Kissing Hellfire: Marry Me, Evil Lord
Chapter 217: Haunted by Mirrors

Chapter 217: Haunted by Mirrors

"Darius and the cavalry are working with the royal army, Your Majesty. He told me to stay behind and guard you," said Julian.

Lauren didn’t feel any relief. She had Matthias and Julian to protect her but she would still rather have them saving lives out there. Alec said the black mages and deranged humans attacking the town were in great numbers. No matter how many soldiers the royal army had, it was inevitable for someone to get hurt.

It was only yesterday that they discussed the temporary antidote Dr. Bentley had formulated. They were still in the process of creating a great number, so they could not use it. Which meant that those deranged humans needed to be killed. There was no other way.

Lauren went back to the bedroom after dinner. Matthias and Julian stayed outside, guarding the door. She was pacing back and forth, thinking of how she could help with her current state, when the mirror across from her suddenly turned black.

She took a few steps toward the mirror, but she kept a safe distance. She did not want what happened in the antique mirror room to happen again.

Lauren watched the mirror, her eyes alert. After a few seconds, she gasped when she saw herself on it. But it was not how she normally looked. Her hair was almost all white, her irises were white, and her nails were longer and coated with blood dripping down the floor.

She staggered back, her chest moving up and down heavily. She turned around so she could not see it, but the entire room seemed to have been filled with mirrors. Everywhere she looked, she could see her monstrous appearance glaring back at her.

"What is this? What is happening?"

Lauren panicked. She lifted her hands to see if she had grown long nails, but she saw they were normal. She looked at the mirrors again, but her monstrous reflection remained. Was she hallucinating? Or was she under an illusion?

She screamed but no voice came out of her throat. She kept looking around, trying to understand what on earth was happening. She could not be dreaming, that was for sure. She did not remember sleeping at all.

Lauren closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. She practiced her breathing, just like Alec had taught her before. She did not track how long she stayed that way until she heard a voice.

Her eyes snapped open. The mirrors had vanished and she found herself still standing in the center of the room. But this time, a maid was in front of her, holding a tray of snacks.

But the horror that registered on the maid’s face turned Lauren frozen. The maid was wide-eyed, her hands holding the tray were trembling as she looked at Lauren.

Staring into the maid’s eyes, Lauren saw her reflection. Her white hair was so easy to spot. What she saw in the mirror just a moment ago was what she saw in the maid’s eyes.

"Y-Your Majesty, please do not hurt me..."

With trembling knees, the maid took a few steps back. What she was seeing was no longer the queen but a monster that was about to gobble her up. She felt the urge to run, but she could not seem to move out of fear.

"Who says I will hurt you?" Lauren’s voice came out incredibly smooth and rather sweet, which made her feel confused at first. She wanted to assure the maid that she would not hurt her, but deep down, she was aware she felt something else while staring at the maid’s scared eyes.

The maid looked like a kitten that was on the verge of splintering out of the room. And the thought of the chase, the thrill of catching a prey, the act of crushing down something so vulnerable...it flashed through Lauren’s mind as though it were her only memory. As if she had been yearning to do it.

"No..." a distant voice came into Lauren’s head. Then she suddenly realized what she had just thought about. How she saw the maid as prey she would love to kill. How satisfying she thought it would be.

The realization made her jaw drop. Simon Lancelot was really right, wasn’t he? She would eventually forget what humanity and compassion were. She would lose her emotions and see people as toys whose lives she could play with.

Lauren turned away from the maid and clenched her jaw. She had seen her monstrous side and the thought of killing the poor maid crossed her mind to prevent her from telling people about it, but she rejected the idea. The maid did not do anything. It only happened that she was at the wrong place and time. Killing her was out of the options.

But if she let her go with those eyes bulging in fear, people in the castle would surely wonder.

So what Lauren did was cast a spell on the maid that would make her sleep. She was only a human with no special abilities. Casting a simple spell on her was easy.

Before the tray of food could fall to the floor, Lauren had caught it. She placed the food on the table before hiding the maid’s body somewhere in the room. The sleeping spell would last for a day at most. She did not know what to do with the maid, so she thought of telling Alec about it.

Lauren created a barrier in the room so anyone from outside could not enter. She could not allow anyone else to see her in her current state, and she did not know how long she would stay this way, so she better take some precautions.

Half an hour after the maid who sent Lauren’s food entered the room, outside, Matthias noticed that the maid hadn’t left yet and told Julian about it.

"Maybe she is waiting for Her Majesty to finish her snacks?" Julian sensed nothing wrong.

Matthias did not say anything and shrugged, thinking that Lauren must have asked the maid to do something while she ate.

"With the queen’s obvious lack of appetite these days, it should not be surprising that it is taking her long to finish her meals," said Julian.

However, an hour had passed and the maid had not yet left the room.