Chapter 240: Reflection

Lysander’s POV

The heavy wooden doors of my private room slammed shut behind me.

The chamber was cold. High up on the wall, small openings let the chilly wind whistle through the dark.

A single torch flickered in the corner, throwing long shadows across the floor. Near the back door stood a small wooden table holding a bowl filled with cold water.

A large mirror hung on the wall right above it.

I walked over to the bowl with slow, heavy steps. My chest felt hollow, and a dull pain throbbed in my ribs where the white beast’s ice magic had locked around my lungs.

My boots dragged across the cold floor, leaving wet mud behind.

I stopped right in front of the mirror and looked at my face.

The young man looking back at me looked exhausted. Blood had dried right under his nose, and a dark bruise was forming on his nose.

His brown eyes looked sunken and dark from weeks of using heavy magic.

I leaned down, gripping the edges of the wooden table. I dipped both of my hands deep into the cold water.

The freezing water bit my skin right away, but I did not mind. It helped clear my heavy head.

I scooped up water and washed my face again and again, trying to get rid of the smell of dirt, blood, and humiliation.

I scrubbed my fingers methodically across my wrists, rubbing away the dark smudge marks where my ancient magic had flared during my retreat.

I washed slowly, taking my time to gather my composure before any of my generals dared to enter my quarters.

When I finally wiped the water from my eyelashes and looked up toward the glass, a cold prickle of unease ran down my spine.

Something was wrong with the image in the frame.

I was leaning forward over the basin, my dripping hands resting on the wooden rim. But the reflection in the glass was not leaning at all.

It was standing perfectly straight. Its arms hung loosely at its sides. Its face was completely dry. And its dark brown eyes were locked onto mine with an unblinking, icy stare.

My breath caught in my throat for a fraction of a second. I stood up slowly, watching to see if the image would mirror my action.

It did not move an inch. It simply stood inside the frame, watching me like a ghost trapped behind a window.

"How on earth are you able to do this?" I asked, my voice coming out as a low, guarded murmur.

"The deal was for you to leave my family alone," the voice answered.

The voice did not come from my own throat. It echoed directly out from the glass, carrying a cold, bitter tone that belonged entirely to the boy whose body I was occupying.

I straightened my posture, smoothing down the front of my dark robes and regaining my composure.

"I made no such deal with you, boy."

"I surrendered my own free will to you," Nicholas said, his reflection taking a small, deliberate step forward inside the frame, his brows pulling down into a sharp frown.

"I allowed you to take complete control of my body. But I only let you take the wheel on one single condition. You swore you would let my family live in peace."

A small, amused smirk tugged at the corner of my lips as I met his angry gaze.

"Do I honestly look like the kind of person who negotiates terms with a child?"

The reflection’s jaw clenched tightly, his eyes flashing with sudden rage.

"You almost slaughtered my brother out on that field today!"

"Most people trapped in your pathetic position would be celebrating that outcome," I replied, my voice completely flat and unbothered.

"That boy treated you like dirt your entire childhood. He ruined every single year of your young life. He turned you into an outcast in your own home."

"He is still my blood; he is still my family," Nicholas said softly, his voice dropping into a quiet, painful murmur inside the mirror.

"And I forgave him for everything a very long time ago. So tell me why you are doing all of this. Why are you attacking them?"

My smirk vanished, replaced by a dark, freezing stare.

"Do you honestly expect me to sit back calmly while his mate walks around preparing my destruction?"

"Then you can just disappear," Nicholas snapped, his eyes narrowing into sharp slits.

"You can leave this body, leave this territory, and vanish into nothingness."

A short, dark laugh burst from my throat, echoing loudly off the cold stone walls.

"The Alpha King never simply disappears. He does not pack his things and run away like a scared coward."

"Then I guess you will end up dying like a coward instead," Nicholas said, his voice quiet, cold, and dripping with venom.

My eyes darkened instantly at his words. A dangerous aura rippled around my shoulders, causing the flame of the single wall torch to flicker wildly in its iron bracket.

"I will not be dying anytime soon," I said softly, stepping closer to the mirror until my face was only inches away from the cold glass.

"And do you know why? Because I have you."

Nicholas remained perfectly still, his reflection refusing to flinch as I leaned in closer.

"You see, you might be sitting in there wondering why I decided to hunt you down and kidnap you in the first place," I continued, tilting my head to the side as a cruel smile spread across my face.

