Recent content by Saffia

Gods. What was she doing here? Saffia could almost hear the voices of her elders hissing in her ears, warning her to turn back, to guard her heart, to think. But thinking had never made her feel this alive. Her heart thundered in her chest as he held her, as he looked at her that way. As he...

Saffia couldn’t help but laugh along with him, his joy infectious, rolling through her like the warm breeze that rustled the canopy above. His laughter felt like something sacred. She wanted to bottle it, carry it with her when they inevitably had to part ways. She sighed at the thought, her...

Saffia blushed, the softest pink colouring her cheeks as Aerium pressed those featherlight kisses to her knuckles. It made her want to laugh, shy and startled by how proper, how gentlemanly he could be. He was so... fancy. She managed a curtsy with a quiet chuckle. But then he looked at her...

She turned at the sound of his steps, his voice, her hand pulling from the water, droplets sliding from her fingers like liquid glass. Her dark eyes lifted to meet his, and for a moment, Saffia said nothing. She just looked at him. Truly looked. Gone was the hardened silhouette of the...

Saffia swayed with him, her hands still resting lightly against his chest, and for a moment she allowed herself to fall fully into his warmth. Into the strange quiet they shared, even as the city buzzed beyond the broken gate behind them. It felt like they were standing in the eye of a storm...

Saffia had spent her life learning how to quiet the parts of her that dared to want. Wanting was dangerous. Wanting got you noticed. Wanting got you punished. But Aerium held her like she was a wish he’d made years ago and had finally found in the flesh. He kissed her like he was afraid she...

Saffia took his hand without hesitation, her fingers slipping into his like it was something they’d done a hundred times before. She followed him quietly, heart thudding against her ribs as they stepped into the cool night air. The city seemed quieter now, gentler somehow. When he stopped and...

Saffia gave a soft, knowing smile, the kind that didn't quite reach her eyes but was genuine all the same. "Sometimes, the dreams of others weigh heavier than our own," she said gently, her spoon brushing the edge of the bowl. "But I think you already have the courage, Aerium. You just need...

Saffia swallowed, her throat tightening ever so slightly at the word witch. A word spoken so easily, so casually, and yet it held the weight of centuries of fear and fire. It was a word she had heard too often, spat like venom in the streets, screamed in the square as smoke choked the sky and...

Saffia listened in quiet understanding, watching the way his fingers curled slightly against the table, the way his voice wavered just enough to betray the weight of his grief. She had known loss, too—but not like this. Not the kind that left an echo, a hollow space where someone had once been...

Saffia listened, her spoon hovering just above her bowl as he spoke, as that impossible grin of his stretched across his face. It was contagious, that kind of joy—so simple, so genuine. She didn’t think she’d ever known someone like him before. Someone who could carry so much pain yet still find...

The way he said her name like it was something precious... Like it belonged to him just as much as it belonged to her. She wasn’t sure she would ever get used to that. Then, his smile—boyish, unguarded, so full of light that it almost made her forget the shadows that had chased her into his...

Saffia’s lips twitched in the faintest of smiles as Aerium cupped her face, his gaze so steady and kind that it softened the edges of her panic. The warmth of his touch, the gentleness with which he spoke—it settled something inside of her, made her feel safe for the first time in what felt like...

Saffia was still struggling to catch her breath, her heart pounding as she tried to make sense of where she was, of how she had gotten here. She barely registered the fact that she had stepped on something—or someone—until a groan of protest reached her ears. Her wide, panicked eyes snapped...

Saffia slept for hours, lost in the heavy, dreamless void of exhaustion. Her body, battered and drained, had given in completely, sinking into the unfamiliar warmth of a soft bed. The world outside moved on without her, the quiet crackle of a dying fire the only sound to mark the passage of...