“You were listening to that?!” Phillip screamed.

“Well yeah. I didn’t have to look after Ian. We both know that Silas isn’t going to harm him.” Juliet answered, climbing down the tree.

“Why didn’t you say anything then?!” 

“Relax will ya, geez. I thought you would like a guy who's straightforward.”

“Straightforward?” 

“Will you relax? Breathe too. You’re acting like a child. Shouldn’t we go at least try to find whose going to murder Ian. Or do you want to drool over Mr Eye Candy?”

“Juliet!”

She just rolled her eyes and started off towards Silas and Ian. Phillip reluctantly followed behind Juliet. He tried to take his mind off Valentino but couldn’t, he kept catching himself glancing around looking for him. 

Walking passed all of the other contestants, many started to catcall Phillip, making him feel really uncomfortable. Even though the dress went down to his knees, and he clearly wasn’t showing much; Phillip still felt like everyone who looked at him saw through his clothes. He hurriedly walked through the crowd and went into the forest that Silas and Ian had wandered into. He felt more comfortable and safe the further they went into the forest. Soon Phillip heard voices and occasionally giggling.

He walked closer, moving more quietly not wanting to disturb Ian and Silas. Phillip stopped behind a tree, while Juliet climbed up it. They watched the couple, seeing them joke around, smiling and laughing; ultimately enjoying each other’s company. 

Ian had the bow in his hands, pretending to aim arrows at Silas, pulling back the string and letting it go. Silas pretended to dodge the ‘arrows’ then got ‘hit’ by one and fell to the ground, dead. Ian threw his hands up in the air, triumph defeating Silas. 

Phillip giggled from behind the tree, continuing to watch them be adorable. Juliet came back down the tree and motioned for him to follow. Phillip followed when he figured they were safe, remembering this scene from the book.They would only bond and grow more interested in each other, before anything tragic happened. Now that Phillip had changed a few things, he had no idea what could happen. 

Phillip decided to walk back to the castle, wanting to change out of this maid outfit. Avoiding the archery ground on his way back, he found the entrance to Ian’s tunnel. 

“I'm not walking through that disgusting, stinky, dark tunnel again.” Juliet warned. 

Phillip rolled his eyes, and opted to go over the wall again. He wanted to search around the castle a bit more to find anything that would be useful. Getting over the wall and sneaking back in through the library, Phillip started searching; while Juliet stayed near the door and listened for anyone coming. Phillip opened up a good dozen of books, not believing that all of them could be blank but at last they were. Getting annoyed he stormed straight out of the library, ignoring Juliet. 

“How could there not be anything inside those books?” Phillip whispered.

“Why would there be? We already discussed why they don’t have words in them.” Juliet reminded him. 

“Well we changed up things, we sped up Ian’s and Silas’s first meeting. They were supposed to meet in three days when Ian finally got the courage to leave the castle. So there’s gotta be something that’s changed.” Phillip explained. 

“Please tell me that something changed is your outfit.” Juliet joked. 

“Shut it!” Phillip sneered. 

They had made their way into the far backside of the castle, where all of the laundry was. Walking straight into the room, Phillip didn’t care if he was spotted anymore. He wanted to get out of this stupid dress. Searching through the piles of clothes and sheets, Phillip found his clothes and slipped them on. Feeling much more comfortable in his own clothes, he and Juliet left the laundry room. They went back down the hallway, heading towards the stairs to the second level; when they heard voices. Phillip looked down at Juliet who looked back up at him, confused. 

There was a door underneath the stairs. Just a crack was open, a dim light illuminating from it. Phillip snuck closer looking through the crack, only to see a blurry outline of someone. He listened closely and recognized two voices. 

“Is it his doing?” The king demanded. 

“No it is not his doing.” An unknown voice spoke. 

“Is there any way you can fix this?” The queen asked. 

“There is nothing wrong with your son, your majesty.” The voice camly stated. 

“So you aren’t going to do anything about him?” The queen harshly questioned. 

“Who?” The voice asked.

“The other witch, that’s who!” The king barked. 

“There is nothing to do about him.” The voice answered. 

“What do you mean there’s nothing to do? I thought you witches all despised each other!” The king grew frustrated. 

“We don’t care for one another’s existence. I don’t bother him, he won't bother me and the same goes for him.” The voice explained. 

“Useless, utterly useless!” The king shouted. 

“You are dismissed.” The queen stated. 

Before the person could walk out, Phillip darted down the hallway; slipping out an open window. He didn’t stop running, he ran to the wall and lifted himself and Juliet over the wall. Once his feet touched the ground, he started running towards the archery ground. Passing the archery ground again, he ran to Ian and Silas. Only when he got there, both boys were nowhere to be seen. 

