Chapter Twenty Seven

I tear my eyes away from the kiss when I hear Marceau's voice. I missed what he said and I think he knows that by my confused expression. He gives me a soft smile.

"Do you want a drink?" He repeats from me.

"Yes, please." I nod. "Thank you." I tell him as he stands up, fixing his suit.

As he goes to the punch bowl, I look back to where Hayes and Maya are. Only there aren't in the same spot anymore. I glance around from them but I can't see them. At least not from where I'm sitting.

Why did she kiss him? Why did he allow her to kiss him? Is this payback for Marceau being here? If it is, I didn't have any control over Marceau's arrival. He has to know that, right? I wouldn't have planned a night for us if I knew Marceau was coming. It wouldn't make any sense.

"It seems like your guardian has left you." Marceau returns with two cups in his hands.

I take one from him. "He's..around."

Even if Hayes is upset with me he wouldn't leave me. Especially not at a dance where I'm surrounded by hundreds of bodies. It shouldn't have to be this way. I should be enjoying my time, laughing, with my friends but the night of the Halloween Bash enters my mind.

And because of that, I don't drink from the cup. I place it down on the table and look out to the dance floor where Lily and Lucas are still dancing.

"Changed your mind?" He asks, nodding to my untouched drink.

I glance at my drink.

Right. He still doesn't know about what happened last month. What does he know? How much did Abe tell him?

"How much do you know about my country?" I ask.

"As much as King Abe told us when he came to visit."

I lift an eyebrow, surprised. Abe went to visit them in their country? When? It had to be sometime during the weekdays because he's always at the mansion on the weekends.

"And what was that?"

He shrugs. "That Cordia is a very special country that hardly anyone knows about. He said it's for protection and the less people that knows, the better it is for his people, his daughters."

First of all what the hell is Cordia? Did he mean Arsyn?

Abe didn't tell them the whole thing. Hadrian and William doesn't know about us but that doesn't mean they forgot where we're located. Hopefully Abe was smart enough to have their memories erased.

Yet, he's right about one thing; Arysn has to be protected from the outside world. The human race can't know about us but if it's true about the future, they're going to find out and that's exactly what we're not hoping for.

"Are there assassins after Cordia?" He asks, curiously.

"Something like that." I reply.

We have our enemies waiting for us to attack. The Morches, Ramadi and his army. Everyone that involves the Arysians race is game for them but Lily and I are on the top of their list.

"That doesn't scare you?" I question. "That people are out there wanting, waiting, to kill us?"

To my surprise, he shakes his head.

"Not really? Every royal family at least encounters danger once. Years ago, my family did and they nearly dead but before anyone got murdered a peace offering was brought." He informs me. "I'm sure if we can work something out with these assassins, peace will come."

It can't. Not unless Lily and I willingly trade ourselves in and bring destruction to the world and peace will never return. There's only one solution and that's to kill Ramadi before he wakes Tartarus from his five hundred years long slumber.

"I'm sure we can think of something." I play along with his idea.

"What are you guys doing?" Danielle exclaims. "Why are you sitting when you're supposed to be out there dancing?"

"I needed a break." I say.

"You had your break. Now go dance and show Prince Marceau how much fun you actually are." She orders me.

I look at Marceau. "Do you want to dance?"

He smiles. "Sure. I'd love to."

We stand up and make our way over to the dance floor. It's not a slow song but a fast one. I'm not sure what to do and I'm sure he doesn't know, either. We stand there like idiots until he finally starts dancing.

"I think this is what you're supposed to do." He says, moving his body.

I laugh at his dance moves. They're completely horrible and off beat but I'm sure I'll look worse than him.

"Well, don't just stand there." He tells me. "Let's show everyone how awful our dancing is."

"So, they can laugh at their future king and queen?"

He nods. "Precisely."

"Okay, then."

I join in and he smiles. To others, we looks like lunatics but to us, we're enjoying the moment and letting loose before the royalty life consumes us and we forget what fun is.

Once moment we're dancing and the next Danielle is on the mic, stopping the music. All eyes on her wondering why she stopped the song.

"I'll like to make a request." She announces. "After all it is Valentine's Day and what better way to show love than seeing it in person."

I can't be the only one confused here, right? What is she talking about? Who is she setting up?

"We have two love birds very much in love and they so happened to be singers." She continues. "Give it up for our future king and queen, Prince Marceau and Princess Millian!"

Cheers erupts throughout the gym as eyes turn away from Danielle and onto us. I smile, unsure what else to do.

