My 16th birthday is tomorrow and I am terrified. I have a very good reason to be terrified though. Not a reason like, “I just want to stay young forever.” or something ridiculous like that. You see, there was a lot riding on my 16th birthday. In every kingdom every year on people’s 16th birthdays something special could happen to them. At the exact time that they turn 16, for me that is at 2:30 a.m, their eyes could change from their original color to violet. This was a pretty rare occurrence because violet eyes means that person now has something we call a ‘presence’. Basically a presence is when a person can do something that nobody else can do like flying. The darker violet their eyes are, the more powerful of a presence they have.

If I do not get a presence then my kingdom, Kuli, would be pronounced easy to invade because I was not just a normal citizen of the kingdom. No, I am the youngest royal in my kingdom. Princess Ariana Esma. However I go by Ari. I have two older brothers whose sixteenth birthdays' had already passed away and neither of them got a presence. My eldest brother is Crown Prince Tristian at age 19. My other brother's name is Prince Carter, and he is 18 years old. When there is a generation in a kingdom where no royal children receive a presence, that family is not believed to be royal. They would be pronounced fakes. This means that other royal families can wage war on them without any consequences. I would not let that happen to my family. Not that I could do anything to make sure that I get a presence. That does not stop my family from trying however.

My strict mother, Queen Catherine, forced me to take lavender soap filled baths every day for six months. Each was nearly twenty minutes because she believed it would make me get a presence. Apparently this was how her mother tried to force her to get a presence. Even though it had not worked, my mother still believed that it could work on me. After all my grandmother had done it to my mother’s younger sister and she had received a presence.The rest of my family had a little bit of a different approach for helping me. My regal father, King Daniel, ordered me to get a presence. Like literally. He made me kneel in front of his throne and then ordered me in a loud voice to get a presence. He just did that because he did not know how else to deal with this problem. Especially since he never got a presence. His older brother got one though. Meanwhile my ridiculous brothers scared me wherever I went. They thought that scaring me would somehow force me to get violet eyes.

I really hope that it works. I know that deep down, if I do get a presence, it will not be because of what they did, but a girl can dream. As I lay in bed that night, I started wishing on all the stars I could see outside of my window that I would get a presence. I could not bear the pain of knowing I let both my family and kingdom down. It would be too much. That night I tried to sleep, but I could not. The stress was too much. After about 11:30 p.m I decided that I could not lay in bed anymore. I got up, dressed in a dark violet gown for luck, and went outside into the gardens. I knew that my parents would think that it was strange to see me up so late, and even more so because I was all dressed up, but I couldn't care less at that moment. If they did see me then I just hoped they would remember how stressed they were the night before their 16th birthdays’.

As I walked alone in the moonlit garden, at least as alone as a princess is with her guards, I finally felt some peace in the matter. There was nothing I could do to change what was going to happen. Smiling now, I looked around at all the fully bloomed flowers all around me. There were roses, lilies, lavenders, carnations, and so much more. All different colors, shapes, and smells. Turning around I gazed at my beautiful home with all of its turrets, spirals, and balconies. The silver color of my home almost seemed to glow in the moonlight. After walking around a bit more, I decided to head back to my room to maybe get a little bit of sleep that night. I was thinking that it was possible now that I had finally calmed down some.

Walking slowly back to my room, I tried to not think about what would happen tomorrow, or more technically today, and just tried to relax. Once back in my room, I bid my guards good-night, changed back into my pajamas, and crawled into bed. Almost immediately, I fell sound asleep. At 2:30 the next morning, about 2 hours after I had fallen asleep, I was woken up by a knock on my door. I blinked and rubbed my eyes trying to wake up. The knock sounded again. Louder.

Sighing, I got up, and went to the door. The two guards stationed in my room stood on either side of me at the ready even though if there was danger my two guards outside of my room would have warned us. I opened it once they were in position. My family, who stood right outside of the door, all had different reactions when they saw me. My mother started crying and hugging me to her, my dad looked extremely relieved, and my brothers both started cheering. I was shocked for a moment, but then I shook off my sleepiness and remembered. Today was my 16th birthday and it was now past 2:30 a.m. Based on their reactions, I had gotten my wish of a presence.

