Shae, the High Queen of Erya, has one rule:
Not to fall in love with her husband.
Three years into their arranged marriage, Shae is still ignoring her attraction to the handsome king. A simple task when everyone knows the rumours of his love affair...
Author's Note: If you went through the book wondering how Felix and Shae's wedding night was... The answer is... Incredibly incredibly awkward! Originally, I had planned to have it in the first few chapters, but it just didn't quite fit in the narrative. But here it is for anyone interested, in all of its awkward glory hahaha (This was previously published in the Spellbound Codex.)
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Shae stared at the closed door of her bedchamber where her ladies-in-waiting had just disappeared. All twelve of them. One from each kingdom of Erya. Because it was her first night as the wife of the High King, they had all tended to her. It wouldn't do to show favour to any one of them as it could anger the others. Political relations were still frail after the war, and not everyone was happy to see a High King back in Messina after a decade without one.
It was difficult to imagine that she was no longer Princess Shaeanne of Adreas, she was now Queen Shaeanne of Erya. It didn't seem quite real yet. The ladies-in-waiting had helped her out of her wedding dress—a beautiful concoction of velvet and lace—and into the silky nightgown from her bridal chest. One of them had brushed her long auburn hair until it shone. They thought they were making her beautiful for her husband on their wedding night. Acting as if they didn't know the rumours of the High King and Sorceress Isobel.
She scoffed. Her husband. Her wedding night.
It wasn't exactly a marriage after a love match. But she knew what she had gotten herself into, and she knew what she needed to do. Looking around her new bedchambers, she caught sight of a vase of fresh flowers just about to bloom. She leaned over to inhale their sweet scent, then grabbed them in her fist and tossed them in the fire. It was a waste of perfectly good flowers, but this wasn't that type of wedding night, and she wanted to remind herself of that.
Next on her list were the flower petals someone had spread over the bed. She collected them in her palms before adding them to the fire where the smouldering stalks of the blooms still burned. Pulling the alluring piece of silk that was her nightgown over her head, she stuffed it back in her bridal chest. It could remain there for all eternity, for all she cared. In the closet she found what she wanted; her old billowing nightgown of white cotton. It was large and shapeless, covering her from neck to wrists and down to her ankles. It was perfect.
Finally, she braided her hair. She looked like she was ready for bed on any regular evening. That's how she wanted to feel. While she was married now, she didn't want to fool herself into thinking she had a lovingly devoted husband. Felix appeared to be a good man, but he was in love with another woman, and she was not willing to risk her own heart getting involved.
Once she finished clearing the room of all romantic details, she found herself a book and sat down in a chair to read. A few pages in, she put the book down again, wondering where her husband was. A niggling thought suggested that maybe he was with the sorceress. Not that she cared, she reminded herself. She'd known about this when her father arranged the marriage.
