Skylette sat before the mirror in her room and stared at her reflection. She hated everything she saw.

"You look beautiful sweetheart!" her mother gushed.

"I look horrible!"

"Don't say that!"

"Can we please wipe this gunk off my face?" She poked at her lips as she spoke.

"No and stop that! You need to look your best tonight! Now sit still so Susanna can fix your hair."

She groaned as the lady's maid stepped into the place her mother vacated and began brushing out the tangles in her hair. Tonight was the ball for her sixteenth birthday. Something her parents had been planning for months now. It was something Skylette hadn't been looking forward to in the least.

She remembered the day her father had called her into his study to tell her about it and it wasn't with fondness.

"Sky, your birthday is in several months and we need to consider the fact that you're going to be a young lady now."

"So, it's not a big deal. I'm not going to be the queen." She shrugged her shoulders.

"It is a big deal. Your mother and I have begun planning a ball in honor of the big day and we've invited princes and noblemen from all over. We need to begin thinking about your future."

"My future?"

"Yes of course, your future! We need to consider a husband for you."

"I don't want a husband!"

He scowled at her. "Of course you do, every girl wants a husband."

She jumped up out of her chair. "Well I don't! Cancel the party because I don't want some man telling me what to do!"

"You can't keep running around like a child, Skylette! It is time you grow up! I've let you get away with too much! I should have reined you in long before now! You are a young lady and you should act like one! You are a princess!"

"I don't want to be a young lady! Or a princess! I just want to be normal!"

"You aren't normal! You're a proincess!"

"Maybe I don't want to be a princess!"

"You don't have a choice! You're a Constantine!"

"You can't force me to be something I don't want to be! You can't make me ..."

He stood and smacked his palm down on his desk. "I forbid you to see Codey."

"You can't do that!"

"I'm your father and the king I can do what I please! You are not to see him! It is unseemly for a young lady of your noble birth to spend so much time with a stable boy!" he screamed.

"I will do what I wish!"

"You will not, you will do what I command! And what I command is that you attend this party! Now go to your room!"

"I hate you!" She stormed from his study.

She winced as Susanna pulled at a tough tangle and it brought her back to the present. That day she hadn't gone to her room as her father commanded, she'd run straight to the stables and Codey. He'd held her while she cried out her sorrow. After that day she'd seen very little of him in the daylight hours. Her mother kept her busy with dance lessons and learning forms of address for nobles that she hadn't bothered to learn before. Then she'd dragged her to dress fittings.

At night, they had their spot on the tower roof, but that was the only time they had to spend together. In the darkness, in secret, when her father knew nothing about the time they spent together. Sky hated dance lessons and she was surprised to learn that Codey knew how to dance. His mother had taught him. Despite the time and his being six when she'd died, he remembered most of it still. What little she had taught him before she'd died.

Up in the tower, they spent time dancing and he made it so much easier to learn. She was more relaxed with him than the teacher her mother had engaged for her. With him, she learned more quickly. He hummed a tune his mother used to sing to him, he couldn't remember the words any longer, but the tune stuck with him. That was all the music they needed.

Tears filled her eyes and she blinked them away quickly before anyone noticed or they ruined the carefully applied makeup.

She hadn't seen Codey in several days, he hadn't shown up in the tower and she didn't know to where he had disappeared. She was afraid to ask her father if he'd sent him away. Afraid that he'd say yes.

"There we are. Simply beautiful," Susanna declared as she stepped back.

"Thank you Susanna. She's right you look stunning. You're going to be the center of attention tonight."

"I thought that was the plan, it is my birthday after all," she snapped sarcastically.

"Behave Sky. I'm going to go and get ready while you get into your gown I'll see you downstairs. You're father will be up to escort you down." Her mother kissed her cheek and swept from the room.

***

"Are you ready for this?"

Skylette didn't bother to answer her father, because what she had to say wasn't what he wanted to hear. He patted her hand and nodded to the two castle guards by the doors that led into the ballroom. She would make her grand entrance alone because it was tradition. Her father would leave her here. He would make his way down a floor and enter through another door one level down on the main floor. She would enter here on the second floor and walk down the large, curved grand staircase.