Gently stepping out of my mother’s tight hold, I went in front of my mirror to see my eyes. Originally hazel, my eyes were now violet. My mouth dropped open in shock. Not only were they violet, they were a darker shade of violet. That meant that I had gotten more than I had planned for. My dad walked up and put his hands on my shoulders. “You will now be even more of a target then you were before. Especially since your eyes are so dark. From now on you will be trained to use your presence and have six guards instead of four. The extra two will come from my personal guards.”

“Wait,” I said breathlessly. “Does that mean I am an even bigger target than you if you are giving me two of your guards?” Smiling, my dad nodded.

“Yes. That is why I am not even giving you two of my guards; they are going to be Alex, and Tyler.” My mouth dropped open again.

“Those are your two best guards though!” He nodded and then left the room to get them before I could try to talk him out of it. My brain could not even comprehend the possibility that I was now even more of a target than my dad. While I was still thinking about this, my brothers each came up to one of my shoulders and shook me.

“Wow sis, you might even be able to beat us in a fight for once with your presence!” Tristan smirked at me.

I rolled my eyes. “I can already beat you guys in a fight.”

Forgetting that we were not alone, shock went through me when my mother spoke. “You have fought with them before? You are a princess! Princesses do not fight!” My brothers had both jumped when she had spoken too. It seemed like all of us had forgotten she was there. Their guilty faces looked at me with apologies before they turned and ran from our mother’s wrath.

“It was just a little bit of fun, Mom. They went easy on me, and we worked with practice swords. Nothing went wrong, and it gave me a bit of experience should I need to defend myself.”

That was the wrong thing to say. “You will never have to protect yourself. That is why you have guards.” Her voice was like a whip. Sharp, and hard.

My voice got sharper too. “What if my guards are busy fighting and then they are overwhelmed? You would rather that I either get killed or captured then fight?”

She was shaking her head before I even finished. “If there is even a chance of something like that happening then we need to give you either more guards or better ones.”

I threw my hands up in frustration and decided to just ignore her. She continued talking for a while before she realized that I was not listening to a thing she said. Shaking her head again, my mother left the room. So much for everyone being happy now that our kingdom was saved from being attacked at least for the moment. When my dad walked in about a minute later, I could tell he had run into my mother on the way here. I held up my hand before he could speak. “I do not want to talk about it right now. Did you actually bring them? Or did you decide to be sensible and keep your two best guards for yourself as head of the kingdom?”

My father chuckled. “Nope, I made them stay outside just in case you wanted to talk first in private.” He called back over his shoulder at the door. “You can come in now.” The door immediately opened, and Alex walked in first followed closely by Tyler. They looked almost like twins. Both were tall and lean; however, Alex has blonde hair and Tyler has black hair. Once inside they bowed first to my dad and then to me. Rolling his eyes at them my dad said, “Really? The only time you bow to me is when we are around other guards.” Turning to my personal guards my father asked, “Can you keep a secret?” Looking quite offended, the guards nodded. A smile appeared on his face. When he had asked that question he had already known the answer, and had known that they would be offended. It gave him joy to ask those sorts of questions. “Alex and Tyler only act formally around us when other guards that they have not met before, or at least do not know well, are around. Also when visiting royals are around.”

Turning to Alex and Tyler who were now leaning against my wall, my guards looked appalled. Seeing that, Tyler said, “What? We have known these guys for our entire lives and they told us that we can treat them as equals to ourselves. However, when others are around to see, we treat them as royals even though they don’t want us to.” Though they did not look convinced, my guards nodded.

“Anyways,” Alex started, looking at me. “That is not why we are here. Your dad was not exaggerating, those eyes are really dark. I get why you want us to be added to her guards. That being said, what about you?” Once he said that last part, he turned and looked directly into my dad’s eyes.

