I felt something cold against my cheek as I sat up. Where was I? Looking around the room I saw a king sized bed in the middle and dark paintings on stone walls. The windowless chamber brought back the unwanted memories of last night.

"No." I whispered, curling myself into a ball, my neck protested, being in an awkward position for most of the night. My head was pounding and I felt as if every bone in my body had broken into thousands of pieces.

Last night had felt like a dream, no, a dream was a happy place where everything you could ever want would come to be. No, that was a nightmare. One that would wake you in the middle of the night and stay in your mind, keeping you from sleep. One where your father had died trying to protect you. One where you were taken away from your mother to marry a man you despised.

I sat on the ground, staying in my ball of agony, wishing I was back home in my bed, dreaming. After about ten minutes of me sitting like this, I heard the voice of a demon speaking through the door, and felt the door being unlocked.

I jumped up and took a few steps away from the door, my body aching with every step my feet took. It opened to reveal Prince Damian and a few servants. The light almost blinded me as they walked in and closed the door behind them. I had grown accustomed to the darkness of the room that my eyes burned from the light. Or maybe that was from my night filled with agonizing tears.

"Did you spend all night crying? You look hideous." Prince Damian said, this man had no filter, which added to my hatred.

I kept my gaze on him as the women surrounded me, taking their time looking at me, as if they were sizing me up for something. I noticed that I was still wearing my blood stained dress. The blood of my father, it seemed like the only thing I had left of him now. His own blood.

"Well you did kill my father." I fumed, my throat felt dry and worn out, so my words came out scratchy.

"Are you still not over that?" He asked and my anger rose.

"Why the hell would I be over it!?" I screamed, the words felt like fire rising in my throat. "You murdered my father right in front of me!"

I saw the eyes of the servant girls widen as I screamed, I didn't care. I just wanted my father back. Their judgement didn't matter to me.

"You might want to deal with that temper of yours, if you are to meet the kingdom as my next queen." Damian said, distracted by looking at himself in the mirror. I could see him studying a bruise on his jaw. I smiled to myself, remembering the pain I had caused him last night.

"I will never be your queen." I said, standing tall, I tried to close my hands to form fists, but the events of last night had probably left them broken. Though, I continued to act brave, if you don't feel brave, fake it, the other person won't know the difference. Cas had always said that to me when we were younger. When I was learning how to ride a horse and was nervous when the teacher was holding a competition for the best rider. I had been so scared, but when Cas said that to me I felt brave and I won. Though now my fake bravery seemed to show.

"You will." He said, walking over to me. His dark eyes studied my face. Even if he could see through my bravery I wouldn't let myself believe in my weakness. I stared back into his eyes, hoping he could read my mind.

"Never." I spat, our faces were inches apart and I saw a grin stretch over his lips.

"Ladies." He said to the women who were looking strangely at us. I watched as he spun around and stalked towards the door. "Make Miss Whitmore here presentable. And watch out... she bites." I wanted to throw something at him.

"Yes Your Highness." The girls said in unison, as the prince left. Great, now I was going to be dressed up like a doll. Once Damian had left the girls bathed me and got to work on making me 'presentable'.

An hour minutes later

I looked into the mirror and barely recognized myself. My face looked fake, the girls had painted red onto my lips, making the blue in them unnaturally pop. They added dark eyeshadow and something I had never seen before onto my eyelashes, a small bit of blush was on my cheeks. I hated blushing, now they made me look like I always had this red hue on my cheeks. My hair was left down, but they added a tiara on top of my head, I wanted to throw it out the window. Though I couldn't because this room was windowless.

The gown I wore was only fit for the Queen of Lightwood. Deep red fabric covered me almost head to toe. It had a hoop shirt and was the exact opposite of the one I had worn last night. I was shocked when the ladies didn't throw me into a corset, instead they placed the gown over my head. The neckline was deep, dipping down to my stomach, I felt revealed. When two ladies brought me my shoes, I wanted to run out the door. They were death traps, they look at if they were ten inches tall, it's as if the prince didn't want me to run away.