She wasn't looking forward to it. The staircase was huge and wide, she was supposed to walk down the center, and she was notoriously klutzy. The long flowing dress and heels wouldn't help. Taking a deep breath, she nodded to the guards as she passed through the door.

The crowd in the ballroom below hushed when she stopped up to the top of the staircase and paused. Looking out over the crowd, she swallowed nervously. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be on the tower roof with Codey.

Edging a foot forward over the edge of the first stair, she hesitated a moment there and breathed deeply. Music reached her ears as the orchestra struck up a tune. She slipped her foot over the stair and started downward one-step at a time, slowly and carefully. Her smile was in place and quite false.

So close now, more than half of the way to the bottom. She was going to make it.

Her foot caught in the hem of her gown and she tumbled the rest of the way down the stairs. The crowd gasped audibly when she came to rest at the bottom. Sky hopped to her feet and held her hands aloft. "I am all right!" She huffed out a breath and batted her hair out of her eyes.

Her mother rushed over to her side and began patting at her. "Sky sweetheart, are you okay?"

She shoved her mother's hands away. "I'm fine! Please Mother, you're embarrassing me!"

"I'm embarrassing you? You just fell down the stairs!"

"And I'm fine with it. Now can you please go away?" She put her chin up and strode past her mother.

***.

Codey stayed in the shadows and watched the colorfully dressed men and women as they circled the ballroom. He wasn't supposed to be here and if he were caught, the king would probably punish him severely.

Currently, he had hidden himself among a group of potted plants. It was the safest place he found in the ballroom. Whether it was pathetic or not, he hadn't considered, nor was he going to think about it. The fact was he wanted to see Lettie and this was the only possible was he could.

Nearly a week ago the king had come to him in the stables. He would remember the conversation for a long while to come.

"Codey, I need to speak with you about Skylette."

He set aside the curry comb and stepped around Lighnting to stand before the king. "Yes Sire, what is it, is she well?"

"Yes, she's fine. It's your relationship with her I wished to discuss."

He felt a small amount of fear creep in at his words. "My relationship, Sire? Lettie and I are friends only."

He nodded. "Yes, I understand that. However, you can see my dilemma. Skylette is a princess and she is now going to be sixteen. Her mother and I feel it is time she must think about her future. I'm afraid you aren't a part of that future."

Codey swallowed and nodded. "Yes of course."

He shifted behind the potted plants. When the king had told him, he wasn't to be a part of Lettie's future he had believed he was next going to have to pack his belonging and leave the castle. Instead, the king had asked him to move from the stables and begin training with the castle's knights. The only thing required of him, he was not to see Skylette. It had hurt him to stop seeing her, but he didn't want to cross her father. The rest of the conversation made him too uncomfortable to think about, so he didn't.

A smile touched his lips when he spotted her on the stairs. He nearly bolted from behind the plants when she fell and was relieved when she bounded to her feet unharmed. "That's my girl."

He settled back and watched as her parents introduced her to the gathered crowd of nobles.

She made a small speech about how pleased she was to be there. He knew she didn't mean a single word of it.

All he'd wanted was to see her. It was the only reason he'd slipped in here.

He soon realized it had been a mistake as he watched her move around the ballroom, what she was doing was a charade he knew it. Still, it hurt watching her dance with man after man while he hid in a corner.

She was dancing using the steps he'd taught her.

"Stupid, stop acting like a jealous idiot. She's your best friend." He looked around for a quick escape route. It was time to get the hell out of here. He scrambled to his feet and slipped out a door into the gardens. He gave a small sigh of relief once he was outside in the fresh air. Voices interrupted his relief at his quick getaway, cursing, he slipped between some bushes and held his breath.

***

"I can't believe you think falling down the stairs was adorable."

"All right, so maybe I was pushing it with adorable."

Skylette grinned up at Prince Edwin. Out of all the men she'd danced with, he'd been the nicest and he hadn't put her off at all. "Well at least you haven't once asked me when we can marry."

"Why did you have to say that, that was going to be my next question!" He heaved out a huge groan.

