"It seems that everything is in order," Madame Armistead said, shuffling through her rather large stack of papers. "I have every reason to believe that tomorrow's ball will be a success."

Madame Armistead was a rather stern looking woman with horn-rimmed glasses and raven colored hair that she pulled back tightly into a bun. Eric had hired her to plan the ball he was insisting on throwing in Ariel's honor. Over the past month and a half she had overseen every little detail, from the food to the music to the gift bags every guest would take home at the end of the night. Ariel wasn't sure why someone like Madame Armistead had decided to make a career out of planning parties and events. She was quite young—probably only in her early twenties—but she dressed like a fifty-year-old schoolmarm and constantly had a pinched expression on her face, as if everything around her was a hindrance that she simply had to deal with to get through the day. Ariel wasn't sure if she'd ever seen her smile.

"That is excellent news, Madame," Eric said, flashing her a smile from across the table.

Ariel stiffened slightly as Madame Armistead blushed and mumbled that he could call her Madeleine if he wanted to. She knew that Eric was big flirt, but she couldn't help but feel a bit jealous every time he sent that charming grin in another woman's direction. She hated watching their reactions too, even though she couldn't really blame them for melting on the spot. He was exceptionally handsome and charming. Hell, he'd even gotten a reaction out of the ice queen sitting across the table from them. But, Eric was hers. She didn't like the constant reminders that he could have any girl he wanted.

"Excuse me, Your Highness," a servant said from the doorway. "You have a message."

"Bring it here," Eric said, waving him into the room.

The servant crossed the room, holding out a silver tray with a letter sitting atop it.

"Thank you," Eric said, taking the letter. "You may go."

He broke the seal and skimmed over the letter.

"Well, well, well," he said, tossing it down on the table. "It looks like my parents are finally finished touring Europe and have decided to return home. They'll be arriving the day after tomorrow."

"That's a pity," Ariel said. "They'll miss the ball."

Eric shrugged. "We seem to have different definitions of the word pity, darling."

Ariel knew that Eric wasn't very fond of his parents, particularly his father. He resented the fact that the king was never around to do his job. And even though he'd never admit it, she had a feeling he resented the fact that his parents hadn't been around much when he and Andy were children. They let their sons do as they pleased and gave them every material possession they could possibly ask for, but they let nannies do the actual childrearing. As a princess, Ariel knew that it was hard for monarchs to spend time with their children, but her father had always made sure that he was around as much as possible for her and her sisters.

"Well, I'm looking forward to meeting them," Ariel said.

Eric pinched the bridge of his nose, suddenly looking much more tired than before.

"Eric?" she asked uncertainly.

He shook his head and stood up, holding out his hand. "Come on," he said. "Let's get out of here."

Madame Armistead stood up as well. "I take it we're done here?"

Eric waved his hand dismissively in her direction, still gazing intently at Ariel. "Yes, thank you. You may go now."

Once she was gone, Ariel turned her attention back to Eric. "I'd love to go somewhere with you, darling," she said, reaching out and cupping his cheek in her hand. "But I told Andy I would go into town with him this afternoon."

At the sound of his brother's name, Eric let out a huff of annoyance and pulled away from her touch.

Ariel smiled. "Jealous?" she cooed.

Eric's gaze dropped to her lips. "Completely," he murmured.

She got to her feet and wrapped her arms around his waist, pouting up at him. "Forgive me?"

He kissed the tip of her nose. "Always."

It had been a month and half since Eric had taken her to the ship, and their relationship had been growing stronger every day since. She was pretty sure she loved him, though neither of them had said the words. He was just so…perfect.

Eric let out a disgruntled sigh as he stormed out of his father's study, where the meeting with Madeleine Armistead had taken place. He crumpled the letter from his mother into a ball and hurled it to the ground.

He loathed his parents. Especially his father. He despised his father. The stupid fool ran off every chance he got, leaving Eric behind to do any actual work. Hell, Eric might as well be king already. He certainly did everything the king was supposed to do. Not that he minded the work. He'd waited his whole life to be king. It was his destiny, his birthright, the entire reason he existed. But he hated sitting by and doing all the work, while his father got all the glory. He didn't just want to do all the duties of the king. He wanted to be theking.

