him."

"Neither do I," I said softly.

"What was that?" Emalina said, grinning.

"What was what?"

"That look! That dreamy I-can't-stop-thinking-about-him look!"

I shook my head. "It's complicated."

"With you it normally is," Emalina replied.

"I want to hear about your magical day with Alton," I said, refocusing her attention.

"Oh! Well, it was incredible. We went into town to see a concert, and then he took me to eat at this little pub. The food was incredible. We should go sometime! And we went on a nice, long walk..."

I listened as Emalina described her day with Alton.

"Em, why aren't you married?" I asked when she had finished.

She laughed. "That's a pretty bold question," she replied.

"I don't mean...I'm just curious," I tried to explain, slightly flustered. "In Eir if people were together for more than a year, they almost always got married. I was just wondering if it's different here."

"It depends," she replied. "Nobility usually have a courtship of a week or two, if that. Arranged marriages are common. But for commoners, it's expensive, so we have to spend a lot of time saving up."