Chapter 69: Part Your Lips Wide

Lauren woke up with her head throbbing a bit. She blinked twice before she could see the ceiling above her clearly. With her body lying comfortably in the bed, she felt her wounds weren’t as painful as she remembered.

Turning her head to her left side, she saw Alec sitting on a chair beside the bed with his legs crossed and staring at her intently as if he had been in that position for a while now.

"The royal physicians said you would wake up an hour later but it took you two hours to regain consciousness. I think I should replace them with better ones once I become the king."

Lauren recalled that she was inside the mirror and was freezing to death in a wooden house, and how she felt someone’s arms around her before she was swallowed by darkness. She realized she was still lucky to be saved, but she wondered how Alec was able to save her.

In a weak voice, she asked, "How did you find me?"

"Because I’m smart."

"Did you go inside the mirror?"

With Alec’s observant eyes and heightened senses, she knew he would eventually find her if he tried, but for one to step into an unknown place without knowing what danger was waiting for him, she didn’t think he would dare follow her with the uncertainties. She also found something odd. The time she spent inside the mirror didn’t even take an hour, so how come Alec noticed her disappearance and found her that quickly?

"I spent less than an hour inside the mirror." Looking at the bright sky through the window, she continued, "It was afternoon when I got trapped inside. Why is it already morning?"

"Minutes inside the mirror are hours in the real world. I don’t know much about mage relics, but that one must be the relic that traps creatures with souls inside. I waited for you till midnight thinking that you had errands to run but when it was already past midnight, I decided to search for you assuming that the reckless ass of yours ran into some mishap. I passed by the room of mirrors and found one of your gloves by the door and noticed something was odd."

"And how did you bring us out?"

He snapped. "My portal."

Lauren rose to a sitting position slowly and leaned on the bed’s headboard. She still felt pain from her wounds but it was bearable. She guessed she had been mended by the royal physicians.

"Your evil stepmother pushed you, didn’t she?"

Lauren’s brows were knitted. "How did you know that?"

"It was only your scent and hers that I smelled in the room, and the way she reacted when she saw me entering the castle while carrying you said it all. She came by to check on you a while ago, by the way. How do you plan to deal with her? I suggest we trap her inside the mirror. The poor wraiths have no one to play with."

A small smile tugged on Lauren’s lips.

"Your idea sounds nice, but it is too early for her to die. Let’s feign ignorance for now."

Alec shot his brow up in contempt but he didn’t say anything. As much as he couldn’t wait to torture the Queen with his own hands, he knew Lauren had her own plans with her so-called family.

"How do you feel now? Feeling better?"

He called a waiting maid outside and requested a bowl of soup.

"My body feels a little weak but I guess I’m better than how I was inside the mirror. I have never encountered wraiths before and didn’t know how to fight them. They were quite strong."

"Fire is their weakness."

Remembering how Alec’s portal was surrounded by blue fire, she wondered if he could control fire, one of the rarest abilities ever seen in all lands. Even if she happened to know that fire was the wraiths’ weakness while fighting them, most mages were not capable of creating fire through spells, not even the senior mages and elite vampire mages. Fire was the element that was the hardest to control and according to history, it had been ages since the last mage with the ability to manipulate fire died.

The maid Alec asked to bring a bowl of soup arrived. After putting the silver tray on the bedside table, the maid left the room.

"The physicians left some medicines that you need to take orally. I will put the herbal powder in your soup. It will replenish your energy," said Alec. He got a small bottle of powdered medicine from the table and sprinkled some of it into the soup.

Holding the bowl in his hand, he rose from the chair and sat on the bed beside Lauren.

"I can do it," she said when she saw what he was trying to do.

His brow raised mockingly, "Are you sure? Look at yourself, Lauren. Your left hand is covered with a bandage because of the deep cut on your palm that will take a few days to heal. While there is another cut on your right forearm that was just sewed a couple of hours ago which you shouldn’t strain."

"You can ask Sally to do it instead."

His eyes narrowed at her mischievously.

"Why, my dear wife, do you find this gesture too sweet and makes your heart flutter?"

"Why would my heart flutter for you?" Lauren retorted with arrogance despite the lump in her throat. "It’s just, looking at you feeding a person is out of your character. It doesn’t suit you. My maidservant can do the job. You shouldn’t bother-"

"The soup is getting cold, Lauren. Now open your mouth like a good girl," he cut her off and brought a spoonful of soup to her mouth.

"Like a good girl? Don’t treat me like a child-"

He held her chin gently and inched his face closer to hers which made her stop.

"Don’t try to test my patience, wife. If you are thinking that saving you is free, you are wrong. You need to pay me with your sweet blood but I can’t drink from you if you don’t recover soon. You owe me your life so you have to heed my words."

His cruel eyes then dropped to her lips. "Now part your lips wide."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read