And never could I have known the taste of Heaven,

Had I not swallowed pieces of Hell first.

-EBN

I couldn't keep my excitement at bay.

My hands were shaking. My head moving back and forth in the same restless movement as my feet. I needed something to do.

Lizzy was gone doing who knew what chore.

I had the light sequence, the show, the walkway, the gardens- all of it was perfect.

Mr. Joseph paid me the highest compliment I had ever received when I showed him my work. He simply took my hand, kissed it and said, "Brilliant."

The atmosphere had changed drastically since the Prince's arrival.

Instead of the chaos and random burst of hyperventilation and tears- there instead seem to be a calm over the castle. The staff knew it, and I knew it.

We were ready for the Ceremony.

I saw Lizzy then down the hall, struggling to walk straight with piles of vegetables stacked in her arms.

"Lizzy!" I yelled, running to her.

She turned around to me and smiled.

"Come to help finally?" She joked.

I gave a small chuckled before reaching for the carrots and potatoes piled in a basket, leaving her the lettuce.

"Come on then," Lizzy said, motioning for me to follow her.

We went to the kitchen and deposited all the vegetables.

"Do you need help peeling?" I asked one of the cooks. We had only added to the enormous amount of food sitting waiting to be washed and cooked.

"Get out of my Kitchen!" He yelled, brandishing his knife that he had been using to cut carrots.

Lizzy stuck her tongue out at the man and wiggled it in his direction, "No need to be rude Lefair!"

Lafair continued growling at us and waving his knife, but I knew now with Lizzy's playful banter that he meant no harm.

"Have you girls explored the castle yet?" He asked us.

We both shook our heads. Between creating the lights and cleaning for the Blue Moon Ceremony, not much free time was left for fun and adventure.

"Go on then," he said, waving his knife in the direction of the door. "I'll give you an hour break before I put you to work on them." He motioned towards the potatoes.

Lizzy quickly grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the kitchen.

"This is our chance!" She squealed.

"Chance for what?" I asked, tugging at my arm, trying to get her to release it.

Lizzy turned to me and said with an earnest voice, "We can go spy on the Prince!"

I gave her a scolding click and swatted her hand from my arm.

"We can't just go and look in on the Prince!" I said to her.

"Omygosh Fayette! He's so gorgeous! Maybe he's training!" She had a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"Lizzy," I moaned, "You've only seen the Prince for what? Three seconds? That's not enough judgment to go off of. You probably just exaggerated how he looked in your mind."

Suddenly Lizzy stopped abruptly in the hallway and turned quickly around to face me.

"Wait," she said, her mouth gaping open in shock at a sudden revelation that had occurred to her. "Have you ever seen the Prince before?"

I looked away guiltily in a different direction.

"FAYETTE!" Lizzy screamed.

"Alright!" I yelled. "I haven't seen him okay? No, I don't know what he looks like."

"We have to go find him right now," Lizzy said in a hurried single breath.

She grabbed my arm again and we were racing down the hall.

We stopped when Lizzy saw Mr. Joseph.

"Mr. Joseph!" Lizzy waved her hand in greeting at him and dragged us to be closer.

Mr. Joseph turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"Not working girls?" He said. I gave an audible gulp, but Lizzy bravely stepped forward and explained, "Lefair gave us an hour off. We were wondering if the Prince was around?"

I gasped out loud at Lizzy's boldness.

Lizzy! I screamed in my mind, you can't just ask about the Prince's location like that!

Mr. Joseph chuckled at us though and directed us to another man.

"This is George," Mr. Joseph said, "He can tell you everything there is about the Prince and the kingdom."

Lizzy and I looked at George. He stood stiffly straight up. "Thank you, sir. Very kind sir." He said to Mr. Joseph.

Mr. Joseph nodded and whispered to us, "Yes, do try to have fun girls," before walking away.

Lizzy and I turned back to George who was still standing at attention.

"Hello," Lizzy said, putting out her hand in greeting. George looked at it and then stiffly shook it, giving it a quick jerk before letting go.

"I'm Lizzy and this is Fayette," she said motioning towards me.

I nodded my head in greeting, having a feeling that George didn't want to shake hands again.

"Right," George said, getting straight down to business, "what is it you would like to know?"

"Where's the Prince?" Lizzy blurted.

George did not blink at the question. Instead, he developed a very serious look on his face and said, "Unfortunately the Prince does private training for the majority of the day and does not permit anyone to disturb him."

Lizzy had that gleam in her eye again.

"Well," she said. "We need to see what the Prince looks like. This girl," she pointed to me, "hasn't a clue about his appearance."

George gave a shocked look in my direction.

"Maybe there's a picture of him somewhere?" Lizzy suggested.

George shook his head in a grave way. I had a slight feeling from him that he was taking our problem and making it a bigger issue than need be.

"Unfortunately there are no current portraits of the Prince. The most recent one we have is of him on his 12th birthday."

"Really?" I asked. "Why has he had no portraits done since then?"

George shook his head gravely again.

"No painter has been able to stand in his presence for that long to complete a painting."

Lizzy and I gave each other confused looks.

"They call him the Stone Prince," George said to Lizzy and I. Awe and fear mixed with his voice.

Again Lizzy and I gave each other confused looks.

"The stone Prince?" I whispered questionably to Lizzy.

"It's probably because of his abs," she whispered back.

"I-it-what?" George sputtered at Lizzy.

"No?" Lizzy said giving him a questioning gaze.

"Maybe he likes....plants too much?" I suggested.

"I said stone not stoned!" George said, breaking his stiff form and throwing his hands in the air frustrated.

He moaned his regret at ever deciding to engage us in conversation.

"Okay then," I said, knowing George wasn't taking our joking to well. "Why is he called that?"

"Because," he said, straightening back up in his stiff stance, "his face never changes. It's like it's been chiseled in stone. He only has one blank expression that he wears."

Lizzy an I stared at George, who now seemed satisfied that he had made his point across about the Prince.

George turned away from us walked off. I could tell he didn't want to continue associating himself with us anymore.

"What do you make of that?" I asked Lizzy.

"Well..." Lizzy mused, "he did seem...blank when he came to the pack during his search..." she looked up at me with doubtful eyes.

"Maybe he's shy?" I suggested.

"EEeeeeehhhh..." Lizzy said.

"Or," I said, thinking it through, "it could be like with Alpha Bruno...You know how he has two faces? One that's hard and powerful for the pack but another that's his real self that only we see?"

Lizzy's eyes gleamed. "My dear Fayette," she said, wrapping her arm around my back and leading me to the kitchen, "I think you've just figured out our Prince."

Before we could reach the kitchen though, we were interrupted by a small cough.

It was a delicate cough that I guessed the person did many times before finally catching our attention with it.

We turned around at the noise and saw a woman in a huge flowing green dress the shimmered when hit upon with sunlight.

Only one such person could be wearing something so fine.

"Ahem," she said, giving her small cough again. "I'm looking for a Fayette?" She looked between the two of us with a small smile on her lips. Our lack of answer though made the smile transform into an ugly scowl.

"Don't you two girls know how to address your Queen?"