I shot up to the sound of an alarm blaring in my ears, they rang as my eyes tried to focus on something. My heart thumped away at abnormal speeds. Stumbling out of bed over to the door with my ears still ringing, I tore it open and peered out into the hallways, which were silent and barren, which meant only my room had the alarm screaming. I slammed the door shut and searched up and down for the source of the sound; there really wasn't anywhere for an alarm clock to hide in this concrete box. Naturally, I was furious when I couldn't find it.

I went out into the hallway and sat just outside my door with the blanket wrapped around me. At least they had those invisible sound barriers so I couldn't hear it outside of my room. I rested my head on the cold concrete and closed my eyes again.

The sound of footsteps approaching me brought me back to my senses.

Charlotte was squatting beside me, a smile on her face. Her blonde hair was hung over her shoulder in a messy fishtail braid.

"Why are you out here? You'll catch a cold like this," she said with a hint of worry.

"I can't find the alarm," I muttered.

The corners of her mouth twitched, trying to withhold a laugh as he stood up and pressed something on the panel on the wall beside my door.

I pursed my lips. So that was how you turned it off.

"Grab your towel, it's time to shower. They'll be serving breakfast soon," she said as she helped me up.

I was still so tired. Glancing at the panel on the way in, I saw that it was only 7:09 am. I grabbed my towel and the t-shirt that was now on the floor after I had turned my room upside down and followed Charlotte to the showers. These were much closer to our rooms than the ones we went to last night.

After showering, we went straight to the canteen, only to be taken away to sit another room; we had to eat separately from the other soldiers. I didn't know why. There was a much smaller room with two metal picnic benches in the centre. Leyton and Jayden were already in there, putting their trays to the side, but there was no sign of the king, queen or Leandra yet. Maybe they already ate.

Seeing how run down I was, Charlotte offered to get my breakfast from the canteen for me and I wasn't going to turn down her offer.

"You look like personified shit," commented Jayden.

His twin nudged him and shot him a glare.

"Wow Jayden, I didn't know you could use big literary words," I responded snidely.

Jayden mocked me childishly only to be hit with another one of his brother's glares. That still didn't stop Jayden's lips from curling into his annoying, sly smile. He could still be an ass early in the morning.

"You do look very tired, though. How did you sleep?" Inquired a more sympathetic Leyton.

I folded my arms on the table and rested my head on them. I could maybe sleep until Charlotte came back, I wasn't sure how long she was going to be.

Eventually, the door creaked open and a tray was slid just in front of me. I sat up and peered down at the food on the metal tray: oatmeal in a bowl of the same metal, a spoon, tea in a small mug and a banana. Considering the fact that I was starving, it looked pleasing and I couldn't wait to eat it, so I dug right in.

What didn't sound too pleasing, was that breakfast would always be the same thing, sometimes with a little variation, but it was always oatmeal with something else. Lunch and dinner, however, had a set rotation where'd you'd eat the same thing every day for two weeks. The remainder of this week was chilli con carne served with spinach. I dreaded the day when they started serving something disgusting, what would I eat then?

"How was your meeting with Queen Genevieve?" Asked Charlotte after taking a bite of her banana.

A nervous laugh left my body as I prepared to divulge the events of a few nights ago on our first and hopefully (but unlikely) last encounter. I set my spoon down neatly and clasped my hands together in front of me on the table. Not that the meeting was that dramatic, but it sure was tragic on my half.

After breakfast, we'd been instructed to stay in the room we were in and someone would come to take us on a tour, and then afterwards we were free to do what we wanted for a while. Later in the day, we'd have a meeting about what we'd do now we're here.

At the end of breakfast, a man in the same grey sweater and pants as us waited for us outside to show us around. The tour only lasted about half an hour, with our "guide" not bothering to actually take us down all of the hallways and instead, opted to point to them as he explained what was there. It didn't make much of a difference, and the little he did show us, looked almost identical to everything else. There was one area, not far from the entrance elevator, with all the leisure activities: there was a games room, gym, cinema room a computer lab and everything else to keep a normal person sane and stimulated. There was also a simulation room but we didn't get to go inside and he didn't explain what was in there, unfortunately.

