A/N: Hey everybody! just wanted to let y'all know that I'm going to start replying to reviews this week! Also, I had a few people ask about updating more often since I have so much written already- I want to, but I'm in grad school, so I don't have a lot of time to write. For example, I haven't actually written anything for this story in 3 weeks. If I didn't keep ahead of myself, eventually I'd have to go on hiatus again, which I am trying SO HARD to avoid. So, sorry, but you'll have to wait for Fridays to come :) Love you all! Enjoy. This is one of my favorite chapters :)

I dash into her arms, pulling her to the ground with me, as my knees don't support my body.

"I can't believe you're here," I sob as quietly as I can.

Marlee holds me tightly and rocks me back and forth. "I'm okay, Ames. See?" she says, holding her hand out to me. I examine the red welts across her palm. They're only a few days old, so they still look pretty angry, but they don't look infected. "They aren't pretty, but they don't hurt anymore. Maxon told you everything?"

I nod. "But how are you?"

"So good," she says earnestly. "Carter is still healing, he can sit up and walk a bit, but not anything more than that. I'll get started in the kitchens soon, and he'll be in the stables when he can. It'll be hard, but we can do it. I love him, Ames."

"I'm so glad," I say, holding her to me again. "Do you need anything?" I look up to bring Maxon into the conversation, but he's gone out onto his balcony- giving us privacy, I assume.

"No," Marlee says. "The living quarters are a little small, and it'll be even worse once we're both there-"

"Both?"

Marlee grins. "We're getting married soon. We don't know when, because we'll need to have everyone distracted, but soon. And what's this?" she asks, swooping up my left hand.

"I can't-oh, screw it," I decide. No one knows she's here, and it's not like she'll tell anyone. "Maxon proposed on Halloween."

Marlee's jaw drops. "He what?"

I grin. "Before the party. It's a secret, obviously, but we were sick of dancing around each other. Actually, hold on." I get up off the floor. "Sit down somewhere, I'll be right back." I want to tell her about Aspen, but I should double check with Maxon first.

I knock quietly on the balcony door before exiting. I hug him from behind, pressing kisses to his shoulders. He stiffens, out of surprise I assume, before turning and wrapping me in his arms. Tears come to my eyes again.

"I love you so much," I whisper into his chest. He laughs so softly I barely hear it. But I feel his chest rumble, and I like that a lot. "I'm sorry for not trusting you."

"It's alright. It was a big thing I asked, I shouldn't have expected that much."

"I'm not done talking to Marlee yet, but I wanted to ask- can I tell her about Aspen? She would never tell anyone, especially given what she went through."

Maxon thinks for a moment. "I suppose that's fine. Don't be too much longer. I don't come out here very often, if I stay out all night the guards will get suspicious."

"We won't. You can come back in, you know."

"No, I'll give you your privacy. Come get me when she leaves." Maxon kisses me softly and pushes me back through the door.

Marlee has taken a seat at the table against the wall, but there are no windows nearby, so no one could see her.

"America Singer, tell me everything."

"Oh, just wait," I say with an unladylike snort. Sylvia would kill me. "So, it turns out we were both running around with guards at the same time…"

I tell her everything. Starting from my mom pressuring me to enter the Selection, all the way up to now. How hard it was for me to choose; Maxon speaking to my father; how much I miss Aspen, but how different it is from the way I missed him when I first came. Finally, I get to Halloween.

"We noticed, you know," Marlee says with a smile.

My face falls. We have to be even more secretive than we already are? That sounds awful.

"No, nothing concrete," Marlee assures me. "But we noticed he danced with all of us first, then with you the rest of the night. The other girls were thrilled at first, thinking maybe you'd get sent home, but then it became clear that we were people he had to dance with out of obligation, and he really wanted to dance with you."

"I bet Celeste loved that," I say with a grin. We'll just have to be a little more careful.

"She was furious," Marlee laughs. "Kriss and Natalie were sad, and I can never get a read on Elise. You both looked so happy together; we all know you're going to win. They're just still hoping he'll get over you somehow."

I scoot my chair around to wrap my arms around Marlee. "I think about that a lot. Maybe not that he'll get over me, but that I'll mess up and he'll realize I'm not good enough. "

"Never gonna happen," she says surely. "You're going to be amazing, I've always said that."

"I guess." I shrug off her assurances; I don't think I'll feel comfortable with the idea of being princess until I actually am the princess. "I missed you so much," I whisper.

"You, too," she says, squeezing me back. "You know, mine wasn't as pretty as yours, but we both got engaged within a day of each other, apparently."

I grin. "You're going to get married much sooner, though."

She laughs. "That's true. Any idea when yours will be?"

"No, not really. The Selection has to go on for another few weeks, and I'm not sure how long it will take to plan everything after that." I cringe at the fact that my wedding is going to be huge. It is definitely not going to be what I would have had with Aspen.

"The palace has been planning for a wedding in March, but we can always change that if you like," Maxon says, leaning against the wall next to the door to the balcony.

I turn around and almost fall out of my chair, which makes Marlee and Maxon laugh at me.