"As long as I carry your soul inside this vessel, your precious little pack cannot hurt me. Striking me down means ending your life as well. Slaughtering me means murdering their beloved lost prince."

Nicholas stared back at me in total silence, his chest rising and falling as he absorbed my words.

"And to truly defeat me without taking your life," I said, leaning closer until my breath fogged the cold surface of the glass, "they would have to find a way to separate my spirit from your vessel entirely. Which is a completely impossible task."

I paused for a brief moment, letting the heavy weight of that reality settle between us.

"The only person who possesses the ability to sever a host from an ancient spirit is someone who exists in two realms at once," I whispered, my voice dropping into a cold, lethal chill.

"Someone who is physically dead, but spiritually alive and conscious. A spirit caught directly between the world of the living and the realm of the dead."

Nicholas pulled his brow down into a deep frown, his brown eyes shifting as he processed the complex magical law. He knew enough about ancient lore to recognize the truth in my words.

"Without a person existing in that exact magical threshold," I continued calmly, "they have zero chance of pulling me out of this body. And nobody in their right mind is going to willingly kill themselves just to get a chance at destroying me."

Nicholas kept his lips sealed, his mind visibly racing to find a flaw in my logic, but finding none.

"Even if Helen’s daughter is far stronger than I anticipated," I said, straightening my robes with a neat flick of my wrist, "and even if she holds vast amounts of ancient power inside her veins, it changes absolutely nothing. In the end, every single creature on this earth will still bow down before my throne."

I took a slow step back from the wooden stand, my smirk widening as I looked at his trapped reflection.

"And let us not forget the most important factor," I added smoothly.

"I am the only living soul on this entire continent who can perform high-level dark magic of this magnitude. Even if your pathetic family somehow manages to find someone willing to cross into the realm of the dead, they would still need a master dark sorcerer to guide the spell. Without one, the entire ritual would instantly collapse into a violent disaster."

I looked straight into his dark brown eyes, my voice dropping into a soft, mocking purr.

"Their chances of ever catching me are remarkably low, boy. I still hold every single advantage in this war, even after experiencing a temporary setback out on that field."

"Are you sure of that, huh? That your little witch is still in control of my mate’s body?" Nicholas retorted with a smirk.

"Do you really think I will be using the same spell on myself?" I scoffed.

Nicholas’s face twisted into a look of fierce, unyielding hatred after realizing the pathetic spell that worked on Drusilla and his mate won’t be working on us.

He pressed his right hand against the inside of the mirror, as if trying to push his way through the barrier separating us.

"The moment I find even the smallest opening," Nicholas growled out, his voice shaking the glass frame, "I will personally tear your spirit apart from the inside out."

My smile faded instantly. A sudden, sharp realization struck my chest like a splash of freezing water.

My eyes widened slightly as I stared at the boy’s reflection.

The white beast’s unexpected, icy assault out in the courtyard had actually managed to weaken my spiritual hold over this body. It was only a minor scratch on my vast reservoir of power, but that tiny fraction of physical weakness had granted Nicholas just enough spiritual strength to push through my mental walls.

It had given him enough energy to speak out loud and confront me face to face through the glass.

Whenever the Alpha King’s dominance flickered inside the host, the true owner of the vessel regained a sliver of their original strength.

"Well..." I whispered, my voice dropping into a dangerous, freezing chill, "...that little surge of yours will not last for long."

I flicked my right hand violently through the air, channeling a sharp burst of dark energy into the glass. The air around the wooden stand rippled, and the static image of Nicholas shattered like fine dust.

The reflection instantly snapped back into place, once again perfectly mirroring my every move as I turned my back on the mirror.

I walked away from the basin, my mind spinning as I paced across the cold stone floor of my private room.

Not for long, boy, I thought to myself, clenching my right fist until my knuckles turned white.

My mind shifted away from the boy in the glass, turning entirely toward Helen’s daughter. Azura.

She was the child I had spent over twenty long years searching the realm to find. The missing infant who had vanished into thin air after her mother’s fall.

Now, she stood as a full-grown warrior, carrying a terrifying combination of royal Alpha blood and ancient nine-tailed fox magic in her veins. She possessed a level of raw power that surpassed even her mother’s legendary prime.

Defeating a creature of that magnitude was going to be an insanely difficult challenge.

I stopped beside the flickering torch, staring into the bright orange flame with a cold, unwavering expression. I was the Alpha King, the greatest ruler to ever walk this earth, and I was not the type of man who accepted defeat from anyone.