With the tour finished, we came to a halt at the end of a corridor. The man told us we could now go where we wanted, except places that said no entry and then he left. I didn't have anything to do but everyone else did and they left me stood there. I couldn't go with Charlotte and Leandra because they had to organise alternative accommodation for the queen who hated it here and Leyton was going to assist Jayden who wanted to find something he could do; he hated being holed up like this, even for his safety.

Strolling down the same hallway I'd been abandoned at, I came across a training room, which had a panel of windows spanning its length. A flash of red stole the attention of my eyes and I caught sight of a ginger lady surrounded by four burly looking guys in the middle of a huge white mat: two with thick beards, two without, and all of them were as bald as the next. The woman looked minuscule surrounded by those giants, yet she already looked like a total badass and she hadn't even started fighting yet.

One of the bearded guys took a step towards her and before I even knew what happened, he was face down on the floor. She dodged a punch from the other bearded guy, grabbed his arm and twisted it behind him, literally using him as a shield to block the kick from the other baldy. I stood in awe as the fight continued for another five or so minutes until another guy, with a full head of hair that I hadn't even noticed stood at the side of the room, came forward and threw the ginger-haired lady a towel. That's when she turned to face me. Our eyes met immediately since I was already gawping at her and she appeared confused at first but then a friendly smile grew on her face.

She appeared right in front of me and held out her hand for me to shake, "I'm Gemini," she said. Her large yellow eyes almost didn't blink until I shook her hand.

"I'm-"

"I know," she cut in, "everyone knows."

"I'm sorry, your highness, Cornelia can be a little too forward at times," the man with half from earlier showed up beside Gemini. He bowed to me ever so slightly, "if she or anyone bothers you, know that you can simply dismiss them."

"It's fine."

The man dismissed himself and Gemini turned to me and asked if I wanted to "learn some moves" and of course I answered yes. I could hardly throw a good punch.

I finally spoke up as we walked back into the room, "I thought your name was Gemini."

"It's a nickname I was given. I'm a professional con artist slash spy. The two usually go hand in hand for me. I got caught at the last minute trying to con my way into this fortress, then they hired me and now they train me since I'm so good. So since I usually have a fake personality, people started calling me Gemini as a joke. Sounds way better than Cornelia though." She explained.

Gemini pointed to a bench at the side of the room that was facing the training mat and stretched a little before calling over to one of the guys called 'Pulp' for some of his water. He was one of the bearded guys. Pulp took one last sip of his water and tossed it over to Gemini. While she drank, I focused on taking off my shoes and tying my hair up to keep it out of the way and then went to join her on the mat.

"Ever fought a vampire?" She asked, and I shook my head. "Have you ever fought?" Again, I shook my head at her question.

She sighed, but a smile was present on her face, all the same, her dimple stood out on her baby looking face. A babyface who was most likely older than me and could probably kick my ass more times than I'd like to count.

Gemini was eager to get into it, not wasting any time on basics, she wanted to teach me how to possibly stand a chance against a vampire, it wasn't impossible for a human. She said she hadn't encountered any that weren't maids and so had never had a conversation with one before- I was her first.

After half an hour I was already all sweaty and knackered, not used to this kind of training, but that's when I completely left my face in the open and Gemini's foot sent me spiralling to the floor. For a couple of seconds, I could hardly see or feel anything as I lay face down with my ass pointing in the air, looking like some kind of a frozen caterpillar mid-gut-slide. A caterpillar who was now in agony and making the most unattractive groaning noises.

Gemini was soon by my side and apologising frantically and she helped me to sit up properly. The right side of my face throbbed rhythmically as she worried about whether she'd be punished for hurting royalty. It felt like my face had completely caved in, and all the tears that I wanted to come out, had been kicked to the back of my head.

When she finally managed to pry my hands away from my smarting face, she grimaced and muttered: "that's going to bruise."

Helping me up, she told me she'd take me to the nurse's office for an ice pack, which luckily wasn't too far from this room because I felt like I needed to lay down.