A/N: ParkerEvanss thank you for all the reviews!! They made me smile! Anyways your questions will be answered I promise (or like ninety percent of them). And just a heads up the whole not explaining powers thing right now is because later on their will be need for their powers, and I don't like it when its over done.

Chapter 8: Garden (Dinner Part 2)

Eliza POV:

God, there is so many. And there he is, he's in there. I know he is! I just want this to be over, I just need to see Zan's face. I need to see him, and know it'll be okay. Just looking at him calms me down. Why? I don't know why, and for the first time in my life I don't want to know why. I just want to accept it. This smile that is plastered on my face is beginning to hurt. Most of their voices just sound the same. I can hardly tell them apart. I can remember a few voices from my travels. Some more than others. Some I haven't heard their voices in ten years. But I greet them with the same formality as I do every one else. Oh god, how many more are there? Zan's waiting for me. For me! Not someone else. This isn't a dream he's waiting for...

"Hello Eliza"- Her voice interrupts my thoughts about him. There she is, Eva, his fiancé. Something I had almost forgotten, he's as claimed as I am.

"Hello, Your Highness"- I bow in response, because unlike some royals, she demands to be recognized all them time.

"You're a lovely dancer"- Her eyes look at me suspiciously. Was I that obvious?!? Oh God, I hope not. He'd beat me for sure if I was.

"Thank you, but I have seen you dance before and it I am not nearly as good as you."- Eva lives for compliments. Maybe I misread her and that's all she wanted, because she smiled and left the to go greet the queen. Her future mother-in-law. And the torture continues. Eva was just in the beginning of the line to. How many more people must I greet?!? How long is this line going on. Forever, seems like the answer I am looking for. I need to see Zan, and tell this won't work out. We've both have our parts to play, and its not together. It can't be together.

...

My hand is beginning to hurt, from all the greeting, my face now feels like a mask from smiling. The rest of me feels numb. But thank god, the line is almost over. And I haven't seen him. Maybe he didn't come. All the royals were in the front, except for him. Maybe he didn't come.

"Hello, my love"- Oh god, I hoped to soon. Locking eyes with him, my stomach churns. I can literally feel my skin crawling in disgust. It hurts to look at him.

"Hello Your Highness"- I bow and greet him formally. Oh please don't make a scene. Please don't make a scene.

"I thought I told you not to calling your highness. You will be my wife soon enough. You can call me by my first name."-He smiles at me and kisses my hand. And I swear my hand now feels like its been stuck in fire. It feels like its burning off. But here I am staring at my future husband to be, and I am repulsed. I force my self to smile more gently then I did with the rest. Oh it hurts to move my face.

"We shall have to announce our engagement soon"- he continues.

"Maybe tonight"- Oh god not tonight. I have to tell Zan first. I want him to hear it from me first. Okay think. Convince him otherwise.

"Oh no, not tonight. It would look like your fueling off of Antar and its balls. You should do it on Munlice. On your own time."- Oh god, I hope he can't read me.

"Yes my love, you're perfectly right. Now, you must save me a dance or too"- and he leans in and kisses my already burnt hand. How am I suppose to love him and marry him, if everything about him repulses me?

Greeting everyone else becomes a haze. All I can think about is telling Zan. I have to tell him tonight. And before my fiancé sees him. I hate that word fiancé. I hate the ideas of these planets. Arranged marriages, only cause more pain all around. A part of me wishes to kill myself rather than marry him. But I know why the queen wanted this, and it kills me so. The line, after hours of standing here has finally finished. I look over the doors to the garden, and I see Zan, standing there, looking at me.

Zan's POV:

She looks slightly distracted, frazzled. What did that to her? Why does she seem so sad? I can see her coming toward the garden doors, and she looks so beautiful. She puts all these other girls to shame. She just radiates no matter where she is. My hands are shaking. I'm nervous. I have never been nervous in my life. Yet, I am scared, nervous, frighten what she might say or think.

Eliza's POV:

"Hello Zan"- I greet him, and he takes my arm and leads me to the garden. Looking around I never noticed how beautiful it was at night. With all the lights, and fountains, and decorations of such.

"It's beautiful out here"- I tell him, I look over at him and he smiles. When he smiles, every part of his face smiles, especially his eyes. His eyes are so easy to get lost in.

"Eliza, your beautiful. Ever since I first saw you, I haven't been able to think clearly. And right now all I want to know is"- I have never cried over sappy, romantic things, as I always called them when talking to Mina, yet right not I can feel my eyes watering. Why did he pause. I look keep looking straight into his eyes.

"Is who are you engaged too?"- Talk about ruining the moment. I... I know I have to tell him, but I am scared too. Scared to death.

"Why do you want to know?"- I ask him trying to avoid the question.

"So I know who I am getting myself in trouble in, when I kiss you"- Kiss me?

If I tell him, he'd never want to look at me again. I look at him, I know he's waiting for a response. I lean closer too him, and I press my lips against his. Oh god this is so wrong, but nothing has ever felt so right. As he kisses me back. Everything that I have ever feared seems to fade away. Everything that have ever made me cry seems not so sad anymore. And yet as I kiss him, and every ounce of my body feels right, feels so right. I know all the consequences there is to it. Yet, I can't pull away yet. I can't bring myself to stop, and either can he. I just want this moment to last forever. But its not fair to him. Its not. Slowly I pull away. And I continue to look straight in his eyes. They're smiling, his eyes are. And so are mine, I am sure of it. I look at him. Oh god, here comes the tears. I don't want to cry. I don't want him to see me cry. Not right now. I have got to tell him.

"Khivar"- I whisper quietly into his ears.

"Khivar what?"- He seems stunned for a while, till he finally gets it. His eyes look angrier now. I knew he'd hate me.

"I uh.. I should have told you before. But that way if something happened, you didn't know. And I knew when you found out, you'd look at me the way your looking at me. And I just wanted to kiss you first"- I say quickly, shyly and yet confidently too. I keep looking into his eyes, I knew he'd hate me. I begin to leave. I feel his hand on my arm.

"Wait"- He sounded as if he was pleading for me. A prince plead for me? I turn around, but I can't look at him. I keep my eyes on the ground. He lifts my face up by the chin. His touch, its so gentle.

"How'd you get engaged to him?"- fair enough question. In fact it's a very logical question. But the answer, I fear is much longer, much more complicated. It isn't like I lived there, and we fell in love, and he proposed. Hell no. I mean I was only 15 turning 16 when I lived there. And I was already engaged to him.

"I've been engaged to him, since I was 10. I was told right before my mother died."-I begin the story I guess.

"Apparently, he had heard a lot about me, and seen my picture and was interested. My mother was going to refuse, but she wouldn't make any decision with out the King and Queen of Antar's agreement. So she informed them. I guess they figure it'd be logical to match me up with him. It would bring him close to the Antarian crown, with Rath marrying Vilandra. But it would distance him enough too. It would be enough to appease the next king of munlice. And avoid another war. I mean its really logical. And the whole reason for arranged marriages, is for political reasons"- There I said it, I look at him. He seems even more angry now. He hates me, because I am now the tie for Khivar's family to rule to Antar. Its marrying into my family's blood that could allow them to rule antar one day.

"My mother and father arranged this? God, they're going to kill us all. Eliza, you must know there's a war coming. I mean, they just handed them the Antarian throne!"- His voice full of anger and panic.

"I don't think they were thinking long term. They were thinking about you and your rule. It'll avoid a war"- I explain to him and he looked at me, and he came his hand gently slide across my face.

"No, it'll start one"- He whispered, and pulls me in for another kiss.