So much for sneaking in and not drawing attention from the public.

More importantly, Felon knows my location now. Although, maybe he doesn't want to kill me. If he wanted to, when he started digging into me months ago, he would've found me and killed me. Instead, he probably told my whereabouts to Helena- no. Ophelia told me Luis only went to the police station only a few weeks ago, whereas Breton said he met Helena at last year's New Year Eve's party.

Which means Helena knew where I was but Felon didn't? Unlikely. But if Felon knew where I was then why did he send Luis to dig up files on me? That is the real mystery.

"You read royalTEA too?" I heard Sha's voice from behind me. "First passing the restricted lane, and now reading a gossip blog? The trip is surely allowing me to discover new things about you."

"Guilty pleasure." I raised my hands in defence. And that I got featured somewhere for the first time... ever.

She leaned in to read the new post. "Woah, prince Nicandro's secret girlfriend is here on the ship? Maybe I'll go on a hunt for her at the ball later. Then I'll have a bomb-ass story to tell my children; their mother having a night out with the future queen of Spain."

I froze, but forcefully put on a smirk. "You sure you don't want to get laid with some duchess or princess instead?"

She thought for a second. "I'll just find her sometime in the next few days." I let out a fake chuckle as she walked off to her room, then let out the breath I was holding.

We spent fifteen minutes making our way there, having lost our way a few times before reaching the ballroom. Sha made a collective gasp as she took in the scene in front of her. It wasn't as magical as the Spanish royal castle, but the decoration crew did a great job with the place. There was a big chandelier hanging like any other ball, but I liked how they incorporated a theme of pale yellow and white colour scheme.

"Let's go get drinks." Sha hooked her arm around mine and dragged me along with her. Sha ordered a watermelon cocktail as she only planned to get half-drunk tonight, and I ordered my go-to drink; lemonade.

"There's the queen and king of Norway," Sha pointed at the couple in the middle of the ballroom, clearly in the centre of attention as the queen was wearing a white and gold sparkly dress and the king was chatting with who looked like the president of Brazil.

"I can't believe I'm actually in a room full of presidents, prime ministers, royalty, billionaires and generals." She took a big gulp of her drink and turned to me. "This stuff is good."

I smiled, glad she was enjoying her time and not thinking about her parents' being not so accepting of her sexuality. I looked around, and locked eyes with Olivia and she waved at me before dragging Miguel with her towards me.

"Tiana!" She exclaimed and gave me a tight hug. "So good to see you again! It has been months."

I returned her hug. "Likewise! And yes it has been too long." I know very well Sha was watching behind me, and Olivia was supposed to be my good friend from the excuse I gave her to ask her to join me on this trip, so I tried to act like I was over the moon to see her.

In reality, it was kind of awkward, since the last time we saw each other was the night Felon invaded the Spain royal castle and held everyone in the auction room hostage as he shot the king, who was also his father. But as we broke our hug and I saw the genuine smile on her face, she wasn't thinking about that and I was relieved that she could move on from that traumatic experience. Unlike me.

"Olivia and Miguel, this is Sha, my friend and plus one." Olivia greeted her with her smile, which was definitely contagious now since I was smiling, and it was a real one. I looked at Miguel and he smiled at me with acknowledgement. Olivia told Sha she's a hugger before hugging her, and Sha gladly accepted it, also complimented her outfit.

Olivia and Miguel were matching again; just like they did at the winter ball last year, this time Olivia was a plain silvered-coloured silk dress, which complemented her grey eyes and a diamond earring to complete the look, while Miguel went with an all-black look, with a silver bow tie and handkerchief to match with his girlfriend.

Then there was the sound of glasses clicking and everyone's head turned to where the sound was coming from, which was the announcer standing on the stairs at the front of the ballroom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would personally like to welcome everyone here for being here and I hope you all are having a wonderful evening. Now, your hosts for not only for this evening, but for the next week, the Spain royal family."

Applause broke from everyone as he gestured his hands to the top of the stairs, where the curtains opened from the middle to reveal Nicandro and his parents. They had bright smiles on their faces and did a few waves before descending down the stairs, three other families followed suit behind them.

Nicandro was wearing a simple black suit with a white shirt underneath, paired with a silvery-bronze tie, which I can't help notice it matched my dress. I hadn't realised I was staring until he locked eyes with me and shot me a subtle smile. I returned a smile and looked away, embarrassed by my actions.

"He looks more handsome in person," Sha commented, and it took me a few seconds to register that she was referring to Nicandro. I mumbled a 'huh-uh' before I saw Miguel giving me a smirk.

Thankfully, Olivia spoke up above the tension. "Well, we're going to go greet more people, catch the both of you later." She squeezed my arm a little before walking away from us with Miguel, but not before Miguel whispered in my ear, "Go talk to him."

I felt my cheeks heat up from that. The last time I saw Nicandro was more than a month ago, and I had missed his presence a lot. But it's not like I can run to him and hug him in front of all these people now. I sighed and turned to Sha, distracting myself from him. "So what do you think of Olivia and Miguel?"

"Very cute couple, nice people too. And you should start mingling around and maybe even get a chance to dance to a billionaire or a prince in an hour."

I frowned. "There's a dance? In an hour?"

