Henrietta, the one person I thought I could trust, had just revealed herself to be a liar – why she was lying was yet to be determined, but she was most definitely a liar. She had accused Luc of the most heinous crimes in order to try and persuade me to commit a further heinous crime. She had wanted me to kill my only mate, so that she could install herself as the new vampire Queen – that bitch.

Sitting on the reading room floor I wondered to myself, how far did her lies stretch? Was this something she had been planning right from the beginning when I met her, or was this an impulsive decision made in the heat of the moment? But more importantly, did her lies have anything to do with Celia's death...

The old Queen's journal had never mentioned Henrietta. Her only recorded suspicions named two people as the possible murderers – Louis and Luc. I had always thought it must have been Luc, because how could Louis kill his true mate, but now I found myself doubting everything after nearly agreeing to kill my own mate.

How did she do that? How did she get into my head and mess things up so badly. I think I'd trusted her so blindly because I thought she was like me - a person trapped by shitty circumstances. When I first turned everything was so scary. I didn't know what I was or who to trust, and then Henrietta came sweeping in with her calm demeanour and honest insights and made me believe that I'd found someone I could finally trust, but I guess she had her own agenda.

Still sitting on the floor I made myself get up. This was no time for a pity party. There were things I needed to figure out and they weren't going to figure themselves out with me sat here on the floor, feeling sorry for myself. I needed to be proactive ... but I didn't know where to start. I had leads, like the Colin's book or the scholar the Old Queen had mentioned, but I was stuck in this apartment. Miserably I got off the floor and wandered over to the barred window and looked out over the fort walls to Port Cressida. I needed to be out there investigating, not stuck in here tidying up Luc's mess!

Frustrated I turned round and kicked the nearest stack of books and snapped, "Screw my life!"

The books toppled over with several heavy thuds, spilling across the floor. It was cathartic to watch, even though I knew deep down that is was totally immature, but I had to vent somehow. If I didn't blow off some of the steam building inside me, I was going to explode like pressure cooker.

I thought about kicking the other stacks of books over. I could pretend I was kicking Henrietta's pretty little head clean off her shoulders, but I decided against it. It was terrible to treat books this way, especially when so many of these copies were valuable first editions. Breathing out a long drawn sigh, I bent down and picked up the nearest book and placed it carefully back on the shelf.

"One down – five hundred more to go," I grumbled to myself.

This was going to be a long night.

I bent down to pick the next book up and out the corner of my eye spotted a familiar emerald green book. It was the book I'd been holding when Luc walked in, the book he had told me that his mother used to read. I picked up the emerald green book and read its big golden title, 'Great Celtic Legends of Ireland'. I opened the book and began to flick through the pages and chapters. The book was obviously well loved with its dog eared pages. I smiled to myself imaging Luc and his mother reading this book together in much happier times. I turned another page and stopped. It was a new chapter entitled 'Stories of the Cuchulain' and underneath that was a tiny footnote that read – '...pronounced Coo-hull-anne or Coo-cull-anne depending on dialect'.

"Coo-hull-anne," I said softly.

Was it me or did it sound like Colin?

Okay, maybe I was grasping at straws but Laura did say that she'd had trouble understanding the burning lady when she was talking about the Colin book, and she did say it sounded something like Colin. Maybe the old Queen had an accent that Laura couldn't understand or maybe I had lost my mind. Either way there was only one way to find out.

I flicked through the chapter and at the very end found a small hand written note which read, 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy'. I recognised the words as a quote from a book, but I couldn't remember where. Picking my brains I thought back to English in high school and suddenly recalled it was from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

I dropped the Celtic Legends book and began tearing through the shelves searching for a copy of Hamlet or a volume of Shakespeare's works. Eventually on the bottom shelf of one of the bookcases I found a large thick volume of 'Shakespeare's Tragedies', I pulled it off the shelf and was surprised by how light it was and when I opened the book I found out why – it had been hollowed out.

Inside the book there was a handwritten letter and a small brass key. I lifted the letter out and read it:

'My darling children,

I knew this was the only way that I would be able to get you to pick up a play by Shakespeare. I have always told you that when something goes wrong to come here and find the book I used to read to you as children. If you are reading this now, then something has gone terribly wrong and Port Cressida is no longer safe for you. You must leave the fortress and find the scholar Drabblestone, she understands everything and is one of my most trusted friends, contrary to popular belief. Please understand that I did everything I could, even if it all was too little too late. Don't give up hope my dears. So long as our blood line survives, the evil out there will not thrive.

The key have placed inside this book opens a hidden hatch located underneath the window seat. It drops down into the garden and from this you will be able to escape through left storm drain near the pond. The drain is connected to the outer moat, so you should be able to swim through and escape in to the royal parkland. Keep to the woodland until you have reached the city, then stay in the shadows.

Our enemies are everywhere.

Trust no one, and please remember BEWARE OF THE DEAD.

- Mama.'

"Beware of the dead?" I muttered to myself.

What on earth did she mean by that?

Keeping the key and letter, I slid the book back on the shelf. I needed to keep the letter and re-read it a couple of times over before making any snap decisions – although the thought of finally finding a way out of this hell-hold made my hands tremble with excitement. This little key might be my ticket to freedom.

I ran over to the cushioned window seat and began systematically checking its wooden border for key holes. Gliding my fingertips over the hard surface, I tried to feel for any irregularities in the surface which might give away a concealed key hole. When I found nothing, my heart began to sink – had all of this been a wild goose chase.

"Shit," I snapped.

I sank to the floor and then an odd noise caught my attention – like a whining cat. It was a strange echo that seemed to be coming from the sitting room. My skin prickled and I sensed something was not right. Quietly I wondered if it was one of the ghosts. Taking a deep breath I got up on to my bare feet and tip toed into the sitting room.

When I found nothing there I thought it might have been my imagination, but then I heard the sound again. It was deeper this time and more of a croak then a whine, and it seemed to be coming from the front door. I stepped forward, despite feeling something deep inside telling me to turn back around and find somewhere to hide. I could hear someone on the other side of the door shuffling about.

I tried to swallow down my fear and rationally remind myself that Luc did say he had posted two guards outside my door to prevent me from escaping. Maybe the guards were messing about with each other - I mean this wasn't exactly the most interesting job in the world, just guarding a door.

Tip-toeing closer, I reached the front door and crouched down to peak through the keyhole. Holding my breath I looked through the tiny hole and was surprised to find absolutely nothing. The corridor was completely empty.

"Well done, Mia. You just got worked up over jack-shit," I sighed, feeling once again like a complete idiot... but then I felt something odd, or rather something wet suddenly touching my feet.

I glanced down and saw dark thick blood oozing underneath the door.

I wanted to run. I wanted to turn around, run up the stairs, and barricade myself in my room until someone came to save me – but the bleak reality was that no one was going to save me. Everyone was at the palace and I was stuck here, in a forgotten corner of the fort.

Shit, shit, shit.

I kept calm and once again took a peak through the key hole - there was still nothing there. Suddenly I remembered that my apartment was protected and only Luc and his family could enter into the apartment without my invitation. So it didn't matter if I opened the door and had a look outside because nothing was able to get in. Keeping calm, I decided to crack open the front door, just a smidge to see what the hell was oozing blood across my lovely clean floor.

I placed my hand on the door handle and gently pulled down. I'd expected the door to open softly by an inch, but as soon as the handle was fully down I could feel something heavy pressing against the door. I tried to carefully control door, but it didn't work and the door went flying open.

The bodies of two dead soldiers suddenly fell across my doorway and I screamed. Their throats had been brutally torn open and their arms and legs had been broken and mangled. I stumbled backwards, repulse and terrified by the horror. What the hell had happened to them?

Then suddenly, from outside in the corridor was a strange growl.

I looked up and saw a human form, contorted, walking on all fours with its bloody mouth hanging wide open. Its skin was grey, and its hair black and greasy. For a moment I thought it was Nurse Poison, just because it walked the same way as her, but as it drew closer I recognised its face.

"No, this can't be...you're dead," I whispered numbly.

The dead King Louis looked up at me with glassy vacant eyes and crawled over the bodies and straight into my apartment.

**

Hi angels,

Car is fixed and I'm in Bristol for the weekend – yay! To celebrate I've written a longer update than usual. If you like the longer updates then let me know by hitting that star button

Once again thank you for all your comments! They make for interesting reading and I have loved reading your theories about what Henrietta is really up to!

Many of you seem to believe that Henrietta is in it for the crown, although some of you have come up with much more intricate theories. Naturally, I can neither confirm, or deny YOUR theories, but rest assure in the next few chapters you will all find out what Henrietta is really up to!

So the question for this chapter, if you were Mia and you had just found that key, would you have chosen to stay in the apartment, or would you have chosen to leave?

Leave your answers in the comment section below!

Also, thank you for all your cast suggestions! I have had so many and I'm trying to get through them all, so please don't be discourage if I don't reply back to you immediately. It's taking me a couple of days to catch up with my messages!

This week's dream cast is 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