Bowstrings & Velvet (Spellbound #1)

Chapter 15: Not Alone

Shae stood in the middle of her bedchamber feeling somewhat lost as one of her ladies-in-waiting moved around lighting a few candles to ward off the dark as the night was settling. After another two days spent mostly in her bed with Mio as her constant bedfellow, she was feeling better even if her arm still hurt when she moved it.

Tired from the poison, she had managed little, so Mio and she had done some watercolours in bed, and his nannies had read them stories. When they noticed Shae's eyelids drooping towards the late afternoon, they had taken him back to his chambers. She rather wished they had let him stay, but she suspected he didn't want to nap as much as she currently did.

After so long in bed, she desperately wanted a bath. Ornice, a dark-haired woman from the Kingdom of Sanore, had ordered her one, and they were just waiting for it to be brought up.

"Is there anything else you'd like me to do, Your Majesty?" The lady-in-waiting came up before her, the chamber now fully lit by the myriad of candles and a fire roaring in the grate.

After falling asleep in the late afternoon, Shae had awoken alone in the darkening room and for a moment she had panicked. Castel had heard her distress from the other side of the door and come inside. Seeing his concerned face had been enough to both calm her and make her feel rather silly about her reaction. The attack on her life had brought back too many memories, and with them, the fear of the dark she thought she had overcome. Darkness and any constrictions immediately returned the feeling of being wrapped in her bedsheets and slung over the enemy's shoulder.

She shuddered slightly before shaking her head. "No, that's all, Ornice. Thank you."

"Would you like me to stay and assist you with your bath?"

"No, thank you." She had never had anyone assist her with her bath, and even if she dreaded being alone, she refused to start now.

"Very well then, I shall take my leave." With a curtsy, Ornice left the room.

Watching the door swinging shut behind the other woman, Shae fought the impulse to call her back. All to avoid being alone. She was used to being alone. Loneliness was part of her life the last few years, but after the attack, she no longer wanted to be separate from the world around her. Too long, she had allowed the events of her past to prevent her from creating a future. To take an active spot in life. She had merely existed. It was time to be brave. To allow herself the comfort of friends and family. Maybe she should give her ladies-in-waiting another chance. She was certain they were not bad people. She had just never cared to get to know them.

She was just about to call Ornice back when a soft knock sounded on the door and Felix entered. Reflexively, she pulled her dressing gown a little tighter around her. He had been a scarce sight since he'd rebuffed her advances the other morning. Only briefly checking in on her twice a day to see how she was doing. It was probably for the best. The idea of her throwing herself at him, only to have him deny her, was mortifying.

"How are you feeling tonight?" he asked as he closed the door behind him. A stack of papers under his arm caught her attention.

"What are those?"

He smiled wryly. "Correspondence from my Envoys in the kingdoms. The High Council meetings and preparations for the Championship Games have taken up all of my time lately, so I thought I'd read through them before bed."

"You work too hard." She suspected he was one of the hardest working people in all of Erya. Something most people seemed to ignore when they complained about his seat of power. Without a High King, the kingdoms squabbled among each other, and according to history plenty of wars had been fought before the position of High King was created by the Gods. Even during the recent decade after Deva murdered the previous High King, there had been strife between the kingdoms, so having a mediator of sorts should not be something they hated to the level some of them did.