“I already told you. Ari is now in more danger than I would ever be. She is now going to be seen as a powerful presence warrior or shield. Either way, she will be more of a target than me.”

“We do not know that though. Maybe you should think about splitting us up. You get one, and the other will guard Ari.”

My dad had started shaking his head before Alex had even finished. “No, but if it will make you feel better I will take two of her guards away and they can then guard me. She will have 4 guards and I will still have my 8.” After a second of looking at each other, Alex and Tyler nodded. They accepted this deal. “Great. You and you come with me.” The two guards who had watched this whole exchange bowed and followed him out of the room.

I glanced at my two new guards out of the corner of my eyes. “Now that you two are my new guards, will you let me practice fighting with either you or my brothers?” They laughed.

“No way. I bet that is how you got in so much trouble with your mother.” After seeing me wince, Tyler nodded. “That is what I thought.”

I shook my head. "She just doesn't understand. Even though I have grown she still treats me like I am a fragile young princess."

"Well, that is what parents do. They want their kids to be great and proper so they get a bit over protective."

Sighing, I nodded. I knew what he was saying, but that did not make it any easier. "Anyways, back to fighting. It's my birthday! You could tell my mom that I insisted upon it if she finds us."

Shaking their heads, Alex and Tyler looked at each other again. The look that passed between the two of them clearly said, what have we gotten ourselves into. Knowing that they would not go for it, I sighed. Tyler gave a little smile and said, “Now get dressed. You know that your family will want to have a party and spend the day with you.” I nodded. Once they had turned around I got out a simple, but elegant, white satin dress with gold and silver filigree. Ringing a bell that hung near my bed, I summoned my maids to have them help me put the dress on. As soon as they arrived I got ready as quickly as possible. After telling them they could turn around, Alex and Tyler had to take a double take. I looked down at myself, confused. Was my dress crumpled or something?

Finally I had to ask, “What is it? Is something wrong with my dress?” They both shook their heads, but for some reason remained silent. After looking at them in confusion for a couple more seconds, I shook my head and started walking towards the door. They immediately fell in step behind me. Meeting my other two guards outside my door, I introduced everyone to each other. “Alex and Tyler, this is Liam and Casey.” They nodded hello to each other and while Alex and Tyler walked behind me, Liam and Casy walked in front of me. This is how we walked all the way to the dining hall. Once I stepped inside the dining hall, even though it was only around 3 in the morning, I noticed that it was packed with people. Servants were racing around preparing what looked like a huge celebration to celebrate both my birthday and the arrival of my presence. I didn’t really want a party at all, but I knew that my people and family needed it. They had all been fearful for so long, and a party was the best way to get rid of that fear once and for all.

As I walked by them, each servant that noticed me would stop what they were doing and bow to me until I had passed them. Confusion must have shown on my face because Alex leaned closer and whispered, “They are bowing like that to you because you saved our kingdom from being thrown into war, and that is their way of thanking you.” I nodded. It made sense. I might not like it, but if it made them happy, then I would suffer through it. After passing through the dining hall and weaving our way through several more passageways, we finally reached the throne room where my family was waiting for me. There were several different royal families coming from all over the world to see if I had received my presence. It was a tradition for all the royal families to come see someone after they have received a presence. Since I was the last person in my family who had a chance of getting a presence, they would all come to see me. The reason they stated for coming was just to celebrate my birthday. Everyone in Kuli knew their real reason though. If I had not received a presence, they would have returned home right after seeing me and waged war on us.