I'm going to kill, Danielle. I think to myself.

Why would she do that? Why did it have to be me? Why couldn't it be Lily? Why?

"What do we do?" I ask Marceau.

He shrugs. "Perform from them, I think."

"Perform what?"

Is not like we worked on a song before we came here. It's totally unexpected and I have nothing prepared. I can't even think of a song to sing. It has to be something about love but what?

"Don't overthink." Marceau tells me as we head to the stage that's setup for the DJ. "Just follow my lead, okay?"

I nod once at him and grab a mic. Marceau walks over to the soundboard and moves a few button and a soft melodious sound of a piano plays.

"There goes my heart beating." He sings, lightly. "Cause you are the reason. I'm losing sleep. Please come back now."

It takes a few seconds as the they listen to the unknown song but eventually they start to move and pair up with the person they came to the dance with.

I stare at Marceau, unsure what to do, standing beside him. He's literally making a song as the seconds goes by and I know he wants me to sing with him but I'm not certain what to say.

He gives me nod of encouragement and I look out the crowd and that's when I see him. He's near the back, a blond haired girl nowhere in sight. He's looking at me and I open my mouth to say what I want to tell him. It's the closest thing I can do to tell him how much I love him with hundred pairs of eyes on me.

"There goes my hand shaking. And you are the reason my heart keeps bleeding. I need you now."

Then Marceau takes over again and I turn my head to look at him for the moment because I'm supposed to be in love with him. I'm supposed to be singing to him. I smile as if I'm head over heels for him.

"If I could turn back the clock, I'd make sure the light defeated the dark. I'd spend every hour of every day Keeping you safe."

I glance back towards Hayes as we both sing the next part.

"And I'd climb every mountain and swim every ocean Just to be with you and fix what I've broken Cause I need you to see that you are the reason."

I briefly glance at Marceau before my eyes goes back to Hayes and before I know it, I'm singing about what I don't want to do anymore.

"I don't wanna fight no more. I don't wanna hide no more. I don't wanna cry no more. Come back I need you to hold me."

My eyes looks away when I feel Marceau grab my free hand.

"Come a little closer now. Just a little closer now. Come a little closer." He sings to me as he pulls me closer to his body.

He looks me straight in my eyes with his dark brown ones as he sings the last part of the song to me and the music fades away. One second we're staring each other in the eyes and the next he's inching closer to me and then his lips meets mine.

I don't kiss him back but I don't pull away either. I just stand there as his kissed me, motionless. Then he pulls away from me with a small smile and that's when I notice all the cheering.

My head quickly looks out towards the crowd, to the back, but Hayes is no longer in the same spot. Danielle walks onto the stage, taking the mic from my hand as she gets ready to speak again.

"Wasn't that just the cutest thing you have ever seen?"

She continues to speak but I ignore her as I head off the stage, scanning the room to find Hayes but before I can take another step, Marceau stops me by grabbing my arm.

"Are you okay?"

I turn to look at him. "I'm fine." I give him a small smile. "I just need some air. I'll be right back." I assure him before walking away.

I push open the gym doors and I'm meet with the night's cold air. I look back ways, hoping to see a shadow or something that'll be a sign of Hayes.

Sighing, when I don't see or hear anything, I turn on my heels and open the gym door only for it to be close by a hand.

I look to my right and there he is standing in the shadows. I frown when he steps a little closer to me, into the light.

"What are you doing out here?" I ask.

He shrugs. "Needed fresh air. Why are you out here out?"

"Looking for you. I know you're upset that Marceau kissed me and I don't want you to be mad."

"I'm not mad." He tells me shaking his head.

"You're not?" I frown in confusion.

"No. I'm not particular happy that some prince guy we hardly know about kissed my girlfriend but there's nothing I can do about. You're engaged to him and I can't stop that."

I need to tell about what I know. I have to because it's not fair of me to keep what I know from him. If he knew something that could potentially save our relationship, I would want him to tell me.

I reach out to grab him hand. "But I can."

He frowns. "What?"

"I know something that Abe doesn't know I know about. It's the one thing that can finally allow us to be together without all the consequences." I tell him.

It's the one thing that defeats the forbidden law and Abe kept it from us for a reason. It can't be because he knew about Hayes and I, or even that Lily and Lucas are dating. He kept it a secret for another reason and I'm making it my job, my promise, to find out what it is.

"What is it?"

Before I tell him the whole thing, there's something I need to know. Something that I can't stop thinking about.

"Why did Maya kiss you?"

