Claimed by the Prince of Darkness novel Chapter 142

Chapter 142: Heirloom of the Dead

Past midnight, snow fell over Sexton, settling over the empty courtyards and the dark rows of windows. In her room, Ruelle sat on the floor beside a low-burning candle stand, the wooden box open in her lap as she stared down into the small mirror inside it.

There had once been a belief that the soulless and the dead cast no reflection. For a long time, people said it was true of vampires. But they carried reflections. She was not like them... was she? She had never craved blood.

Maybe she could compare the mirrors, she thought to herself.

So she emptied the contents of the box onto the floor and turned it over in her hands, tapping at the back in an attempt to loosen the mirror.

"A little early to be summoning ghosts," came Lucian’s voice. Ruelle looked up and found him standing at the door. At that same moment, the mirror slipped free and fell onto the floor. "Trying to wake the dead?" One of his eyebrows lifted slightly.

Ruelle watched him step into the room and close the door behind him. She raised the mirror so that it faced him. She asked, "What do you see?"

Lucian looked at her for a moment before his gaze shifted to the mirror.

"Nothing unusual. Just my reflection."

Ruelle’s stomach sank at his words. She replied, "Can your corruption know if something is wrong with someone?"

"If something were wrong with you, I would know," Lucian answered, making his way to her.

"But the mirror doesn’t show me. Not me, my hair or my clothes. Nothing," Ruelle shook her head in worry. She saw his hand reach towards her and she handed the mirror to him.

Lucian took the mirror from her and turned it slightly in the candlelight, his thumb running along the sharp edge of the glass as it didn’t look out of the ordinary. When he turned it over, he found two initials engraved into the back.

"M. D," he murmured.

"Those are Mother’s initials. Mirabelle Dorian. My birth mother," Ruelle said, leaning slightly closer to look at the mirror. So the box had belonged to her mother after all. She wondered how she had come to possess a mirror like that. "I doubt Father would know anything about this. He once threw it out of the house. The crack is from that."

"I wouldn’t be surprised," Lucian muttered under his breath. He then stated, "Mirrors have long been believed to be doors for the deceased. Maybe you can pass through it."

A small laugh escaped from Ruelle’s lips. She pointed, "I don’t have any abilities, Lucian. I am an average human."

"You won’t know until you try." Lucian handed the mirror back to her, the look in his eyes patient as he waited with slight curiosity.

Her lips pursed for a moment before she placed the mirror on the floor. She touched the cracked surface again, but nothing happened except her fingers pressing uselessly against the cold glass. Maybe it was just a strange mirror that did nothing at all.

When she picked it up again, her grip slipped, and the mirror fell from her hands, shattering into pieces against the floor.

"I broke it..." Ruelle frowned, but just as the words left her lips, the pieces began to move. Like liquid mercury, the shards slid across the floor toward one another, joining together until the mirror was whole again.

A self-healing mirror...

Lucian narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the mirror mend itself. He had never come across anything like this before. Only the dead cast no shadow and no reflection, yet Ruelle’s heart was beating steadily. She possessed no known ability, and if she did, it was not one that revealed itself so plainly.

When his gaze fell on the items she had emptied from the box, he lowered himself to her level and asked, "May I?"

"Go ahead," Ruelle said, watching as he picked up a clear glass vial to his eye level against the fire still burning quietly in the fireplace. "I used the perfume only on special occasions. The last I used it was two years ago."

Lucian quietly stared at the vial before asking, "For your engagement with Allen Sheppard?"

Caught off guard from his response and knowledge, Ruelle stared at him before giving him a small nod.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify