The reading room looked like hurricane had torn through it. Books and pages were scattered across the floor from Luc's outburst and the once tidy and welcoming room had lost its charm, and was now mired by the horrible events of tonight. What Luc had done was bad enough, but what Henrietta had told me was even worse. He didn't want me for his queen, he didn't even want me for a wife. He only wanted me to be his personal whore and baby incubator. I cringed inwardly when I remembered what Henrietta had said about being his 'breeder'. It made me feel like a farm animal.

"Come on, Mia, hold it together," I whispered to myself tearfully.

I had to keep going. I had to believe that there was a way out of this mess, and I wasn't going to be trapped in this nightmare forever.

For the rest of the evening I sat by the fire thinking about how I could escape. The fortress was filled with guards, but most of them didn't recognise my face. Even the two guards posted outside my door had never seen me. Perhaps if a nurse or doctor came to visit, I might be able to knock them out and use their clothes as a disguise. However, I doubted that I would be able to navigate the fortress's labyrinth of corridors and rooms. I'd probably get lost and be eventually found by the guards, or even worse Luc.

When the fire had gone out and the first morning rays were shining down on the Port Cressida, I decided to go to bed. There was nothing more I could do, or even think about until I spoke to Henrietta. She seemed to know this fortress better than anybody and she was probably my best bet at getting the hell out of this place. Luc didn't know it yet, but very soon he was going to have to find a replacement breeder.

I went to bed and woke up the next evening alone. I got up and went back to the reading room still in my night dress and began tidying up the bookshelves. The world felt odd, like it was passing me by in a dream-like state. Making myself comfortable on the floor, I started to gather the fallen books into neat stacked piles with the plan of placing them back on the shelves. It was a simple task that took my mind off everything nasty that was happening around me.

A door opened and shut from within the apartment and I suddenly heard Henrietta calling my name. I shouted back to her and moments later she walked into the reading room holding a small parcel covered in black shimmery cloth. Her face was pale and she seemed a little dishevelled, which was odd for a woman who was the personification of sleek elegance.

"Are you okay," I asked her.

"I'm still breathing," she grimaced.

"What happened?" I asked.

She lowered her head and held up the small parcel she was carrying. "I found a way out of this hell," she said.

She then pulled at the corner of the black velvet cloth and very carefully unwrapped whatever was hidden inside of it. I watched her curiously unwinding the cloth until finally something long and silver tumbled out and in her hand. She grabbed it by its intricate jewelled hilt and held it out for me to inspect.

It was a small ornate silver dagger with a wicked sharp blade.

"What is that?" I asked nervously.

"This is our only hope, Mia. This dagger has been imbued with a poison that is deadly to vampires. If we are ever going to be free, then we need to kill our oppressor. Luc will never allow us to be free while he lives. You will always be trapped in this apartment, unless you can find the strength to end this ... and him," she explained placing the dagger carefully in my hand.

I stared at her, half-expecting her to say a punch line and end this bad joke ... but it wasn't joke. She was serious. She was asking me to kill Luc. "Henrietta," I began.

"Mia, please. I understand that this must be difficult for you but this is the only way. You have to kill Luc if you want us to be free. You can hide the blade under your pillow and when he comes to call on you tonight then you can take him up to bed and stab him straight in the heart when he least expects it. I wouldn't ask you to do this if I thought there was any other way – but there isn't. As long as he is breathing there is no hope for us. We will be his prisoners for eternity."

"No," I said shaking my head while trying to hand the dagger back to her. "I can't do this. I can't hurt him – he's my mate."

"Mia, you're only his mate because he forced you. He has never given you a choice, he has always forced you to do what he wants, why on earth would you want to carry on being in a relationship with this psychopath?" she asked me.

"I know it's fucked up – but I can't help how I feel," I replied shakily.

"And how do you feel towards him? Do you love him - have you ever loved him?" she demanded.

"I don't know," I confessed.

I didn't know how I felt about him any longer. There was one time I thought I loved him, but now there was so much doubt and suspicion in my mind, that loving him was impossible. The only time I ever felt anything towards him was when he was pressed up against me, kissing me breathless. But even that wasn't really an emotional response - it was purely a physical reaction.

"Mia, I need you to do this. Not just for you but for me too," her voice suddenly trembled and she looked away. "I didn't want to tell you this, but Luc and I spent the whole night together – it wasn't my choice and I was so frightened ... I don't know what he was like with you, but with me he was so rough, much rougher than Louis had ever been with me. When I woke up I was covered in bruises and bite marks, I must've passed out half through. It was awful, Mia, and I don't want this to be the rest of my life. Louis was bad enough, but Luc is even worse."

I pulled away from her, I couldn't listen to another word even if it was true. I never thought Luc was capable of such depravity – it made me feel ill. She saw distress and apologised, "I'm sorry, Mia. I wasn't going to tell you but I'd hoped that you wouldn't need this much convincing."

I held my hand up to stop her word from flowing out her mouth and stumbled away from her while still holding the dagger. I walked over to the barred window and stared out across the horizon at Port Cressida. Numbly I wondered if I had it in me to kill my own mate.

"I would do it myself but his quarters in the palace are heavily guarded, and this apartment is cursed so that no one except you, me and Luc can enter. So even if he yells for help, no one will come to his aid. All you need to do is sink this blade into his chest and then this nightmare will be over," she said.

"But what about the city - what will happen when there is no King to rule?" I asked.

"They won't need a King because they will have me – a Queen. I will put myself on the throne and in doing so I will be able protect you and your baby. Come on, Mia, imagine it. I would be a brilliant Queen. I would shake things up so you wouldn't have to hide your amazing abilities or live in fear of persecution. You would be truly free to be yourself. Luc represents a different time and a different style of thinking that doesn't belong in the modern world. His death would be a great symbol of the revolution that is needed to drag this society kicking and screaming into the twenty first century," she said.

I shook my head still unsure. "I don't know if I can do this."

She lowered her voice and said, "I can't imagine what you are feeling right now, but I promise you that in years to come, you will be recognised as the great hero who saved the world from this royal dynasty of screwed up despots."

I could feel something inside me, urging me to say yes and I opened my mouth to say 'okay, I'll do it', when suddenly there was a loud bang inside the room. Henrietta screamed in fright and I jumped out of my skin. A book that had been hanging off one of the shelves had finally tipped over and had fallen to the floor with an angry thud.

Grabbing onto the edge of the window seat I took a few calming breaths. My head felt strange and fuzzy after the scare and I was struggling to compose myself. I glanced up at Henrietta who was glaring at the book that had fallen to the floor.

"Did you think it was Luc?" I asked her.

"I don't know what I thought it was," she murmured in reply.

Clearing my head, I handed the dagger back to her. "There has to be a better way than murder. I do hate Luc, but I could never bring myself to kill him. We will have to figure out another of doing this."

She thrust the dagger back at me and snapped, "This is our only chance, Mia. You have to do this otherwise I will not be able to protect you in the future."

"What do you mean," I asked, "I thought we were in this together."

"We are, and that is why you need to kill Luc," she said.

"I'm not killing, Luc. In fact no one is killing Luc," I replied.

Her expression dropped and she muttered to herself, "I see that this isn't working anymore..."

With an irritable sigh she straightened herself up and said, "Look, keep the dagger and think about what I said. Even if you don't use it to kill Luc, you can still use it for self-defence or opening envelopes or something. I need to go back the palace – Luc has been out all night searching for Casper and he's left me to attend the court meetings."

I blinked. Wait- what did she just say?

She leaned forward and kissed my cheek and said, "Take care of yourself, Mia - and remember, trust no one."

I stared at her completely stunned. She hadn't realised what she had just done. She hadn't realised that she had just contradicted her own sob story – a story that she had told me, to try and convince me to kill my own mate.

Oh my God, I've been such an idiot.

I turned to her and said coldly, "Don't worry, from now on I won't trust a single soul."

**

Hi angels,

Sorry for the lack of Friday update. My car decided to go on protest and I spent Friday running round trying to get the bloody thing fixed ): Anyway, I've written a lot longer update than usual to compensate for the lack of Friday's update.

Thank you for all your comments! There were so many of them and I loved reading them!

So the overwhelming majority of you guys seemed to think Henrietta was up to no good - and I guess your suspicions have been confirmed after reading this chapter. However what I want to know is why do you think Henrietta is lying to Mia - what are your theories?

It is also time to for a new dream cast! We will be saying goodbye to the beautiful Once Upon A Time inspired dream cast by Zeinab, and hello to the completely original dream cast by Izla – this cast has some really interesting suggestions which I think works really, if not surprisingly well.

Remember if you want to submit a dream cast then all you need to do is send me a PM on either wattpad or facebook with your cast suggestions for all these character: Luc, Mia, Jacques, Nico, Jacques, Henrietta, Louis and Casper!

If you want to add any other characters like Laura or Celia, then please do!

Remember with your cast suggestions I will make a beautiful Pinterest board which I'll share on social media and the image sections of the chapters!

Plus each week, I'll be posting your cast suggestions onto the official story's cast!

So here is this week's official dream cast by Izla!

Luc – Tom Felton

Mia – Caitlin Stasey

Nico – Josh Hutcherson

Jacques – Dan Howell

Henrietta – Emma Watson

Louis – Logan Lerman

Casper – Ross Lynch