One day, Ezzie found Vienna trembling by the kitchen window, her frame shaking as she held onto the sill with both hands to stop from falling over.

Her father was chasing the prince off the property again.

"What happened?"

"V!" "V!" Two cute baby cinnamon roll voices chimed from behind Vienna. She turned around to find the twins running her way. She swept them into her arms.

She watched as both wrinkled their noses and closed their eyes, their hair fluttering between pastel pinks and blues until it darkened into a rich tree-bark brown.

"I see you two have been practicing." Vienna ran her hands through their locks, a smile upon her lips, before giving them both a kiss on the forehead. She knelt before them and smiled at how they rose above her position on the ground. They had another growth spurt. "You two are going to outgrow me soon."

Vienna heard Ezzie clearing her throat.

"So tell me, what has the prince done now?"

"It seems Papa caught him visiting without Knight." Vienna shook her head. Her father only allowed the prince to visit if he had a chaperone with him; usually his silent shadow knight, Knight.
The prince had been relentless in his visits since he won the right to visit four years ago.
Her father may have allowed the prince to visit, but this did not stop him from chasing him off the property if he overstayed his welcome.

To Pop, 'overstaying' meant anytime he was visiting, especially when Pop was available to spend time with Vienna.

Her father had a mysterious ability to always sense what she needed before she ever voiced it aloud. Vienna might have forgiven the crown prince, but her wariness meant her father would always be on guard as well.

"I want to see!"
"Please, Auntie V!"

Vienna's heart warmed as she heard the twins calling her their favorite nickname. She helped them up on the stool by the door so they could watch as Pop rode his steed and chased the prince down the road.

Vienna looked away and shook her head. She never understood why the prince was so insistent on being her friend.

Vienna's tea had cooled at her side. She picked it up from the counter and walked over to the kitchen table. The little ones left behind looked through the window from their stool.

Ezzie had already set out some more tea and Vienna went to open the biscuit clay box. She took out four biscuits, setting them on one of the handmade terranwares she had made once upon a time with Ezzie when she'd broken the wash basin.

The smallest of the twins and the youngest, Taryn, turned from the window at the sweet smell. She clapped her hands. "Biscuits!"

Garren stayed at the windowsill. His little fingers gripped the surface as his wide eyes observed everything that was happening outside.

Ezzie walked up to join her son by the window. Vienna felt as she glanced her way.
"The prince isn't as he once was..." The mother's hands ran through her son's hair, which had flickered to midnight to match his mother's.

Ezzie continued, "I remember seeing him at his first victory day parade. So small, his back ramrod straight. He didn't like being touched by anyone and flinched whenever someone got close. He's more expressive now. I think you might have helped him, miss."

Vienna set a small plate with a biscuit laden with Taryn's favorite jam in front of the small girl before sitting across from her.

"I don't know about that." She pursed her lips. After she accepted his apology that first day, he would occasionally come over the last couple of years. He seemed to always time it when her father was in the Capital.

Vienna wasn't sure why he hadn't just stopped coming.
She'd offer him tea, and then they'd sit in awkward silence. Prince Ravven would then try to ask her about what she was learning lately from Sir Roark, and she'd mention something she found interesting. He'd make a light comment and then return to the awful silences.
Vienna had no idea why he kept coming back.
He had to have other friends, right?

The next time the crown prince visited Vienna, she suggested a walk around the grounds.
When he agreed, they walked down the path that wove through the estate's forest. The shadow of Knight followed stealthily behind them.
Vienna trailed her hands along the trees that bordered the estate lands. Several tenants passed them and they exchanged waves.
She turned toward the sixteen-year-old. She was tired of the same patterns they had fallen under.
"Your Highness, may I ask you a couple of questions?"

She caught his sigh. She never could get used to calling him by his first name. They paused. The light filtering through the leaves played with the shadows across his sharp features.

He gave a quick nod. "Ask away, Lady Thorne."

Vienna felt like one of those moths pinned to a corkboard the way his eyes were fixed upon her.
A slight breeze caused one of his ebony curls to fall, interrupting his intense gaze and allowing her to blink and refocus her thoughts.

"I've wondered why you have always come back here. I'm sure there have to be many others that would be more interesting. Perhaps someone closer to your age in the capital..." Vienna's words drifted as she saw the sombreness in his eyes. She always felt the oddest sensation of guilt when he'd get that look. Like with each of her words, she was driving a stake through his heart.
Vienna looked away for a moment. Each question she wished to ask seemed rude or too self-righteous. "You must be very busy as the only prince in the kingdom. Why do you take the time to come out here and spend time with me?"

His lips parted as if lost for words.
He stepped closer to her, his shadow eclipsing hers.
"You are the only one who can understand."

Vienna furrowed her brow. "I'm sure if you speak to your father; he'd listen."
She tilted her head and wrinkled her nose, thinking about the things she didn't want to know that a teenage boy could be thinking about. "I'm not sure how much help I could be."

If it was a 'phase,' his riding a couple of hours out to the countryside to see her still didn't make sense.

"Your Highness, I suppose what I'm worried about is that you don't have any friends your age that you are associating with..." Vienna metered off when she saw the stormy expression on his features.

"No." He tilted his head down. He looked into her eyes before stepping back and striding out into the field a few paces away from her, his hands held clenched behind his back. He let out a long, blustery sigh. His head was thrown back and tilted toward the sky, a whisper escaping him. "I wonder what it truly means to be free."

Vienna sighed from behind him, a small "I don't know" slipping from her lips before she could stop it.

The prince turned to catch her eye, and she wondered if perhaps they were alike somehow, but Vienna's world was so small already and she wasn't sure she could open it up to another person, especially to someone so dangerous.