"We were dating." He shrugs as if it's not a big deal. "We had to make it look as believable as possible."

I arch an eyebrow. "Were?"

He nods. "I called it off. There's no point of being in a fake relationship with her anymore when Marceau is in the picture now."

That explain why Maya wasn't with him anymore. When they left, after the kiss, they must've went to talk about the break up and after that, they went their own ways.

I still want to know what Maya's secret is but I guess I'll leave that for another day. I can only talk one day at a time and her secret is the least of my problems. I just really hope she doesn't change her mind and tell everyone about our relationship.

"Now, what's the only way for us to be together?" Hayes asks.

I look in his grey eyes. "Allison is the way."

"Allison?" He repeats, confused. "How?"

I tell him what Monica told me and he has the same surprise expression I'm sure I had when Allison's secret was revealed to me.

"Why else did Monica tell you?"

"Nothing. I ran out of time." I tell him. "I'm sorry for not telling you about what I was doing. I didn't want anyone to know but of course Lily saw what I was going to do before I found out about Allison."

"What were you going to do?" He asks.

I sigh. "I was going to sacrifice everything for Lily and Lucas. I was going to marry Marceau and when I became queen I was going to have the law removed so Lily and Lucas could be happy together."

"Do you realize what would've happened to us? We could never be together."

I nod. "I know that but I didn't know there was another way. I was going to tell you."

He shakes his head. "No, you weren't. You were going to tell me something that would've broke my heart and yours. You would want me to leave you and get out your life so you wouldn't have to see the hurt on my face and realize the mistake you made. You would rather for me to hate you than knowing you were wrong and you were suffering living a life you didn't want. That's what would've happened and you know it."

He told me he would find a way and I believed him at first but as the days went on, I lost hope. I started to think the worst. I knew if we couldn't find anything then I had to remove him from my life forever. It wouldn't be right for him to stay here and watch me pretend to love someone else when he knew I wanted to be with him and there was nothing I could do about it. So, he's right. I wouldn't have told him about my plan. I would've said something, do something, to hurt him and hopefully that something would've been enough for him to leave and move far away from this place as possible.

And hope that he could find someone else and live a new life without me in it.

"We don't have to worry about that anymore." I say, softly. "We have a way to change Abe's mind and he will remove the law. It won't be long before we don't have to hide anymore. We can truly be together."

He stares at me for a moment before he kisses me.

"I love you." He whispers as he wraps his arms around my body.

"I love you." I say back. "More than you know."

"You're underestimating me, Boo."

We stay outside for a few more minutes before we head back inside, back to reality. I walk to where Lily is at and I get a better view of her necklace.

It's a small sunflower, her favorite flower and if I look close enough, I can make out initials. It's beautiful and I smile at her when she sees what I'm looking at.

She touches it. "I don't know how he got it but I'm thankful he did. It's a piece of him I can carry with me all the time. I just wished I got him something as well."

"It's Lucas. I'm sure he doesn't mind."

"Exactly. It's Lucas. The love of my life and I have to get him something. I'm a princess. If he can get his hands on something as beautiful as thing, I'm sure I can get something for him."

"If you want, I'll help you search a perfect gift for him."

She shakes her head. "Thanks but I think I can handle it." She nods over to Marceau who's talking to Danielle and her date, Micheal. "How did you feel about him kissing you? Actually I should ask how did Hayes feel about him kissing you?"

"I didn't feel anything and Hayes wasn't mad. He took it better than I thought he would or maybe he felt like we're even now because Maya kissed him."

"What? She kissed him?"

"It doesn't matter now. They're over." I inform him. "And I told Hayes about Allison."

She nods. "That's good. When are you gonna tell Abe?"

"After the play. I think he'll be free from everything and we can all sit down and have a lovely family discussion."

"Why do you think he kept Allison's history from us?" She asks.

I scoffs. "Knowing Abe, he probably did it for our protection. I mean he did keep us separated for thirteen years to protect us."

"Do you think if word got around about you not marrying royalty, would cause an uproar?"

Monica did say the other kingdoms hated ours. They abandoned us because of Allison and maybe that's why Abe wanted to keep it a secret from us. He doesn't want us to be a risk from our people. It's better if I married royalty than someone lower even if he is human.

"That would make sense." I say, nodding my head. "But if that's the case, where's the other kingdoms?"

If they know about my engagement, then they have to be close by and if something goes wrong, something they disapprove of, they're in the right places to attack at any moment and we won't even notice it.

They will have the element of surprise.