There are a million words for me to describe this moment; A million ways for me to express what I feel and definitely a million ways for me to deal with this situation right now.

Unbelievable!

After running away from Fred and meeting Ace along the way gave me time to think.

As I was thinking, I thought of how nice PRINCE Ace was to me as he carried me to Midnight and made our way to the palace. How considerable, unselfish, sensitive, and respectful he was and he didn't even bother to ask me why I was crying when he found me.

He must be a fake. Yes. He must be.

"Why were you crying?" Ace asked for the hundred nth time.

I gritted my teeth and focused on the back of Midnight's head as we made our way through the forest. Honestly, that PRINCE is so nosy. Can't he take a hint that I don't want to talk about it!? "I wasn't crying." You could tell the annoyance in my voice as I answered him.

"You think my coat wet themselves to the exact spot where you buried your ugly face?"

I have to fight the urge to throw my elbow back and hit him in the stomach. "I don't know what you're talking about. All I can tell you was I wasn't crying." I snapped.

"Not crying my ass. You almost blew your snot if I did not pull you back. Also, your eyes are a bit puffy."

"I did not!" I argued and almost killed myself when I tried to turn 180 degrees to face him.

"Did you smell that?" He suddenly asked. It was clearly a change of topic and I was glad about that.

I suddenly looked around and up at the darkening sky and took a sniff. Nothing. I moved my body sideways so I can look at Ace. "I don't smell anything." I said.

"There isn't." He said and looked at me. "But I did hear a sniff. Your nose is wet which only proves that you were crying."

Touché. Smartass.

"Will you just drop it!" I finally lost it and raised my voice at him. I was angry. All those feelings bubbled up inside of me ever since I saw Fred came loose and Ace was the unfortunate soul to unleash it. "Listen here, pal. I have a lot of things happening to me the moment I stepped foot on this world and the only person who I think I can count on turned out to be a complete jerk and left. I don't need you pestering me about what happened to me, because let me tell you, IT'S NOT OKAY so shut up." My voice rose and echoed in the forest.

Ace gave me a blank look and I noticed that our horse stopped, but I did not lose eye contact with Ace. His brow seemed to furrow as he studied before it came into a frown. "Very well then." He said and hopped off of Midnight. Once he was on the ground again, he reached out and pulled me down.

I let out a yelp of surprise as Ace carried me down and settled me on the ground. He turned his back to me and climbed back up on his horse and took off at a slow pace. Did he just...?

"Hey!" I ran after him and settled on for a brisk walk beside Midnight. I glared up at Ace. "What's the big idea?!"

"You said you don't need my help. I guess that also means that you can walk your way to the palace." Ace said without looking at me.

That imbecile! Doesn't his conscience bother him that he left a girl in the woods in the middle of the night? Well, I should have known the moment I figured out he has no soul.

I rubbed my hand to my face in frustration before I turned to face Ace again. "That was not what I meant!"

Ace then cast me a side glance as he raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then what do you mean by that?"

"You know exactly what I mean!!" I yelled.

Wrong move.

Ace frowned the moment I raised my voice at him and then his horse seemed to walk a bit faster than I had to jog to keep up with them.

"You soulless freak! What's the big deal!?" I was starting to sweat now. Buy me a rose and throw me in a coffin if you please.

"I am not a mind reader, you barbaric human." Said Ace, still not looking at me. "I don't have a clue of what you mean, but unless you say something then I suppose you can find your way to the palace."

I gasped and gave him an incredulous look. "Are you blackmailing me?"

No answer. He just yawned.

"Ace, you son of a pig! And you call yourself a prince. Oh, scratch that. A PRINCE!" Before I could finish what I was about to say Ace hit his foot on Midnight’s belly and soon they were on a slow gallop.

I was running now and Ace doesn't seem to care.

"Ace! Hey!" He wasn't listening. He's not even turning around or even paying attention to me. Somehow I felt like this happened before and I feel like I know just the thing to do in this situation. I stopped running and took in a deep breath. I cupped my hands to my mouth and screamed. "PRINCE Ace!"

I wasn't sure if it would actually work or not, but it did. Ace stopped.

This snob prince and his stupid PRINCE title!

I ran towards him. Panting as I watched him climb down from his ride and turn to me. His face looked bored and looked down on me.

