Kissing Hellfire: Marry Me, Evil Lord
Chapter 67: Lover of Souls

Chapter 67: Lover of Souls

"Where is Lauren?" Alec asked Lauren’s maidservant, Sally, when he returned to the castle by the time of dinner but didn’t find Lauren at the dining table.

"I haven’t seen her this evening, milord. I saw her return earlier this afternoon but I didn’t see her leave after that. I was busy with the chores," answered the maid.

Alec nodded and went upstairs, thinking that Lauren must have things to do outside and would be back anytime soon.

Inside their bedroom, he poured himself a glass of blood wine and sat in front of his desk. He visited the small villages near Hayford cemetery earlier that afternoon with the councilmen under his wing to search the villagers’ houses. He thought that those black mages who attacked them in the cemetery last night could be from the nearby villages.

While running through the case reports, Alec stopped when he noticed hours had passed and Lauren had yet to return. He grabbed his gold pocket watch on his desk and his brows knitted when he saw it was almost midnight.

Did she perhaps come across some mishap? He wondered and the more he thought about it, the more he felt unsettled.

Setting aside the paperwork, he hissed and stood up. He reached for his coat on the rack and left the room in only a few long strides.

He went to her previous bedroom to check if she got lost again, but the room was dark and empty.

Lauren usually left during the day and she always came back before midnight, so he thought it was odd.

Making his way to the east wing, Alec stopped when he noticed a lady’s glove below the statue standing beside a door. He picked up the glove and when he brought it to his nose, he smelled Lauren’s scent from it. He looked at the door and remembered it was the room full of mirrors where he had drunk blood from Lauren for the first time during their engagement soiree.

He pushed the door open and his eyes narrowed darkly when he smelled Lauren’s scent in the room. Scents left by people in such spaces didn’t stay for long, so he knew she must have been inside the room earlier that day. But he found it strange. He picked another trace of scent in the room, one that belonged to someone who lived in the castle.

What was Lauren doing here? Alec asked in his mind as he walked around the room.

He then remembered that Lauren told him these mirrors were the King’s collection and with how she said back then that a mirror showed her an illusion, he figured out that they weren’t ordinary mirrors but mage relics that held power.

He checked each mirror without touching them since he didn’t know how mage relics exactly worked and he might end up ruining them.

Looking down at the glove in his hand, Alec’s face turned hard. He knew how the Queen and her daughters despised Lauren, and he felt something was wrong with the whole thing.

The maid said Lauren returned this afternoon and he thought she must have left again, but how come he could smell her strong scent in this very room? It was like she was just around here somewhere.

Stopping in front of a big mirror in the west, Alec’s dark eyes dropped to the small letters written at the bottom part of its frame. The letters were very small that they were barely visible to the human eye, but Alec could clearly read them.

’Amans animarum.’

Lover of souls.

The meaning behind the words reminded Alec of what Vincent told him before, about a mage relic that would suck every living creature with a soul.

He brought his right hand in front of the mirror without touching it. His eyes turned crimson at the same time his hand emitted a blue light similar to blue flames. As far as he knew, mage relics holding power to trap people inside held strong power and wouldn’t break easily.

Seeing that the mirror didn’t break after he cast a destroying spell on it, Alec realized it was a strong relic.

Without feeling an ounce of fear or hesitation, he stepped forward and let the mirror pull him inside its world.

He then found himself in the middle of a dead forest.

He looked to the east and saw an old house in the distance that was attacked by wraiths but when the bunch of evil spirits noticed another living creature, they left the house and flew toward him.

"A ruined place inside a mirror with a lot of wraiths. Interesting," Alec muttered.

His eyes turned darker as he welcomed the wraiths with his fist blazing with blue flames. He had fought with wraiths before and he knew what was their weakness. Fire.

As soon as his fist hit a wraith, they turned into dust. Seeing how capable Alec was after killing several of them, the other wraiths flew away and disappeared beyond the dead trees.

Alec’s eyes fell on the house that was attacked by wraiths earlier. The moment he arrived at the place, he immediately caught Lauren’s scent in the air, proving that she was somewhere near.

Noticing that a barrier was protecting the house, with his vampire speed, it didn’t take him more than five seconds to get into the house.

The moment he saw Lauren freezing on the floor, his crimson eyes turned to their darkest shade. He quickly brought her to his arms and sensed how she was barely breathing.

"Breathe, Lauren," he whispered, his jaw clenching hard seeing the state she was in.

Alec didn’t waste time. Standing in the middle of a freezing house, the lining of the irises of his crimson eyes turned into blue flames and his blue fire portal appeared right before them.

Stepping into the portal, they were teleported in front of the castle and Alec soon realized that the minutes he had spent inside the mirror were hours in the real world, and when they were brought back outside it was already morning.

Queen Thalia who was passing by the main hall and was about to have her tea dropped her jaw when she saw Alec entering the castle doors with the unconscious and wounded Lauren in his arms.

Due to shock, the Queen was unable to move from her spot and didn’t realize she was blocking Alec’s way to the staircase.

When Alec’s dark crimson eyes fell on her, she felt shivers of fear run down her spine.

"Step out of the way," he demanded coldly.