She laughed. "It was not!"

"It was, I swear!" He held his hands up.

Skylette laughed. "Fine, I believe you."

He chuckled and looped his arm around her waist. "So, how are you going to follow up the stairs?"

"I was planning on falling from a balcony."

"Brillant! I'll be certain to be standing beneath so I can catch you."

She shook her head. "You're impossible."

He steered her through the opening into the garden maze and down the path toward what he hoped was the center. They walked for a bit and he was happy to see he had guessed correctly and the reward was a tinkling fountain and a bench. He gestured to the seat, smiled before she carefully moved to the bench, and sat facing the fountain.

"I can't believe you found the center."

"I've always had a good sense of direction. Thank you very much for the dance, Princess."

"You are quite welcome. Thank you for the break from the ball."

They sat quietly for a bit. "I don't want to marry you, Skylette."

Startled she turned to look at him. "Why are you here then?"

"Because my father insisted."

"Oh, I see."

He chuckled. "The look on your face doesn't agree with your statement. There is another woman I wish to marry. My father doesn't approve."

"Ahh, I understand. I'm sorry, Prince Edwin."

"Please, Edwin is perfectly fine."

"Then you must call me Sky."

He reached for her hand and kissed her knuckles. "Sky it is."

"I don't want to marry either."

"Someone else in your life as well?"

She shook her head. "No, I simply don't wish to marry. My brother is to be King. Why do I need a husband if I don't need an heir?"

"Mmm, yes I understand your reasoning. You don't wish for children?"

"Maybe someday. I don't want to be forced into a marriage I don't wish for simply because my father sees it as necessary."

"I'm to be King, my father sees it as very necessary," he replied.

"I am sorry, Edwin."

"It certainly isn't your fault, Sky." He gave her hand a small squeeze. "We should get back before we're missed and rumors start."

She giggled. "Maybe we should let some start. Then our parents would let us be."

He arched a brow at her. "That might be a good idea. At least until they begin pressuring us for a wedding date."

She grimaced. "That would be a problem."

He stood and offered her his arm. "Yes indeed it would."

She smiled and stood, placing her hand on his arm. "Then let's get back and perhaps a couple more dances would make them believe we're interested in one another but not overly so."

He winked at her and led her back through the maze.

***

Codey kept his distance as he followed Lettie and her prince through the maze. He didn't want either of them to spot him. He could walk this maze in the dark with his eyes closed; he was surprised when the price found his way through on the first try.

From where he hid, he couldn't hear what they were saying, but they looked damn cozy. They were sitting very close together on the bench before the fountain. He clenched his fists tightly when the prince kissed her knuckles and he didn't release her hand.

Whatever they were discussing, it seemed serious. He felt tightness in his chest. Had Lettie found the man she wanted to marry? She hadn't wanted this ball he knew that. What had caused that to change?

He shrank back further into the bushes when they rose and headed out of the maze. Both were quiet as they passed his hiding spot.

That's it he was done. Skylette had found her prince. It was obvious she was finished with her stable boy best friend. He had meant something to her only as long as her father had allowed him to mean something. Once the king had put his foot down, she had stepped in line and become a proper princess.

***

"Prince Edwin is a good choice, Skylette."

Sky tried not to sigh loudly when Princess Tremma Doric commented on Edwin's suitability as a husband. "He's very nice and he's an excellent dancer."

"Your brother is an excellent dancer, but he is also going to be an excellent King."

"Yes he is," she answered dryly. Tremma was nice. Sky didn't have anything against her, but she was very much like Darrien. Follow the rules and do as you're told. She and Darrien were well matched. She supposed that was why they had hit it off so well once they had met.

Together they would rule Eliria well.

"I'm glad you approve, Tremma."

She patted Sky's arm. "I'm here for you; after all we're going to be sisters!"

She smiled at Tremma. If she were truthful, Tremma had seemed extremely excited about being in Eliria. On several occasions, she'd admitted how much she loved it here. It seemed as if she missed Velash very little.

Sky was certain she and Darrien cared for each other very much. Their engagement may have started as a peace treaty but it had evolved into something else.