"It's time for me to go," Marlee says, standing and brushing out her skirts. I give her one more hug before she leaves. "You know," she whispers in my ear, "there's an armoire just like this in the Princess' Suite. I'll be able to sneak up and see you all the time."

"You better," I threaten before letting her go. Maxon closes the panel behind her, and I hear it softly click into place.

Maxon wraps his arms around me from behind and kisses my shoulder where my sweater has slipped down. "Good?" he asks. I can't see his eyes, but I know he's worried that I won't think this is enough and I'll want to leave.

I turn around and wrap my arms around his neck. "Good," I promise, reaching up to kiss him softly. He holds me tighter and deepens the kiss.

"Woah!" Suddenly I'm weightless, and I realize Maxon has ducked down to sweep an arm under my knees, so he's now cradling me to his chest. I giggle as he carries me over to his bed, unceremoniously dumping me in the middle. We both laugh as he crawls on top of me, dusting kisses all down my neck.

"Stop, that tickles!" I laugh, pushing him off me. Maxon groans good naturedly and rolls to the side, propping himself up on an elbow. He brushes some of my hair away from my face.

"What's it going to be like?" I ask.

"Hmm?" Maxon looks like he's in a trance. I smile and snap my fingers in front of his eyes.

"Your Highness?" I tease.

"Oh, be quiet," he says with a roll of his eyes. "What did you say?"

"What will it be like?" I repeat. I shove him a bit so I can lay my head on his chest and his hand makes its way into my hair. He'll probably tangle it, but I can't find it in me to care. "Once it's over, I mean."

"Oh," Maxon says with a smile in his voice. "Well, you'll have more lessons with Silvia about diplomacy, I believe. We decided to not do that too much during the Selection because foreign affairs are delicate with several countries at the moment, and we don't want to risk it. You'll also work with my mother quite a bit, learning what she does. You'll be planning our wedding, mostly. Though," he says seriously, "to prepare you, we don't get a ton of say in it. We have a lot of traditions."

"We should just elope," I say seriously.

"Mm. I'll think about it."

"Will I stay in my room until we get married?"

"For a week or so while they remodel the Princess' Suite. Then you'll move in there, but Silvia keeps the key for the door between our rooms until we're married." He gestures to a door on the wall across from us in the back corner.

"What does it look like?"

"Identical to mine, at the moment, but bare. The walls are lavender, from my mother. Furniture, but no curtains or mattress, that kind of thing. You'll get to choose the wall colors and everything once it's official."

"Hm." I look around his room. "I want it to be light green."

"Okay."

"Like apples. And I really do want a collage of your pictures like that," I remind him.

"I did say I'd give you anything you wanted."

"I'm holding you to that."

"I'd be surprised if you didn't."

I turn over to face him and find that he's closed his eyes. "One more thing."

He answers without moving. "Yes?"

"Where did my necklace come from? I think your mom recognized it."

This gets his attention. "Really? I saw it in the vault. I didn't think there was anything special about it, I just thought you'd like it. What happened?"

"She was being kind, talking to me about Marlee, and noticed it. She asked if it was from you, and I couldn't think of a lie, and she asked to see me later. She's going to send for me at some point soon."

He frowns. "I might try speaking to her. She won't mind, I truly think you're her favorite. She'll be mad that I didn't tell her, but not really."

"I'm her favorite?" I ask shyly.

"Of course, love," Maxon reassures me. He gives me a quick kiss on the forehead. "You're my favorite, and she's my mom. She'll love you as soon as she knows, if she doesn't already."

I'm going to be her queen. With the way the Illéan monarchy works, Maxon will take over for his father while they're still alive, which means I will be Amberly's queen. The thought makes me anxious. I need a distraction.

"What will it be like once we're married?"

Maxon smiles again. "Well, to start with, we'll go on our honeymoon. Anywhere in the world you want, and that's where we'll go."

"I… don't know." I'd never considered even having a honeymoon, let alone leaving Carolina.

"You have a few months to decide," he responds with a smile. "When we get back, that door will never be closed. If you feel strongly about it, we can sleep in separate rooms, but I'd much rather-"

"I do feel strongly," I interrupt. "We won't."

"I quite agree," Maxon says, pulling his hand through my curls. "We won't see much of each other during the day, I'm afraid. I'll have meetings and briefs all the time, and you'll be running the palace and planning events and such. You'll have your philanthropy project, and once you have one going, the others after are easier to bring up. We'll spend our days doing our best to make this country a better place, then we'll have dinner together.

"In a few years there will be children," he continues. I'm lying nearly on top of him now, his fingers drawing swirling patterns along my spine. His chest rumbles with his voice, lulling me to sleep.

"We'll have kids, America. First they'll be tiny. We'll take turns feeding them when we can. Then they'll grow up a little and come into our room when they have nightmares. We'll all eat lunch in my office sometimes and they'll teethe on my pens. They'll learn to walk by our bench in the gardens, we'll teach them to swim in the pools. We'll all watch movies together on the weekends. Then they'll be teenagers, and we'll miss having little kids, so we'll just have more. I'll take you on a vacation somewhere whenever we can, just the two of us…"

My eyes flutter shut and Maxon sends me to sleep with stories of the sticky handprints on our furniture and the family trips to the beach that we'll have for the rest of our lives.