My parents sat on their thrones while my brothers stood in between them. Since I was the one everyone was coming to see, I stood off to the side ready to walk forward and have the visitors examine me. Seeing that we were all ready, our bellman announced the first family. They had arrived at 2:35 this morning which meant that they had been waiting for around 40 minutes. However, if they were the first to see that I did not receive a presence, that means that they can be the first ones to declare war on us and possibly take over our kingdom. It was the royals from Nicuria. Their kingdom was in the south, same as ours. The King walked in front with his wife, while their four kids walked behind them. Their middle boy and girl, they were twins, walked slightly ahead of the other kids since they had both gotten presences. My father stood. “Welcome to Kuli. I know that you are here to wish my beloved daughter Princess Ariana Esma Happy Birthday, so here she is.” I walked forward, looking at my feet, until I got closer to the King of Nicuria, and then I looked up straight into his eyes. His gasp came immediately and was soon followed by the rest of his family. I knew without looking that my family, or at least my brothers, were hiding smiles.

“Well, I see that your daughter has received a presence. That is wonderful! I would have hated to see your kingdom being called weak.” The King’s tone was annoyed and mad, but he tried to conceal it. We all knew that he was lying. Nicuria would love nothing more than to invade us and take over our kingdom. They walked out of the room and headed towards the guest rooms where they would be staying until my birthday and presence getting celebrations were over. Normal birthday celebrations only had a huge party that night, but if that person had received a presence that day then there were mini parties throughout the entire day. The mini parties were always optional though, especially if the person who got their presence got it really early like I had. The celebration would last the rest of the day, but the big party was tonight. The next visitors walked in soon after. We did the same performance and got about the same reactions. This went on for hours until we had seen all 49 of the royal families that were coming for the celebrations and to see if I got a presence. Exhausted after all of that, I bid my family farewell and went back to my room with Alex and Tyler on my heels. My other two guards followed as well, but they were farther away and they were not as conspicuous as Alex and Tyler were. If anyone was looking for my guards they would see Alex and Tyler. They might not see Casey and Liam.

Going straight back to my room I shut the door, changed into my sleeping clothes, and crawled into bed. I went instantly to sleep. A couple of hours later, I was awakened by someone shaking my shoulder. Groggily I opened my eyes to look at the person shaking me. Tyler. Sighing, I sat up and got out of bed. “Is it time to get ready for the party already?” The only answer I got was a smirk. I took that as a yes. Turning I noticed that my maids, Hazel and Sophia, were already in my room, and they were holding a long black halter dress. “Is that a birthday present from my mom?”

Hazel nodded. “Yes. She bought you several new dresses, shoes, and pieces of jewelry to celebrate both your birthday and you getting a presence.” Nodding in understanding, I allowed Hazel and Sophia to help me into the dress. As soon as it was on me though, I realized that I had forgotten to ask a very important question before they had put the dress on me. Moving out of my maid’s arms, I crossed my arms and glared at them. When they tried to move closer I took a step back. “Why did you let my mom buy me a dress with a built-in corset? You know that I hate them.”

They sighed. “You did not say that the dress could not have a corset and your parents chose this dress specifically for this party. Especially now that it is already on you, it is not coming off. Even if you had realized it before it was on you, you still would have had to wear it. There was no point in arguing or making this more difficult than it has to be.” Even though I did not like it, Sophia made a good point. Also I knew that if I did not wear the dress then my mother would get mad at Sophia and Hazel and that is not something that friends do to one another. Even though I was still mad, I let them tighten the corset and finish my party preparations. I would get mad at my parents later tonight. My makeup was light and was just there to enhance my facial features and to highlight my eyes. The hairstyle they chose was to style half of my hair into a crown on top of my head and then to have the rest cascade down in auburn waves.

I groaned when I saw the shoes they had chosen for me. Black heeled shoes. “Do you want me to be able to dance?” My maids just smiled and finished putting them on. Now ready for the party, I reluctantly walked over to the door and opened it. Resigning myself to what would be an uncomfortable night with the corset and heels, I started my walk to the ballroom. At least there should be good food tonight. Outside of the huge double doors to the ballroom, I waited to be announced so that I could officially join the party. Hearing my name, I straightened my shoulders and prepped my smile. Walking through the now open doors, I went as gracefully down the stairs as I could in these atrocious heels. Reaching the end of the stairs, I gratefully stood at the bottom and grabbed my dad’s arm. He escorted me to the rest of the family. Not surprisingly, they were at the food. I swear my brothers never stopped eating. Even my mom was eating, but that was just because we had not eaten basically anything today. This was because the servants were busy making the food for all the celebrations throughout the day while we were too busy talking to royals, and getting ready for this party. The day had just flown by. Later, in our own rooms, we would eat a real meal, but we needed something to hold us over until then.