I was glaring at him with pure hatred. I wish I had laser eyes so I can meet him right there. "Did you seriously attempt to leave me just because I don't call you by your title?" I asked through gritted teeth.

Although Ace did not confirm it, I know I was right. With the way, he avoided my gaze and looked into the forest like he didn't hear a thing. I pursed my lips and fisted my hands. Suddenly irritated by him – when was I not?

Ace tilted his head to the side when the silence seemed to grow thicker. After a few more seconds, he finally sighed. "Look, I hate to pry on your private life, but would it not be better if you actually talk it out with someone?"

I looked at Ace. Confusion was evident on this face. "What?" Then I suddenly remembered what got us to this in the first place.

"Oh, you mean the reason why I cried – I mean – what would have been the reason if I cried." I quickly corrected myself when I saw him arch an eyebrow at me.

"Yes." He said slowly. "If you want to talk about it to make you feel better, then I will pretend to listen."

"Gee thanks!" I said sarcastically. "I really appreciate that." But honestly, when you think about it what Ace said actually makes sense. Maybe if I do talk it out with someone then maybe I would feel better. After all, bottling up your emotions is not good for you.

"Alright then." Ace finally said. "I guess you don't want to talk about it." He reached out his hand towards me. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

"I'll tell you." I suddenly said.

"What?"

I looked to the other side and bit the side of my cheeks. "I'll tell you if you'll listen." I cast a glance at Ace to see him nod.

Ace's face scrunched up in disgust like he wanted to take back his offer. Fortunately, he didn't. "Let's go then. You can tell me on the way."

With that, I let Ace help me back on Midnight, and on the way I told him everything. I started from the moment that I got separated from them, when I saw Fred, met Sophie – I kept that info to a minimum though – got attacked by those dark magic people, saved by Fred, had a talk, and ran off and met him.

I wasn't sure if Ace was really listening to me, because he did say that he would only pretend to listen. But casting a glance at him from time to time as I told him my story, I saw him nodding as if he really was listening.

After I was done, I did feel a little better. Heck, I could not stop talking till the end.

Ace looked up and stayed silent for a few minutes before he spoke. "I can understand how you feel about him right now and I won't blame you." He said. "But you can't blame him. Prince Fred has his own issues that he's currently dealing with."

I blinked at him. I was completely surprised at the fact that he was helping me and for the fact that he was actually listening.

Wow, Ace does have a little soul in him.

Ace saw me staring at him dumbly and he glared. "What!?" He growled.

I looked away quickly. "Nothing."

We rode on for a few more minutes before we saw a pathway of green and clean-cut grass that leads to a huge white castle that I think is at least 4 storeys high. As we passed through the pathway I saw tall green hedges that stood on either side and continuing on different right angles forming a maze. A bunch of flowers. The castle stood at the end of the path standing tall and majestic. It stretched throughout most of the maze's length. A gazillion fancy-looking glass windows and walls decorated with intricate patterns. In the middle of this said castle stood a huge fountain that has a man holding a giant ball that spurts water.

It would have been an amazing view if it wasn't dark and if I was in a better mood. But most of all, this is where Fred lives and I don't think I want to see him after what happened a while ago,

"Can't we go camp out for the night? You know? Someplace far far away from here?" I twisted on my seat to smile at Ace with a hopeful look.

"We can't. With the amount of stress and time that we have, I don't think camping is wise. Especially since the others must have settled in and are now waiting for us."

"Um.....waiting?"

"Got a problem with that?"

"Yeah. If my eyes are still red from crying." At that, Ace smirked and I suddenly realized that I just admitted that I was crying. I rolled my eyes and waved at him. "Yeah yeah. I was crying. You win."

As soon as we stopped by the fountain, Ace got down and assisted me. A stable boy then came and took Midnight to the stable.

We walked together to the door and I stopped in front of the door making Ace pause as well. He let out a frustrated sigh and looked at me. "What now? You're not going to run away, are you?

"Of course not!" I said quickly since I don't want him to kill me on the spot. "I just...." I rubbed my eyes feeling that they were still swollen. I grunted. "I don't want the others to see me like this. They might ask some questions and I would have to repeat my story again."

