Hey, everyone! Thanks for being so loyal to my story! The chapter many, so so many have been waiting for!

Enjoy! "I told you to hide your heart once. You should have listened."

Mare

The next day follows the usual schedule. I start my morning with a nagging Kilorn trying to get me to drink coffee. I go to another pointless Scarlet Guard meeting. I guess they haven't got a plan on how to have me avoid death yet. I've started training with Ella again. My anger towards life in general fuels my motive at getting stronger.

But what comes that night is anything but usual. I dress in the simple pale pink dress that I had found in my closet. It goes to my knees, flowing around my legs. I wear the three-inch heels Maven sent me, and tie my hair into a neat bun. Not too ornate. As I get deeper into my lessons, I suppose I will have to wear a floor length dress. I cringe at the thought.

My heels click louder than I would like them to on the way to the ballroom. It's after 10:00 at night, and most have retired to their chambers. What seems like eternity, I finally arrived at the ballroom. I have a theory in which they've placed me at the opposite end of the palace from the ballroom just to keep me away from their events.

I push the door open, revealing Cal in semi-formal wear.

"Thank you for this," I say, causing him to turn around.

"Of course,"

"Now I have to warn you, you'll most likely have foot injuries, by the end of this," I said trying to enlighten the mood. We both new this dancing lesson really could mean life or death.

Cal shook his head, "I'm sure I've endured worse."

"I'm not sure about that. I could substitute my feet in place of lightning and would do just fine." I say smugly.

"I'd love to see that." He smiles genuinely. "Ready?"

I scoff, "Of course not! But we have to start at some point."

We begin with the basic steps, I had learned previously. A little rusty, but not terrible for having not danced in over a year. Later on, we venture into more complicated moves, including dips and spins. After what feels like ages, music begins to flow from the speakers.

"I see you've advanced from boxes to speakers. Impressive."

"Are you ready to put a dance together?" I nodded after a few seconds, listening to the tune. I was sure I had heard it before, but where?

While many silver men would jerk you around the ballroom, acting as if he was the leader of the dance, Cal wasn't like this. Although I was inexperienced, he treated me as an equal. We waltzed around the expansive room, for a moment forgetting all the problems of life. I hadn't been paying attention to the music, but after picking up a few lines, I remembered where I had heard the song. The last time we danced.

Not really knowing what I was doing, I broke out of the rhythm, and grabbed Cal by his shirt collar, and kissed him. Forgetting all he had done to me, I still loved him. He quickly melted into the kiss, almost as if he was expecting it. Perhaps he had been, I highly doubted this song had been played by coincidence.

I hadn't felt this sensation in weeks, and I admit, I missed it terribly.

"I love you," he whispered into my ear.

"I love you," I whispered back.

I couldn't explain how I was able to say the words out loud. I was caught up in the moment, not paying attention to what I was really saying. In simplicity, I was speaking the truth.

"Do you think Maven is watching?" He murmured softly.

"Yes, I do hope Maven's watching," I say loud enough so that any voice recorder could hear me. "Let's give him a show," I say the last part with barely any volume to my voice.

He dips me low and plants a light kiss on my forehead. Saying the words "I love you," once more. For the first time, I do not respond with a comment about the crown. I just let myself drown in his eyes, taking it all in.

We danced all night, smiling and kissing each other. Never breaking eye contact, only for when he spun me did we break eye contact, but even then, only less than a second.

By the time we were done, some would call it early morning. For us it was night. We found ourselves going to Cal's room, so exhausted falling asleep on the floor.

I wake up the next morning, still on the floor, with Cal asleep next to me. As soon as I adjust to my surroundings, I take a long look at the clock. One in the afternoon? I've never slept that late in my life. I've always been busy with morning chores or early day pickpocketing. But then again, I've never danced so much nor stayed up that late. I've missed the daily Guard meeting, and training with Ella would begin right around now. I could make it to training nearly on time, but I stop myself. What's the pain in missing one training session, I'll make it up at some point.

