Flickering Shadows

Chapter 9

Inara

I cleaned his room.

And it was not a quick, tidy a couple things, clean. It was an anxiety induced rage clean.

It wasn't necessarily dirty to begin with, but his room is big. Bigger than all the maids' rooms in The Grand House combined, and I know from experience that rooms this big tend to collect a lot of dust.

I got nervous, and when I get nervous, I panic, and when I panic, I clean. So I found a couple of cloths in the bathroom and washed his floor, then I put the few scattered books back on the shelf, and then I found new sheets in one of the many closets in here and stripped his bed. I fluffed his pillows and brushed off his chairs, wiped down every surface in his bathroom, straightened the clothes in his closet while maybe sniffing each one. It was a lot, and now I'm contemplating putting it all back in disarray, but I don't think you can unwipe a counter.

Maybe he liked the dust. Maybe squished pillows are how he likes them. Maybe he was reading those books and didn't want them put away. Maybe-

Maybe I just need to sit down.

This is new, and quite literally terrifying. I know one person in this giant, dark kingdom, and I really wish I knew how to please him.

Kiana comes to my mind for the hundredth time this hour, and a pinch clamps my heart. I left her in that awful place. Alone. She's alone there. We were never good at making friends, but once we met each other, that didn't matter, because Kiana was enough to fill the gaps of a thousand friends.

she was the person I went to for advice, and now more than ever I wish I could speak to her. She would tell me that I was being silly and that the signs were right in front of me. That I knew what the king wanted, I just had to look harder. But I have looked, and every time I think I've found something, he pulls it out of my hands.

He's mad about last night. I know he is, because I woke up alone this morning.

I hadn't fallen asleep until I heard the gentle pattern of his breathing, waiting an extra hour or two just to make sure he wasn't testing me, but he hadn't said anything. He fell asleep and that was that. Except when I woke up, he was gone, hence the nervous cleaning.

I had failed yet another test, and now he was figuring out my punishment. I can't stand to think of the awful things they do here, and my skin crawls every time I start.

My lip gives a sharp bolt of pain, and I pull it out of my teeth, not even realizing I had been biting it.

My head is so stuffed with nerves that I'm not even thinking straight. I could be standing in a bucket of nails and I probably wouldn't-

"Why is your lip bleeding?"

I yelp, jumping backwards and tripping before falling flat my back.

I rub the side of my head with a grimace as I slowly rise to a sitting position.

The blond man from the carriage stands above me, his head tilted and features set in a curious expression.

"Are you always so jumpy?" He asks in amusement. "I did knock, but I suppose you didn't hear me?"

I swallow hard, shaking my head.

"Odd," he mutters. "I'm bringing you down for lunch since his highness has decided to forget about you."

My heart drops. I knew it. I disobeyed one too many times, and he's already giving up.

The blond holds the black door open for me, clearly not possessing the ability of the king to throw them open with nothing but air.