My dad and I had just arrived when the first prince showed up. Now that everyone knew our kingdom would not be destroyed, everyone wanted to be the first to become real allies with us. Plus, all of the kingdoms wanted to marry their sons to me. As the only one in my family to have a presence, I was extremely valuable. Whoever married me would immediately become more powerful, especially with my eyes so dark. Even though not even I knew what I could do. Smiling at him, I tried to stay focused on our conversation, but all I could think about was how hungry I was. My brothers did not know how lucky they were. They got to eat all the food they wanted even though Tristan was the Crown Prince. Carter was older than me too. You would think that some princess would want to try to secure a spot as one of their wives.

Just as I thought that, two pretty young ladies came over and started talking to them. Looking sad, they put down their food and tried to act cheerful and pay attention to the two girls. I could tell that it was as hard for them as it was for me. Focusing on the prince’s face, I still did not know his name even though I am sure he had said it at least three times in the time he had been talking to me, I tried to zone back into the conversation. He was on the same topic he had been on when I had started ignoring him. Why his kingdom was so great and why I should consider a union with his family by either marrying him or becoming their ally. I was starting to wonder if that was all he could say. Five minutes later, I finally managed to get away from him and grab some food. After only about two bites though, another prince came over and started talking to me.

To make it even worse, I noticed that my brothers were back to eating without a care in the world. Groaning on the inside I resigned myself to a hungry, borning night. About thirty minutes later, the music started. Grateful, I excused myself from the newest prince, I still could not even remember any of their names, and headed away to the food table again. Hoping that I could finally eat more than the two bites I had eaten earlier now that everyone was dancing, I walked there swiftly, but gracefully. Finally there, I filled up a plate full of food and sat down next to my brothers who were trying to look busy so that they would not have to dance. Slipping a bite in my mouth, I closed my eyes to savor the taste. Moments later, I had taken three more bites of food, a hand dropped onto my shoulder. Startled, my eyes shot open and I looked to see whose hand was on my shoulder.

I almost started crying when I saw a foreign prince standing there. His skin was tan, his hair was brown, and kindness was apparent in his bright blue eyes. He was undoubtedly here to ask me to dance with him. Looking longingly at the plate full of food in front of me, I reluctantly stood and waited for him to ask me. To my surprise, he started laughing. Tilting my head in confusion, I waited for him to explain what was so funny. Several seconds passed before he regained control of his emotions. “Sorry, but when I saw the look on your face I could not help it. I did not come here to ask you to dance with me. In fact, I came to see if I could sit by you and your brothers to eat. This could help to make sure that no other princes come by to talk to you or to ask you to dance with them.” Relief lit up my face.

“Of course, please sit.” After we had both sat down I said, “Thank you so much for this. This is the first food I have eaten all day.” he nodded.

“It is my pleasure.” Going back to eating, I managed to finish off my plate of food. Feeling satisfied enough to last me until later tonight in my room, I stood and thanked the prince. He smiled. “Again Princess Ariana, it was my pleasure.” Blushing a little from the obvious sincerity in his voice, I excused myself and went to find my parents. There were still a couple hours left in the dance, but I wanted to know if there was anyone that I absolutely had to meet. Then I could get it over with and maybe even enjoy the rest of the evening instead of waiting until the end to meet them. Spying them in the distance, I started walking in their general direction. Along the way however a prince with immaculately styled blonde hair grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop.