I find my stomach growling, after all, I haven't eaten since dinner last night. I strolled towards the kitchen, surprised to find there is one at all. I've never seen a kitchen in palace chambers before. Perhaps the Samos's enjoy being self-sufficient once in awhile. I begin to envy Cal's kitchen once I open the refrigerator. Bounties of food are placed inside. My eyes land on a carton of eggs, bringing me back to the memory of my mother teaching me to make scrambled eggs with dirty water. That was only a few years ago, I'm sure I could make eggs now.

After 10 minutes, I find myself successful. I season my work with salt and pepper and add apple slices on the side. I pick at my breakfast, (although I should've had lunch by now) for about five minutes, watching soldiers train below. Seems they train all over the palace grounds, ready to cover every door in time of ambush.

After a while, I hear noise coming from inside the room. I smooth out my dress as best as I can, and turn around from the balcony. Quick as a wink, in the last five seconds, Cal has already managed to get to the kitchen.

"Thank you," he says, motioning towards the plate of eggs I left for him.

"I find eggs much better when you use tap water, instead of Stilt water."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault I was born with red blood, Cal,"

"I know. But I'm sorry for everything you've had to deal with."

"Thank you." For awhile after, there was a silence to the room. Neither of us really knew what to say. So I decided to ask the question that had been eating at me for weeks. "Why do you want to be king, Cal?"

He took a deep breath, thinking over his response carefully as I watched him.

"There's a lot of reasons. I feel I have a duty and responsibility to fix all of Maven's wrongs, as well as my father's. I want to make this society equal."

I sunk to the floor. He wanted the best of both worlds. He would never ask me to give up my family and friends for him. I asked him to give up everything he's been raised for. If I had been asked the same question, I would've chosen the same.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "You shouldn't have to choose."

"No, no. Don't give me sympathy. You should be able to have all of me."

I look down at the marble floor. Pausing to think. Cal could never give me all of him. Too many connections. Perhaps I couldn't either. I still have my family. Many, many reds could be outraged if I married a silver king. I haven't a desire for queen. I never have. I don't need more power. I already feel out of control with the little amounts I have now.

"You're right. I could never have all of you. As long as you're king, I could never. As for you, I don't know if I could ever fully give myself to you anyway."

For a split second, I see the pain on his face. His time as a prince nearly taught him perfectly to cover his emotions. But he never quite got it perfect. "I understand. We would have never been together anyway. We shouldn't have even stated anything in the first place."

I turn my head up to him. "Don't say that. However short our time was together, I would never take it back."

"You're right. I wouldn't trade it for anything."

"But yet you still pick Norta over me."

"A good king shouldn't let anything or anyone come before his duty."

"Why do you want to become king so badly, Cal? I don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to be king. What is it that's making you?" I ask, leaving him with a question as I exit the room.

After changing into my training wear, I sprint to get to training with Ella. I get there only fifteen minutes late, making good time after everything that's happened. On my way to the silver and newblood training area, I had thought about everything that's happened. I mentally slap myself for kissing him. I mentally slap myself again because I was the one who kissed him.

I need to accept the fact that he's not mine anymore. He's Norta's and Norta's only.

Startling me from my from my line of thought, comes Ella. It seems, based on my expression she has decided to not reprimand me because of my being late. Lately, I've been working on building up my stamina. Ella has trained my endurance so I can conjure give or take five bolts from the sky before falling to my knees. She, it seems can fire off bolts upon bolts of electricity, never tiring.

My gift has come a long way since Mare Barrow, the red servant girl fell into the arena. I can conjure storms with a thought and although we've decided to not test the theory, I believe I could knock out Archeon's entire power grid. The worst part is, there's a voice in the back of my head telling me I will be performing that very task soon. Too soon. Much too soon I'll be slipping the wretched dress on and painting the paste onto my tanned skin, covering up who I really am.

I look over at Ella, who is practicing long range lightning shots. Her lightning is a different color than mine. Blue while mine is purple. Maven mentioned in his letter, which was about the same length as one of Julian's books, that there would be an ability scanner at the ball, not letting anyone else pass as me. Ella has lightning as well.