He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. His parents had no idea that Ariel had been staying at the castle for nearly two months. In fact, they had no idea that Ariel even existed. Neither he nor Andy had mentioned it in any correspondence with their parents (this was largely due to the fact that neither of them actually bothered to correspond to their parents).

He had a bad feeling that his parents weren't going to be happy when they found out that Eric planned to marry Ariel. He hadn't proposed or anything yet, but he knew that she'd say yes when he did. He practically had the stupid girl eating out of the palm of his hand. But the problem was that she was not the girl his parents wanted him to marry. If the king and queen had their way, Eric would marry Princess Ingrid of Arendelle. It would be a great opportunity to expand trade between Reissa and Arendelle and strengthen international relations and blah blah blah. But Princess Ingrid smelled like piss and had an awful overbite. Her main hobby was stitching cat faces onto handkerchiefs and giving them away as gifts. Eric had received one from her for every single one of his last five birthdays. He sometimes used them to mop up coffee that he spilled while eating breakfast in bed.

He knew his parents wouldn't force him to marry Ingrid, but he did know that they wanted him to marry girl with some affluence and money. Ariel was a runaway. Eric knew nothing of her past except that she was a mermaid (and even that was supposed to be a secret). For all he knew, she could be a poor peasant mermaid. And even if she wasn't—even if she was a mermaid princess—she could not provide any evidence of it. She might as well have had no past. She was nobody. She was not the kind of girl a future king married.

His parents were going to be furious when he announced his intention. They would do everything in their power to talk him out of it. But nothing they could say would deter him. He had to marry Ariel. And after he did, the Sea Witch would come and take what he needed from her. He would prove the existence of mermaids and take control of their undersea kingdom. He would have his trophy mermaid wife. And he would go down in history as the most powerful, smartest and bravest monarch that ever was. He would be a legend. Children would fall asleep to stories about him. Songs and epic poems would be written about his accomplishments and statues would be erected in his honor.

He sighed heavily. How was he going to be able to convince his parents to allow Ariel to be his wife? Perhaps he could—

"You look upset, Your Highness," a voice said, pulling Eric from his thoughts.

He opened his eyes. Madeleine Armistead was standing in front of him, peering at him curiously through her horn-rimmed spectacles.

He pulled himself away from the wall. "I thought you left."

"I left my bag in there," she said, gesturing toward the door of the study. "I came back to fetch it."

Eric reached out and opened the door. "Go right ahead, Madame," he said, giving an exaggerated bow and tipping an imaginary hat.

"Thank you, sir," she said, stepping through the doorway and pausing. "You'd make an excellent servant."

He smiled, discreetly looking her up and down. Her entire look screamed stern and tightly-wound. With her glasses and bun and high-collared dress, she reminded him of a teacher he'd had at boarding school. They were both young and attractive, but were for some reason determined to hide it as much as possible. His teacher had been a complete bitch who handed out detentions like candy. She gave him bad grades on his first few tests and essays, but he cornered her after class one day and fixed that. All he had do was whisper a few sweet nothings in her ear and she was practically begging him to take her right there on top of her desk. So he did. He got great grades in her class after that.

He wondered how Madeleine Armistead would be in bed. His teacher had turned into a wild animal. It was always the ones you least expected.

He hadn't been with anyone since Ariel had showed up, which was fine because there'd been a lot to distract him. But suddenly all he could do was picture Madeleine naked and writhing underneath him. He felt his trousers tighten as she emerged from the study, holding her bag. How difficult would it be to seduce her?

He gave her his most charming smile, watching as her face turned red and she shyly smiled back.

It seemed it wouldn't be difficult after all.

"Watch this!" Andy said, scampering off toward a display of oranges in the town market.

Ariel followed closely behind, watching curiously as he grabbed an orange. The vendor looked up just as Andy began to turn away without paying for it.