“Just the person I wanted to meet! Hello Princess Ariana, my name is Crown Prince Malick.” I nodded hello to him, hoping that he would only talk to me for a moment. I should have known that I would not be that lucky. As he started blathering on and on about his country and how amazing he was, I looked desperately to my parents. My hope was that they would come and free me. Even if it was to talk to others, at least they would be there to intervene if the person talked for too long. Malick seemed like the kind of person who could keep talking for an eternity. I was afraid that even if he realized that I was not listening to him, that he would keep talking. In fact, he might even talk louder to try to get my attention to return to him. Who knew, maybe he would get the hint and leave me alone. No dice. Once he realized that I was not paying any attention to him whatsoever, he started talking louder and moved closer to me.

After giving an internal sigh, I decided to just listen to him. I might even make a comment here or there if it meant he would stop talking to me faster. Nodding in all the right places and making comments when appropriate was hard when I could not have cared less about what he was talking about. When would boys realize that the last thing girls want to listen to is how awesome you and your country is? They would not like it if I started talking about my country and myself like they did. My eyes widened in realization. If I talked to them like they talked to me, then maybe I could get them to go away! I was just about to try when I remembered my parents. If they heard that I was doing that then they would never let me hear the end of it. Their lecture would go on for days.

Giving another internal sigh, I went back to listening to him. Ten minutes later, he was still talking. Honestly, how can one person talk this much to someone else without running out of things to say? Especially when the other person does not contribute to the conversation at all. Finally, I saw my parents coming towards me. Reaching us, they cut off Crown Prince Malick and grabbed me. “I am so sorry Crown Prince Malick, but I am afraid that we have to steal our daughter back. We have some people that we need her to meet.” My mother spoke smoothly, but commandingly. While he floundered for something to say, seriously he could talk for a super long time to me, but could not say a word to my parents, we made our escape.

“Thank you guys so much. I was afraid that I was going to spend the rest of my life listening to him prattle on about how amazing he and his country are. It was quite dull.” My parents laughed.

“It gets worse as you grow older.”

I shook my head in horror. “I am not really sure how that is possible!” My parents laughed again. Moving quickly through the crowd, we found the first guest that my parents wanted me to meet. The King of Narva. Dipping down into a quick curtsey I introduced myself to him. As he inclined his head to me, he came up with a slight smile on his face.

“It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance Princess Ariana Esma. I hope that we can chat for a bit before you go on to meet the next King.” After a quick glance to my parents, I agreed to chat with him for a bit.

We walked a bit away from them for a little bit of privacy, and then he started off the same as everyone else. Only about five minutes in though, when my attention was wandering a bit, he switched gears on me. It was so abrupt that I could not figure out what had happened for a couple of seconds. By the time my mind had caught up to the change, he had already said quite a bit about his son. Repulsion set in when I realized the reason for the change. He wanted me to marry his son. Normally I would be fine with someone talking about their sons this way, after all it is sometimes better than listening to them talk about themselves, but the King of Narva’s son was in his late thirties. He was like twenty years older than me. As if he could read my mind, the King of Narva stated, “It doesn't really matter that he is way older than you. It would be a great match that would be highly beneficial for both countries. You could use the ore, and we could use the soldiers. Plus, if it is love, then age does not really matter now does it?”

“Your Majesty, you are very kind to offer your son to me in marriage, but I heard that he was already courting another woman. It would not be very proper of us to marry after that, now would it?”

The King sighed. “While it is true that he is courting another woman right now, that does not matter as much as you think. When their courtship ends and they are both still single then it would be fine for you two to begin your courtship!”

“You have put a lot of thought and effort into this, Your Majesty. Unfortunately, I do not have the final say, Your Majesty and if you asked my parents now they would say no because your son is still courting another woman and they want me to be a bit older before I get married.”

The King of Narva seemed to deflate some at my statement. “Right you are, right you are.” He muttered this under his breath and seemed deep in thought. As I turned to walk away though, he grabbed my arm and exclaimed, “I got it!”

“What have you got Your Majesty?” Now my heart was sinking at his words. I had a feeling that I did not want to hear what he would say next.

“We shall just have to say that he needs more time to get over his last courtship and then he could wait for you! That way no one will suspect a thing. We could even come over, you two could become friends, and then it will be no surprise when you two start courting!”

