Confronting Shadows

Saira & Omar

Saira sat in the private plane Omar had hired for her to travel. She sat in the back of the plane, looking out of the window at the night sky. She was upset at the way Omar had spoken to her earlier. She wished she didn't care, but after Rashid, the only one who stayed was Omar. without him, she would have killed herself out of pain ages ago. if Rashid was the fragrance around her, which never left. then Omar was the shoulder she always had to lean on. She loved both of them differently but loved them nonetheless, and for Omar, she was ready to do anything.

startled by the sudden vibration, she took her phone out of her pocket. there was a message from Omar.

"I'm sorry for the way I behaved and the things I said." he had apologized.

"I'm sorry for swearing at you." Saira texted back with a smile coming over her face. it brought colour to her face, making her cheeks feel hot.

"I didn't know she could smile," Jaffar told Naila, one of Saira's bodyguards.

Saira turned at them to yell, but another message on her phone caught her attention.

"Well, it was very mean of you to say that to me, but it's nothing which cannot be remedied with a coffee." The second message read.

Saira blushed and looked outside the window.

"Oh my god, she's blushing. I wish Yusuf were here to see this." Jaffar whispered to Naila again, who sat wondering if she should risk it and laugh.

Saira glared holes into Jaffar's face before he noticed.

"Where is Yusuf?" Saira finally remembered that she hadn't heard from him since isra escaped.

"Tell someone to check his room," she ordered, getting up and walking up to her private suite.

"I'm going back to Tarrin. you're too far away in Muluk." Saira texted back, biting her nail with the hope that he might say he was coming to Tarrin too, or he would call her to Muluk.

"Yes, that is true, unfortunately." his reply came.

Saira felt her heart drop. "Yeah," she replied and hit herself on the forehead with the phone lightly.

Saira dropped onto the seat and bit her nails again. Over the past 12 years, the closeness that came between them started years ago in the academy.

Saira was no sharpshooter, but Omar had requested her help in learning his way around guns. it was before Rashid that he had kissed her, and she had been smitten over his big hazel eyes.

after Rashid came, she broke off all contact with the prince, which was around the same time he got engaged.

Saira looked at the wallpaper of her phone, the picture of Rashid she had taken 12 years to draw.

"Rashid, I'm so sorry," she whispered and thought back to the time when he was just a hot-blooded teenager. he was out for vengeance on the princes that killed his family and destroyed his home.

a few years into training, and he had become so much more than that. the work of delivering humanitarian aid and helping displaced orphans made him soft. he loved kids and listening to their stories, even starting to study psychology to help them. he had helped Saira with her trauma on countless occasions. yet it was one rainy night, Saira had screamed at god to strike her down, and he had sat by her. wanting nothing more than to help and listen, she fell in love with him.

Saira closed her eyes and tried to rest. Her heart was being pulled into a million directions. whatever she had done, she knew she wanted it, to hurt isra like how she had hurt her. it was then what Omar said made sense to her. isra's faith in the result of her investigation is what caused her to kill everyone. the investigation, which Saira had intentionally led astray to buy some time to justify her betrayal, to Rashid.