"Hey!" the fruit vendor called after them as Andy grabbed Ariel's hand and they took off running down the crowded street, weaving through the crowds of people. "Come back here, you thief!"

They didn't get far before a constable cornered them, tapping his police baton in his hand and glaring menacingly down at them. Ariel let out a squeak of fright, but Andy seemed to be repressing a smirk.

"You think you can take things that don't belong to you without paying, do you?" the constable asked, his voice gruff.

"You mean this?" Andy asked, holding up the orange and blinking innocently.

"Yes, that," the constable replied. "Go back and pay for it or I'll have to arrest you."

"Sir, do you know who I am?" Andy asked, his voice calm.

The constable studied him for a moment and his face went pale. "Your Highness, I…I…"

"Why would I steal an orange?" Andy asked. "I'm a prince. Of course I paid for it. I have the money, after all."

"Yes, but…but that vendor said you'd stolen it."

Andy tilted his head, knitting his eyebrows together in faux indignation. "Who are you going to believe, sir? The prince or some random street vendor? I'm saying that I paid for this orange. My friend here can vouch for me." He nudged her in the side. "Can't you, Ariel?"

"Yes," she said quickly, deciding it was in her best interest to play along.

The constable nodded quickly. It was clear that he was wondering if his job was in danger. "Of course, of course. Would you like me to do something about that lying vendor?"

"There's no need," Andy said. "I'm sure he was just mistaken."

After the constable had left them, Andy turned back in the direction they had come from. Ariel followed after him, hoping to find out some answers to the countless questions currently bouncing around in her head.

"What the hell was that?" she asked, catching up to him.

"That was fun," he replied simply, coming to a stop in front of the fruit vendor. He reached into his pocket and produced a large gold coin, which he tossed into the hands of the stunned vendor. "Forgot to pay earlier," was all he said. "I hope this covers it."

"Andy, that was much more than what the orange actually costs," said Ariel as they turned away, leaving behind a vendor who was still muttering breathless thank-yous.

Andy shrugged. "It was the least I could do for causing him all that distress."

"You stole an orange. I doubt his business would have suffered too much."

"I did not steal an orange. I planned to pay for it all along. I just wanted to have a little fun first. Did you see that constable's face when he realized who he had just threatened with arrest?" He chuckled. "Priceless."

Ariel laughed. "It was quite amusing," she agreed as they began the walk back to the castle.

Over the past month and a half, she and Andy had become good friends. In fact, he was her only friend (other than Eric, who didn't really count as a friend). It was hard to make friends when she spent so much of her time in a castle. Not that she minded. She loved it here. The kingdom was beautiful and she was sure she'd seen every nook and cranny of it. And Eric had promised that they would one day travel all over the world together.

When they arrived back to the castle, they immediately headed to Andy's self-proclaimed "spot." He had showed it to her about a month ago. When he was little, he would always go up to the highest tower in the castle, the one that had a magnificent view of the ocean, to get away from Eric or whatever overbearing nanny the two of them currently had. According to Andy, it had once been used as a prison for criminals while they waited to be beheaded for treason back in medieval times, but now it wasn't used for anything.

They both collapsed on the ground, panting slightly. There were a lot of stairs to walk up to get to this room.

Ariel ran her hand over the cold stone floor. "You should get some furniture up here, Andy."

Andy rolled onto his back and began peeling his orange. "I can't in good conscious ask any of the servants to haul a chair and a divan up all those stairs for me, can I?"

"I suppose not," she said, reaching out to accept the piece of orange wedge he handed her.

"A rug wouldn't hurt though," he murmured. "Don't know why I didn't think of that before. I've only been coming up here for seven years."

She giggled. "You know, you kind of remind me of my friend Marsious," she said without thinking.

He turned to look at her. "You've never talked about your friends and family before."

She shrugged. "Yeah, well…"

"You're quite the mystery, Ariel," Andy remarked. "Now tell me, what is it about me that reminds me of that friend of yours?"