"And we are done." One of the girls said as she slipped my left death trap on to my foot, it was the perfect size.

"We better get going if we are not to be late." Another girl said, taking my arm into her hand and she tugged me out of the room, it was a struggle to walk due to my shoes, but I still made it to the door. I hadn't even noticed that Damian hadn't locked it.

We walked through the castle. It seemed different now that I wasn't with a monster of a person who was going to force me to be his wife. These girls seemed nice, besides the fact that they ignored me not wanting to be here.

"Please, let me go." I begged them as they walked me down the many stairs.

"Sorry miss, but we can't do that." One of the girls said. "Our orders are to make you look pretty again and bring you down to meet the king and queen."

I ignored her comment about making me pretty again and instead I wanted to cry, to scream, to do anything that could get me away, but my energy was drained. I felt tired and worn out and these stairs were not helping.

Finally we reached the foyer and I could see the large doors that I had walked through last night. It felt like an eternity ago.

"There's the beautiful girl I had seen last night." Damian said as the girls led me towards him. I saw reach to take my hand, but I quickly pulled it away.

"Don't touch me." I said as the girls released me. They seemed to know that I wouldn't try to escape. This dress and these shoes were not meant to be escape clothes.

"I will do what I please." He said, taking a hold of my arm and gripping it, causing me to wince.

"You're hurting me." I said, as I tried to pry his hand away.

"Good. Maybe that'll make you shut up." He said, applying more pressure to my arm and dragged me towards one of the doors the guest's were gawking at yesterday, wondering if it led to the Prince's room.

Though instead of the Prince's chambers it led to a patio filled with flowers. It looked different than the inside of the castle. This place looked as if it could be a garden in heaven. But when I saw the king and queen sitting there at a large glass table, filled with different food, my vision of this place disappeared.

"There's my son, what took you so long?" The king asked as he stood up to greet his son. I winced at the memory of a dagger pressed against my throat held by this man. I could still feel the cold blade, though now the marking was covered by make-up. It would most likely become a scar one day.

"Aurora was taking a long time to get ready." Damian said, throwing me in front of the king.

"Well she looks marvellous, I might have to steal her from you." The king said, I wanted to throw up. I looked towards the queen, she looked if she didn't care what her husband did to me. How could she not care? How could he talk like this in front of her?

Out of impulse, I spat in his face. I saw a small smile appear on the queen's face at my action, but it disappeared in an instant. He whipped away my saliva and his expression turned to rage. I felt Damian's hand slip from mine as he prepared for what his father was to do.

"Contain your bride Damian." The king spat at his son, and his hand clasped around my throat. "You will never disrespect me like that again."

The air drained from my lungs as he held me in his grip, I felt the pressure on my neck built as I couldn't breath. My fingers scratched against his hand, trying to get it to move. But it wouldn't. My vision began to blur as I felt the claws of death try to take me. I would allow them to.

"Father, don't kill her." Damian said, as if he wanted to protect me. Though of course that was impossible, he just wanted me alive to have an heir.

I felt the king's hand release my throat and I collapsed to the floor in a coughing fit.

"Shall we eat?" The king said, his mood doing a complete one eighty and sat beside his wife. Her face was expressionless. I suddenly wondered if what was happening to me happened to her.

Was she taken from her family at a ball? Did she feel the same as I?

The world around me spun as I stood up and walked to the table. I was forced to sit beside Damian, as there were no other chairs available.

I looked over at the queen, her eyes seemed to hold empathy, as if she were sorry this was happening to me. I gave her a small nod in gratitude and began to stare at my plate. I wondered how she could be so silent. Had the King broken her? Was that what I would become if Damian destroyed me? I knew for certain that I would never let that happen. That I couldn't let that happen.