“What a great plan Your Majesty!” I tried to sound excited, but it sounded forced even to me. “Now you just have to discuss this with my parents. Their vote is the only vote that matters after all.” The King of Narva nodded his head several times.

“That is correct, and since I don't want to waste time, I will talk to them right now!” He hurried through the crowd towards my parents and I gave a little smile when I saw their shared weary look. They had probably gotten several offers for my hand tonight. I knew that they would talk to me about all of them either tonight or tomorrow morning. Then they would give all of my suitors their answers. The answers would all be no. They would take my suggestions and for all of the princes the answers would be the same. Maybe it would be better if they married someone who actually liked them, and would enjoy talking to the princes about themselves all day. My parents would make sure to state it in a nicer way than that however. Following after the King of Narva I made sure to give him plenty of time to state his claim and then to leave. I did not want to join in the middle of the conversation. Then the King of Narva would ask for my opinion and I did not want to be the one to tell him that I am not at all interested in marrying his son.

Reaching them just as the King of Narva was leaving them, I rolled my eyes at my parents. “What are the numbers at now?”

My dad smiled. “You are at 23, Tristan is at 11, and Carter has 5.”

Shaking my head I asked, “Why don’t more people go after Tristan? He is the Crown Prince after all and his wife will be the future queen of the kingdom!”

Mother now spoke up. “He is not the one with a presence and besides, girls know that he has more of a say in who he marries than you do. Or at least that would be the case in their kingdoms. We will give you the same amount of consideration as we will give your brothers.” I nodded in gratitude. Several hours passed and I met tons of Kings and Queens. The party now over, we said goodbye to our guests, they were now going back to their own kingdoms, and we went up to our rooms to eat a proper meal. The second I was in my room and the door was closed, I had the maids help me change and get out of the corset. In sleeping clothes now, I took my shoes off and chucked them in the closet. My maids sighed, but wisely did not say anything. Sitting down on my couch in my sitting room, I have four different rooms, I started eagerly eating.

My dinner for tonight was a roast consisting of beef, potatoes, carrots, and gravy over the top. It may not be the kind of meal most royals eat because it is very rich and fattening, but I liked it, and I work out at least once daily so that I didn't even have to worry about what I ate. Looking at Alex, Tyler, and the rest of my guards after I finished eating, I asked, “Have you guys eaten today yet?” They shook their heads. “You all have to eat. All the rest of my staff has eaten but you. I will be fine for a couple of minutes. Go down to the kitchen and eat.” All my guards folded their arms and stared me down. Sighing, I said, “Relax guys, I am safe in my room. Plus, the kitchen is like a minute walk away. If someone attacks me while you are eating, then I will just scream and you will most definitely hear me.” They shook their heads. Giving up for the moment, I stood up and, right as I did, I got an idea. “Well then I guess that I will just have to go down to the kitchen. As my guards you have to follow me.”

Even though they rolled their eyes, a smile lit up all of their faces. “When do you guys normally eat at night? I can not believe I have never asked this before! I am a terrible person.” Casey and Liam rushed to reassure me that I was a great person and to not worry about it.

Alex was the one who actually answered my question though. “We eat in shifts when you go to bed. However, when we get hungry during the day, we eat the snacks that we bring with us when we are guarding you. Breakfast is the same as dinner. We take shifts eating while you are sleeping.” Stopping abruptly, I turned and looked at my guards.

“When do you guys sleep then?”

Alex smiled. “We sleep while you are at parties, or when we switch with other guards because we need to sleep. Do not worry about us Ari, we sleep and eat plenty.”

“I never see any other guards, do you do it while I am sleeping or something too?”

He nodded. “Yes. We do it then and we do it sometimes when you are at social calls. Then you never see us anyways.” I nodded. It was true. When people come over for social calls or when we go somewhere for a social call, it is rude to have your guards in view. Smiling at the servants who were bowing to me by the kitchen, I opened up the doors and walked in.