Chapter 151 - The Doe

Everything around her was a green, rattling blur as Magnus ran with the princess on his back. Alexa couldn't resist him, because she was afraid of getting hurt.

Branches and bushes scratched them in their passage, but that didn't stop Magnus in his path. 

The strangest thing was that he didn't seem to get tired, and the only thing she could see after several minutes of running through the forest was that they were going up a hill. 

Even so, it was only after several minutes that the First Prince stopped to look around. Alexa took the opportunity to pat her back lightly.

Her dizziness was strong, and when the First Prince put her down in front of him, everything spun for a long moment. She didn't want to, but she had to rest her hands on his bare chest to keep from falling.

Magnus's hands came immediately to her waist and the princess's heart leapt yet more. Looking up at his face immediately, she faced him.

On his head, a horned headpiece from an imposing stag strangely seemed to match his powerful figure.

The very dilated pupils made his golden-green eyes darker. He had a scratched face and some recent marks of fight. His lips were parched, and his body vibrated. No; it trembled. But it differed from trembling out of cold, although he was shirtless, as before. It was either the heady smoke effect, or he really wasn't himself, as Reed had shouted.

Alexa's heart was pumping fast and hard, it was almost as if it silenced the forest with its sound.

The maiden's fingers ran over the long scar on the Prince's chest, and she felt him flinch a little at her touch. She just couldn't help it. That scar both fascinated and scared her.

"Calm down now, Prince. I am your friend. Am I not?"

Magnus tilted his head to one side, and assessed her, and his hands went up to Alexa's ribs, causing an involuntary shiver.

"Hm. Uhum," he mumbled.

"We have to get out of here, Magnus. Remember?" Alexa dropped her hands, and started to search the bag for the remaining bottle with the antidote. But the Prince's big, strong hand grabbed hers, and brought it back to his chest, placing it right on top of his heart.

'What he is doing?' she wondered. Magnus had spent several hours exposing that singing and litany in a strange language, his senses corrupted by the narcotic, and he was still suffering from the effects of the drug. Alexa didn't believe he wasn't Magnus ... He was there somewhere, away from the surface.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked, looking down at the intense scrutiny of his gaze.

"The light of spring… in my dark world. You shine in the darkness, coming through a long tunnel ... And I know ... That reaching you was like reaching a star ..." his eyes shone with his own words.

"...!" 

He then stroked Alexa's hair gently. It felt good and cozy.

"You are only saying this because you are hallucinating," she forced her thoughts in the right direction before her fertile imagination wanted to take her on dangerous paths and feelings. She looked away again from his, feeling with her free hand for the bag in search of the bottle. "I have to do everything myself, in the end. I'm Alexa, remember?"

Magnus was indifferent this time, and Alexa showed him the bottle,

"Magnus, take this elixir, the effect of that smoke will end as soon as you take it. You can be yourself again, and… "

With a slap, he snatched the small bottle from her hand and the elixir flew, falling somewhere in the layer of leaves that covered the ground.

"STOP IT! I won't take anything else!" he growled, menacing.

"NO!" Alexa broke away from him without thinking, and crouched down in search of the bottle with the precious liquid. The only one left, since one had fallen somewhere and the other was with Giles. 

While groping the ground in search of the small object that was almost the same color as the dead leaves, Alexa felt a horrible oppression in her chest. She knew that the drug would eventually wear off, but how long would it take before Lady Gwen and her men started looking for them? If they didn't leave the forest quickly, she couldn't be sure they wouldn't be recaptured. And where was Alexander, anyway?

Magnus crouched down beside her, and touched her head with his forehead, saying nothing.

"Snap off. Let me search," she pushed him back, ignoring that a few seconds ago he had reacted violently to the mention of the elixir. 

Alexa concluded that making Magnus willingly drinking the antidote would be difficult. Probably in his memory he remembered being poisoned and put in a troublesome situation. 

The Prince pushed her back in a playful move. Alexa lost balance and fell sitting on the bed of leaves.

A little surprised and annoyed, she leaned on her elbows and hands behind her body to get up, but the man in front of her, now kneeling, rested two heavy, possessive hands on her knees, forcing them down.

"Er ..." it was now indisputable what dominated the Prince's mind. 

If the First Prince rarely missed the opportunity to make his virility clear, it would be no different when he was prepared to meet his female for a ritualistic mating. 

Magnus was already crawling to the middle of her legs, like a big cat, when Alexa felt the side of her hand brush against something cold. The bottle of elixir. 

Grabbing and hiding it in her closed fist, she smiled at Magnus. 

A forced, nervous smile, but that apparently made no difference to a man with an altered conscience.

"Ahem, well… The forest soil is cold and humid, don't you think? Come with me. I'm going to take you somewhere," she said when Magnus reclined on her and between her legs.

He paused for a moment, stroking her hair again, until in an abrupt movement he passed his hand behind her back, bringing Alexa's small body against his chest.

Particularly today, it was impossible for Alexa not to notice several things about Magnus: his physical strength and vitality, and his unbridled masculinity. And as in contrast, the maiden felt so physically small and fragile.

When he stood up, keeping her pressed against his chest and pulling her legs around his waist, the princess had no choice but to allow him to wrap her legs around his body. And then Alexa wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Yes, come. That deserves the sun!"

He started walking up the hill.

In a few minutes they came out under the treetops, and reached a bare landscape, covered with grass and stones, where the morning sun had already touched and heated away the fog. From there, Tanbury Castle could be seen in the distance, as the sea to the east.

For a moment she felt the heat of the sun hitting her back, and looked at the man who was carrying her in his arms so improperly.

"Magnus ... Put me down ... You shouldn't be carrying me like this and I'm feeling something that shouldn't be there ..." Alexa murmured, poking his shoulder playfully.

The Prince arranged her in place once more, his hand remained on her buttocks. He pressed her even harder against his own belly and chest, making Alexa literally sob because of the pressure.

"Ah, my wife… Finally. Don't make me wait any longer, huh?" he murmured, sniffing the curve of her neck and even taking some teasing bites, which were really starting to soften the maiden's body and determination. 

"Ah, don't do that! We are just lying about being married!" Alexa expressed her thoughts out loud. She had a chance to get him back on track.

"Do not be cruel. I still see you, beautiful as the moon entering the cathedral and coming to me… You hungry ogress!" he shriveled, while his thumbs drew circles on Alexa's buttocks causing a pleasant and sensual itch. "And our first dance, and your white nightgown and…"

He alternated the shuddering kisses and light bites on her neck, savoring the moment and heating Alexa's body like molten lava.

The princess decided her last and desperate attempt to avoid a tragedy of unimaginable consequences after they both recovered from what was happening.

Magnus' words reminded her of all the moments he quoted. Even though the events in his mind were distorted, they had been real.

She walked to him on the cathedral nave, and it was he who put the ring on her finger, and it was looking at him that she swore.

It was with him she danced her first married woman dance, and she was with him on her wedding night ...

Opening the bottle with the antidote, Alexa put the honey-like liquid in her mouth in a single sip, dropping the bottle without caring. 

And holding Magnus's face in both hands, she made him look into her eyes for an instant, before kissing his lips.