The Shadowman and his Queen

Take it All

ShadowQueen Ch. 21: Take it All

ENCHANTED FOREST

Quinquennial Week Three Day Two

She turns in her sleep, in search of the same comfort she had a little while ago. Somehow her slumber feels a bit different, not as filling, not as safe, not as peaceful and it stirs her awake. When Regina opens her eyes, she jumps up scared out of her mind, knowing that she's overslept. She has go and quickly, that last thing she needs is for someone to come looking for her and she isn't in her bedchambers. "Where are my clothes? Where are my undergarments?", she asks frantically as she, still fully naked, scans the room, for them. She reaches to shake Baron awake to help her in her search but hits an empty pillow, "Baron? My love?", she asks panicked, now in search of him but in her looking around sees that she is in her own chambers. She is unclear of how she's gotten there but is grateful that she is.

Before rising to dress for the day, Regina takes her Diary from its hiding place and opens it to write a morning entry. "Dearest Diary, this is the second morning I have woken up from falling asleep in my loves arms and all I can say is my rest was magnificent. I haven't slept as peacefully as I have with him since my nights with Daniel... even more so. I'm so sated I still don't desire to arise from my rest but must to take on the events of the day. The things that that man does to my body are nothing but indescribable. He makes me feel like I've never felt before, mature, experienced... like a woman. He makes me feel like and treats me like a desirable adult woman, not as a child the way Leopold many times does. When I'm with him, I feel as if I can take on the entire world and every realm within it. I love him so much and he me. I only hope that the day will come when we can love each other fully without repercussion".

Upon the completion of her diary entry, she hears a knock at her bed chamber door. Before she can fully cover herself, the door opens to reveal one of Leopold's personal guards. His abrupt presence in the privacy of her chambers upsets her to no end, "what is the point of knocking if you're just going to barge in anyway?!", she asks angrily in a tone the guard had never come from her before. "I apologize your majesty, I was just coming to inform you that the king seeks your presence", the guard says with much more respect than he entered with. "My presence? Whatever for?", she asks curiously, "he desires that you pleasure him... he's sent for chambermaids to come following my departure to prepare you for him". She is shaken to her center that Leopold seeks pleasure from her and in the morning no less. She just got to a point where she was able to forget the misery of being with Leopold. Her night was amazing, her morning going ever so well and now this... can she ever just be happy?

She is pained that she has no choice but to go to him and dreads each second the chamber maiden helps her to prepare. It helps she is already bare from her night before, so when the chamber maids enter all they must do is draw her bath, mix in the scented oils and style her hair to keep it out of the bath's water. When she is fully washed, the maids assure that she is fully dry, her skin is moisturized, and adorned in a bedding gown. She is misted with a scent Leopold likes very much, a scent that belonged to Ava, but she doesn't know that so it doesn't pain her in the way that it could. Her heart is so weighted with pain, fear and dread her feet feel like million ton bricks as she makes her way to his chambers escorted by the guard that was sent for her.

The pain and emotion she feels is so great that Baron, now standing in the presence of his parents, feels it in his chest so much it's as if he's experiencing the emotions himself. "Ahh! Oww!", he exclaims holding his chest where his heart resides. "Baron?!", "What is it son?!", both his parents exclaim worriedly at their son's intense expression of pain. "I don't know... my chest... it... it hurts awfully bad", he explains painfully as he bends at the waist clutching his chest. Margaux immediately goes to him to try to offer some comfort to her baby boy, "how does it feel exactly?", she asks. "I don't know... like my heart is being weighed down by something", he tries to explain. His mother knows exactly what's happening to him but doesn't want to upset him anymore by revealing that he's feeling his loves pain... that his love is in pain. Just as she can with the ones she loves her baby boy can feel Regina's heart and every emotion in it.