“Dammit, where are they?” Phillip demanded. 

“Relax, take deep breaths. Don’t want your magic getting out of hand.” Juliet pointed out. 

“How the fuck do you know that? You seem awfully suspicious, knowing things about me and somehow able to read my thoughts, popping up in my head whenever you please.” Phillip fumed. 

“Phillip. I’m your stuffed cat. I’ve been with you for a few years now, so of course I know things about you. You speak to me whenever something overwhelming happens. For the mind thing, pretty sure that’s your doing; subconsciously. You’ve wanted me to speak back to you for so long and now it actually happened.” Juliet reasoned.

Phillip paced back and forth, trying to calm his anger. The grass and nearby flowers slowly started to wilt, with Phillip’s emotions not being controlled. 

He stopped pacing, closing his eyes, and lifting his head to the sky. Phillip started to take slow, deep breaths. Gradually bringing his anger back down. 

“That person is talking to the king and queen. Their voice was familiar yet not at the same time. I know that person or I’ve met them.” Phillip clarified. “That’s why I want to speak to Silas and Ian. Silas has been around the contestants and could help pick someone out. While Ian has been inside the castle, knowing the ins and outs of everything going on. He might know who the person is.”

“That’s a good guess, but seeing Ian’s reaction to first finding out that you're a witch. You might be the first and only witch he’s seen.” Juliet added. 

Phillip had forgotten about that. Ian’s reaction to him being a witch was very new and curious. So was everyone else's. Adaline was shocked when he had healed her with magic, Alexzander was shocked that he could heal her with magic. Ian wouldn't shut up so he got magic used on him. 

The voice replayed itself in Phillip’s mind, as he tried to remember where he'd heard the voice from. It was bugging him. The fact that the voice was familiar but slightly unrecognizable was annoying him. 

“Should we just go start talking to random contestants or people in the town?” Juliet suggested. 

“I didn’t speak to any of the townspeople, so they could be a guard since they did take me to the dungeon.” Phillip guessed.

“You did hear a lot of voices from the townspeople. It could also be someone from Adaline and Alexzander’s village.” Juliet added. 

“None of them spoke to me except Adaline and Alexzander.” Phillip reminded her.

“Then it’s someone in the town or a contestant.” Juliet narrowed it down. 

Phillip sighed, combing his hands through his dirty blonde hair. There were so many contestants, not to mention the townspeople. 

“This is going to take a while, isn't it?” Phillip half-laughed. 

“It is.” Julieted admitted. 

Walking back through the forest and to the main holding place of the contestants, Phillip kept his ears strained. Listening for even the slightest similarities between the voices. Phillip tried to not make it obvious that he was eavesdropping on people’s conversation, but a few people had noticed him and walked away. 

Phillip decided to stay put and pretend to look around, making it look like he was trying to find someone. While standing there, he decided it would be best to group up with either Silas and Ian or Alexzander and Adaline. Not seeing any traces of Ian and Silas anywhere. Phillip decided to go and look for Alexzander and Adaline. 

While walking around he heard the voice, snapping his head in the direction of the voice. Phillip saw a huge crowd of people. Walking closer to them, the voice became more clear. He started to slowly recognize it again, but whatever was going on in the middle of the crowd prevented him from fully recognizing it. The crowd cheered loudly, making Phillip immediately losing the voice again. 

“There you are, we were getting worried.”

Phillip turned around to meet Adaline and Alexzander. 

“Oh, I was actually looking for you guys.” Phillip chuckled. 

“What happened with the prince?” Adaline questioned, looking around for him. 

“He’s somewhere around here with Silas. I lost them in the crowd of people.” Phillip informed. 

“At least you lost that maid outfit.” Alex joked. 

“Haha, yeah….” Phillip trailed off. 

“Hungry?” Adaline asked. 

“Starving.” Phillip admitted.

“Good, there is a booth here that serves the best skewers you’ve ever eaten.” Alex informed, throwing his arm over Phillip’s shoulders again.  

Moving with Alexzander and Adaline, Phillip didn’t really mind that Alexzander’s arm was over his shoulders. He thought that Alex did that so Phillip wouldn’t lose them again. 

What it really showed was that Phillip was closer and more comfortable with Alex than he was with Valentino. While they were chatting, Alex had noticed Valentino off in the crowd. Occasionally glancing at them, so Alexzander decided to drape his arm over Phillip. Looking back over his shoulders and giving a smug smile towards Val, before turning to Phillip and talking about the skewers.