"You and your female insecurities." He muttered and I cast him a glare. He rolled his eyes at me and pulled me closer to his side.

Well not only is he rude, but he is a feminist. I will be jotting this down in my imaginary notebook.

"What are you doing!" I hissed at him.

He ignored me as he opened the door and we came in with me still stuck to his side with my face forcefully stuck to his coat. I grunted and fought to pull back when I heard footsteps and soon I heard them.

"Hey, guys! They're here." It was Dan and suddenly, more footsteps were heard but I could not see them, because – you know – I'm being held hostage here.

"Is she alright?" It was Ren.

"Where is she?" Asked Nate.

I suddenly felt Ace hold on me tighten and I felt him turn a little to the side and away from the voices. Is he....is he actually helping me hide?

"She's fine. She's tired. That's all." He said.

"Can we see her? I wanna know for sure if she's alright." Ren said and I heard footsteps coming closer to us.

"I said she's fine!" Ace snapped and he turned us to the opposite side and walked away. My head was still buried in his coat when I noticed that we suddenly came to a stop. I turned my head to the side and peaked what the reason for the pause was and immediately regretted it.

Standing before us is the last person that I wanted to see right now.

Fred stood with a maid at his side. He was looking at Ace and was looking back at him. Fred's face was unreadable as he watched Ace. Fred then lowered his gaze to me and I saw him flinch and his eyes softened for a second before it came back to that unreadable mask. I looked away from Fred and pretended that he wasn't there.

"Rose." He called and I heard him take a step forward.

I let out a breath and moved back, but I just bumped into Ace instead.

Suddenly, Ace pulled me away from him and threw me to the side where a maid was just passing by. The maid caught me and slowly steadied me.

"She's tired. Get her to her room." Ace spoke somewhere behind me.

"Already? What about dinner? She barely ate something this morning." Ren said.

Ace didn't say anything. It was Fred who spoke this time. "Bring dinner to her room." He said. And again I was reminded by how hard and cold his voice now was. How different he really was.

No, not different. This is him. The real him. He said so himself.

The maid bowed her head as she let me upstairs to where my room is. She led me to a hallway lit by lamps with some sort of glowing orb in them that I don't think is considered fire. The walls, I notice, were decorated with pictures and paintings of different swirls of different colors. Each painting has a different stroke and pattern in them and all of them make no sense.

If this were some other time I would have asked Fred and he would tell me all about them just like he did back in Thalia. Now, I don't think he would even bother talking to me or see me for that matter.

I wish I never came here. Stupid Nymphs. Is this the reason why they want me to see Fred? To see the real him?

The maid finally stopped us in front of one of the doors. "This is your room, princess." She said and waved a hand over the doorknob and it opened. She let me in a room painted in white. The floor was carpeted in red and there was a four-post bed with a neatly folded nightgown on top of it. I couldn't see much but if you compare it to the room that I stayed in back in Vertez and Sanver this really looks like a guest room. It doesn't have much but a bed, a bathroom, and a table for eating. There was a single window opposite of the door that we just came through and the room was dimly lit by those same lamps back in the hallway.

Well, I guess Fred really went through his way of making me remember him as someone else.

"Is there still anything that you need, my lady?" The maid asked.

"No," I said. "Thank you. You may go."

"Dinner will be brought in a minute. Do you need help changing clothes?"

I shook my head. "I can take care of myself." I turned around and smiled at the maid.

She bowed her head to me one last time before she went out and closed the door behind her. Now I was alone in this room.
I sighed and decided that I should take a relaxing bath to keep my mind clear. I mean, I need to do something or I might go insane!

I stripped off of my clothes and headed for the bathroom. I was just laying my head on the bathtub when I heard a knock on my door informing me that dinner was already prepared at the table in my room. I thank them as I continue to let the relaxing foam brush my skin. Once I was done, I got a towel and dried myself before I slipped on some bathrobe and went out.

Sure enough, dinner had been prepared on the table at the center of the room and a maid was waiting for me. I took a seat as I ate alone in my room with the maid watching me eat and not even bothering to make small talks. Trust me I tried to talk to her. The food was great, but I just don't have the stomach for it right now.

I barely finished half of my food when I told the maid that I was done. She started to wave her hand on the plates and it floated in the air and transferred to a wheeled tray.