"Yeah, didn't you read the schedule? Dancing starts at nine." Sha then asked the bartender for another cocktail. I looked at the clock hanging on one of the pillars, it was already eight. We had been here for half an hour already?

"No, and I don't like dancing." Especially with princes. Did that twice and didn't enjoy the feeling of everyone looking at me. But then, maybe this time it would be better without Nicandro's grandfather sending me daggers from his eyes.

"Your loss." Sha took two menus from the counter and passed one to me. "It's going to be a long night so we should eat something."

There were no actual meals on the menu since this is a ball, so we ordered toasts with fries. Sha excitedly pointed out famous people as they happened to walk by us, apparently the president of brazil was sitting at the table next to us. I couldn't help to look in the crowd for Nicandro, and every time I spot him he was conversing with people. He seemed very much in his element, and I was glad that he got more comfortable in his role as the future king of Spain.

Sha was feeling quite tipsy, as she was on her third drink now. She excused herself to go to the washroom due to her large liquid consumption; I was drinking my lemonade and insisted that she could find the way on her own. So naturally, I was looking around the room, taking everything in. Don't think I had fully registered that I'm in the same place as all these important people.

Then I spotted someone in the crowd. Someone who I definitely didn't want to see on the ship. Walter.

How did he get invited on here? Either he was someone's plus one or that his parents' had become someone of high position. The latter was more likely. Fortunately, he didn't catch me looking at him. Our last conversation was as good of a closure as it could get and I see no reason for us to ever cross paths again. Plus, this ship was big enough that the possibility of us not running into each other was likely.

I felt a presence walking towards me and excitement ran over me when the person's face came into view.

"Efren!" I exclaimed, trying to keep my excitement down. I hadn't seen him since I was in Spain, which was six months ago.

He sat down on Sha's seat in front of me. "This'll be quick."

"What, no greetings at all? Do you have to be in bodyguard mode the whole night?" I pouted.

He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "We can do all kinds of greetings tomorrow, miss. I'm on duty tonight and the prince has asked me to deliver a message to you. Also, your friend can come back anytime."

Concerns filled me. "What is it?" I asked worriedly, hoping it wasn't about Felon. Felon has pretty much ruined my whole life, and I would be damned if he ruins this trip.

"The dance is starting in fifteen minutes. And it would be easier for him to ask you if you were somewhere near the dancing area. Or if you aren't up for it, he would like to be informed so that he'll start thinking about which one of the other ladies would be the least torturous to dance with." I was waiting for Efren to say something else, but that was it.

Nicandro sent Efren here just to ask me to dance with him? Of course, because that was what regular people do, asking their dates or significant other to dance with them, not thinking whether a psychotic drug lord is planning to kill them.

I realised I was taking too long to answer. "I'll be there." I quickly answered and Efren nodded his head before walking away.

Sha came back soon later and I suggested to her that we go roam around the dancing area. Thought of the reason why Nicandro would dance with me to tell her after, decided to go with he simply just chose a random person from the crowd.

I saw a few violists and pianists getting ready for the dance at the side of the ballroom. That made my nerves tense up, at the winter ball last year it was just the important people from Spain, only a few people from the other parts of Europe. This time, it was from all over the world.

Sha said as soon as the music started playing in a low melody, the men would have one minute to walk around the ballroom to ask a lady to dance with them. That made me tensed up even more, as I nodded and was trying to search for Nicandro in the crowd, but was unable to locate him.

I looked at the clock, three minutes to nine. I decided to stop walking around looking for him since I figured maybe he was looking for me too, and we would be walking in circles.

"Excuse me," Sha and I both turned our heads to see this mid-twenties man with blonde hair reaching his shoulders. "I was wondering if any of you ladies would like a dance?" His accent was Australian the best I could tell.

Both of us turned to each other, Sha tried to stare me down for ten seconds before I gave her a little push towards the Australian guy. Sha was quick to mask her shocked expression with a sweet smile before responding, "Would love to."

Sha linked her arm with his when he reached out his arm to her, and both of them made their way to the centre of the ballroom. She managed to shoot a glare at me which I returned by sticking out my tongue to her.

I hadn't realised the three minutes had passed until a low melody started spreading around the entire ballroom. I looked around and still no sign of Nicandro. Several men already started asking ladies to dance with them and more people started walking to the centre of the ballroom.

Only thirty seconds left. It was then I heard low murmurings and bodies shifting. I turned to my right as I saw Nicandro making his way towards me. Our eyes locked and I swear my heart exploded in warmth. I saw people around us whispering, but at that moment I didn't care. I smiled and slowly started to walk towards him, not making my excitement obvious.

When we were only five steps away from each other, I felt a presence between us. "Your highness, would you like to dance?"

You've got to be kidding me.

I got a good look at the person who asked that and got slapped by her beauty. She was gorgeous, with light brown hair and the clearest blue eyes one can have. She wore a lace white dress with flower designs on them, one might think she was an angel in heaven.

Nicandro was certainly taken aback by her sudden intrusion, as well as the people around us. Probably because it was a lady that asked a man to dance, which I must give it to her was bold. But it couldn't have been someone else instead?

Nicandro laid eyes on me, a guilty expression on his face as he said his next words.

"Of course."