All I Need ✔️

Chapter 66

Safania and her mother stared at each other silently, both looking as though they were seeing a ghost. Then, in an instant, Safania's mother wrapped her arms around her daughter.

"My baby," Safania's mother cried, pulling her close. After squeezing Safania so tightly she could barely breathe, her mother released her to look at her more closely. "And you're so beautiful. I thought I would never see you again." She pulled Safania close to her once more. "I am never letting you go."

"You're alive?" was all Safania could say.

Safania's mother smiled. "Yes Starfish, I'm alive. I was able to escape. I tried to come back for you, but I couldn't find you. I'm so sorry."

"You're alive," Safania repeated, unable to say anything else in her shock.

"I'm alive," her mother repeated, smiling while crying. Safania brushed her cheek, realizing it was wet. She was crying too but hadn't even noticed.

"Look, I hate to break up this happy reunion, but we still have three other people here we have to deal with Zamari," Valery interjected.

Zamari looked at Safania with a serious expression. "Sweetheart, you can tell me the truth. Did these people force you to come here?"

"How...how are you here? How are you not dead? Everyone said you were dead," the questions started pouring out of Safania's mouth.

"Starfish please, we'll have time for that later. I promise I'll answer all your questions. But right now I need to know if the prince and his friends forced you to take them here."

Safania finally processed her mother's question.

"No," Safania said emphatically. "They're my friends. And Cassius is my fiancé."

"Fiancé?" Zamari asked, her tone instantly shifting from loving to deeply skeptical. "And did he propose before or after he knew about your marks?"

"Mom, I swear he's a good person. They all are. Please. I wouldn't still be alive if it wasn't for them."

"He's a royal. And not any royal. He's the prince of one of the most powerful of the nine kingdoms," her mother answered. "A kingdom that is preparing for a war. And you're trying to tell me that he's not going to use you as a tool in that war?"

"Mom, Cassius isn't like that," Safania insisted.

"They're all like that!" Zamari snapped.

Safania froze, taken aback. She had made her mother angry as a child. But even then, her mother had never used this bitter, angry tone with her.

Seeing Safania's surprise at her reaction, Zamari sighed. "Even if he is different Safania, we can't take that risk. We can't just let him go."

"If you keep him, the entire Western Fort will come looking for him," Safania warned her. "They'll know he disappeared between Abree and Peria. They'll find you."

Zamari turned to another woman that Safania hadn't noticed before now. She was older, with wrinkles etched all over her face. "What do we do Riko?" Zamari asked.

"You're the head of security," Riko replied. "We have delegated the decision to you. But I will note the fact that Safania refers to the prince by his first name is highly unusual."

"You can't honestly be thinking of letting them go!" Valery scoffed. Zamari shot her a look that left her silent.

At that moment, a curly-haired, blonde teenage girl bounced into the tent.

"Maria," Zamari said, greeting her. "You were with the prince?"

"Mmhmm," Maria said happily. 

"And?"