Kissing Hellfire: Marry Me, Evil Lord
Chapter 190: Branding Iron

Chapter 190: Branding Iron

Thalia’s whimpers filled the cell as Lauren continued to carve a line through her chest, blood was oozing out of the wound. Lauren’s face held no remorse as she watched Thalia suffer from agonizing pain. From the moment she lost her young self’s innocence, she had been dreaming of making Thalia writhe in pain like this, both physically and emotionally. She was only doing the former, but she knew the latter wouldn’t take long to follow. She owed this one to her stepmother, and it was an honor to serve her what she deserved.

"I change my mind. I’ll just give you twice the size of my mother’s scar, so I’d stop here." Lauren pulled back her hairpin and smiled at the momentary relief she saw in Thalia’s unsettled eyes. The edge of the hairpin was coated with blood now, and so was the upper part of Thalia’s white nightgown. The striking dark red stains were in stark contrast against the white fabric.

Lauren wiped out the blood in her hairpin with Thalia’s dress before she stood and stuck it back on her hair. She looked at Jasper whose jaw was clenching hard. She could see the lividity roaring in his eyes as if he were drowning her in profanities in his mind. She smirked, knowing very well that at the end of this day, she’d get what she wanted from both Thalia and Jasper.

"Do you have a branding iron or something similar?" she asked Alec and with one glance at the guard on the door, the guard immediately got the command.

It didn’t take more than a few minutes for the guard to be back, now with a steel container filled with blazing coals and a branding iron.

"Now let’s proceed to the next part. I’m sure you’d love this, stepmother. Wasn’t it one of your hobbies to torture people this way?" Lauren raised a brow at the terrified expression on Thalia’s face. The way she swallowed hard at the sight of scorching coals in front of her spoke about how frightened she was.

"How could you do this to me, Lauren? Have I ever done this to you? I never!" Thalia’s trembling voice was laced with panic.

"Yes, you didn’t," Lauren said. "But you did so many other horrible things to me so I have decided to do this to you. After all, you love doing this to the people you hate, right? Don’t deny it, I know everything you were up to in the past years. From colluding with those wicked ministers in doing the dirty work for the king, winning the favors of elite people using your schemes, even what kind of filth you were before you got adopted... I know all of it."

"I am still the queen dowager! You cannot do this to me! This is against the law! Are you not afraid that you would get the Supreme House’s attention because of this?"

"Why don’t you file a petition and summon the Supreme House here?" Lauren challenged. "It would be a great opportunity to let the entire kingdom know about your real background, how you were involved with the late king’s filthy doings, and most importantly, how you brought back your dead unborn baby into life using sorcery. One more thing, you were an accomplice to Casper’s murder. All of that are enough grounds to get a death sentence, don’t you think?"

"More than enough," Alec added. "The supreme house would only give a verdict, though, and wouldn’t decide what kind of death she’d get. It is to be decided by the king. Whether one gets tortured or not, it’s entirely up to the monarch. So I believe there is no point in going through all those unnecessary court trials, queen dowager."

Lauren took the branding iron, it’s bottom scorching hot against the fiery coals. She glanced at Jasper whose brows were knitted now, his body tensed and rigid. Veins protruded in his arms and she could see how badly he wanted to free himself from the shackles that held him. It was stupid. Did he think he’d stand a chance against Alec if he successfully escaped his shackles?

She said calmly, "Mr. Owens, you said you didn’t care whatever I do to this woman? Why do you seem so eager to break your shackles? I’m sorry to break this news to you, but all of the shackles in the castle’s dungeon had invincibility spells. No matter how strong you are, they are unbreakable."

Alec’s lips twitched smugly.

Lauren sighed at Jasper’s silence. She was getting impatient, so she shoved the branding iron onto Thalia’s shoulder without warning. Cries of pain drowned out every little noise in the cell and perhaps even echoed in the whole dungeon. The thin fabric covering Thalia’s shoulder burned in no time, exposing her shoulder which was now very red due to the wound she got. Her face was full of sweat as she shrieked, beet red, and looked like about to explode.

"Stop! Please stop! Dammit!"

Jasper’s shout made Lauren stop. She turned to him and asked, "Have you finally made up your mind, Mr. Owens?"

Jasper’s jaw moved. His tone sounded unwilling when he answered, "Yes... I’ll tell you everything! Just put down that damn thing away from her." His voice was firm and deep, anger beaming in his eyes.

Lauren’s lips curled into a sly smile as she put down the branding iron. She stepped forward, blocking Jasper’s view of Thalia, and Alec stood by her side.

"You should have cooperated with us sooner, Mr. Owens. It would have saved us the trouble," Alec said, sounding too kind to be true. "My wife and I don’t have a lot of time to spare, you see, so I suggest you give us the answers we want without dragging this out. We don’t have a lot of patience."

Jasper muttered a chain of profanities under his breath. Dark purplish circles were around his eyes, making him look sleepless which was ironic because he was a vampire who didn’t need to sleep, but perhaps Colton exerted a lot of effort in beating him so he ended up looking so distressed.

"If it is about the rebels you want to know, I don’t know a lot of things. I know some members, like Simon Lancelot and some junior councilmen, but I didn’t hold power as much as Simon holds in the party."

"Do you know who the mastermind is?" Lauren demanded.

"No. I have met her a few times but she was hiding behind a mask."

Her. The pronoun used told Lauren that she was right all along. That mysterious woman with emerald and ruby rings was the mastermind of the rebels.

"Are you sure it is not Simon?" Alec asked, skeptical.

"No," Jasper’s answer came quick and sure. "I was with him once when we met the mistress—that’s how everyone calls her, and that’s when I figured out Lancelot was like the right-hand man of the leader so he gets to decide some things that most normal members can’t, including disposing of the members he regards as trash." His jaw locked, his anger toward the man sent him seething.

"So that’s how he was able to set you up, then." Lauren’s eyes squinted, the image of Simon flashing in her head made her grit her teeth. She didn’t appreciate how he tricked her last time. "What about the drug that corrupts humans? What do you know about it?"

"I have nothing to tell on that part. All I know is that the production is managed by the mistress herself in some secluded place never mentioned to me. I joined the party because of Simon. He promised he’d help me take over all of my father’s businesses. I also joined thinking that I’d get Thalia out of the castle once I got the party’s support," Jasper explained, his tone hard and words precise as if he wasn’t coating them with any lies.

Alec could tell Jasper was telling the truth but he wasn’t satisfied with his irrelevant information. "Are they also the ones responsible for the rise of black mages? What kind of sorcery are they doing to make black mages stronger?"

"I don’t know. Like I told you, I don’t know a lot of things. I only joined the party recently so I wasn’t included in important meetings. The first task I had was to corrupt several humans, so I talked to Jennifer and we planned the tea party at Haystone’s."

Lauren’s face hardened. She thought she’d get enough information from Jasper, but if Simon had sent him to them because he was no longer needed, it only meant it was true that Jasper didn’t know a lot of things. Why else would he send him into the enemy’s hands if he knew Jasper could spill things they could use against the rebels?

The same thought crossed Alec’s mind. He arched one of his brows, his eyes full of menace. "If you have nothing useful to offer us, I guess letting you live longer is not necessary."