"I don't know. That whole things back there at the market just seemed liked the kind of thing he'd do. And he would have dragged me right along with him. He was trouble. Drove me crazy our whole lives. Of course, I drove him crazy too. Because if anyone knew how to get in more trouble than him, it was me. I've never been one for following the rules. I've always been under the impression that they're meant to be broken. And Marsious and I—well, we broke a lot of them."

"Were you in love with him?" Andy asked.

"Maybe. I haven't figured that out yet. He was in love with me though. Told me so right before I left. He said he'd always loved me."

"Well, don't tell Eric that. He'll get jealous. He's mad about you, you know. I've never seen him so devoted to a single girl for so long."

She smiled. "I quite like Eric too."

"Maybe you'll be my sister someday," Andy murmured, shutting his eyes.

She closed her eyes too. "Maybe," she agreed.

"Are you gonna miss me when go back to school in a couple days, Ariel?" Andy asked a few minutes later.

Ariel opened her eyes and turned her head to the side. Andy's eyes were still closed. "Yes, of course," she replied. "Are you going to miss me?"

The corner of his mouth twitched up. "Perhaps."

"Are you going to see Clarissa before you leave?"

"No," he said, an edge in his voice that hadn't been there before. "Why would I do that?"

"I don't know," Ariel said. "I was just wondering."

"She doesn't want anything to do with me. It'll be much easier to just stay away from her. If she changes her mind, she knows where to find me."

Ariel didn't reply. She didn't know what to say. Instead she just shut her eyes and attempted to make herself as comfortable as possible. Tomorrow there was a ball to attend, which she was slightly dreading, but today there was nothing to do except lay here with her friend.

As she drifted off to sleep, lying there inside the highest point in the entire kingdom of Reissa on a stone floor that countless prisoners had spent there last night on, her thoughts turned to Marsious, just as they often did. She wondered what he was doing at that very moment. Was he thinking about her too?

"Hey, Marsious, wait up!" Azalea Nimiane called as the two of them swam out of the large coral structure that served as a school.

School had just started back up for the fall and already Marsious was sick of it. It was a good thing he never bothered to show up most of the time.

Azalea was a beautiful mermaid. She had waist-length black hair and sharp cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes. She was fun and flirty and had a purple tail and every boy their age was in love with her. She didn't pay any of them any mind though. She was too busy pursuing Marsious. Because Marsious was the only boy who'd never shown much interest in her. It wasn't that he didn't think she was gorgeous. He wasn't blind. But it had always been Ariel. For him, there had never been anyone else.

But Ariel was gone…

He had every intention of bringing her back.

But for now she was gone…

Azalea wrapped her arms around his waist. "You wanna get out of here?" she murmured in his ear. "I can help you with your math homework."

He and Azalea had kissed once. At a ball in honor of the king's birthday a year ago, long before he and Ariel ever had. Ariel had been mad at him for some reason that he could no longer recall. He had kissed Azalea in some sort of pathetic attempt to make Ariel jealous. He had kind of hoped that she would see it and realize that she had secretly loved him her entire life and finally embrace the fact that they were to be married.

It hadn't worked.

"Well?" Azalea asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"What?"

"Your math homework?" she repeated, looking slightly annoyed. Azalea wasn't the kind of girl who was used to being ignored. "I was thinking I could help you with it."

He shook his head, unhooking her arms from around his waist. "No, actually, I, er….need to go meet with the king about something."

She frowned. "Really? That's the excuse you came up with? Did you really think I would believe that? If you don't want to spend time with me then just say so. Don't be such a coward."

"It's the truth," he muttered.

She cocked her head to the side, a sudden look of realization passing over her face. "It's about Ariel, isn't it? The two of you have some plan to find her and bring her back, don't you?"

He nodded. "It's not going particularly well at the moment. We need some help from someone who's not very keen to help us."

Azalea leaned in, planting a kiss on his cheek. "I hope you find her," she murmured. "She's a lucky girl, if she's the girl who owns your heart. Hopefully one day she realizes that."

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