Chapter 225 - First and Last Night Together

Discovering pleasure with Magnus was a fast-learning and rewarding experience.

And Alexa didn't care to m.o.a.n and purr like a kitten, as he said _ or to touch him when he asked, and to reciprocate the sensations he gave her, albeit tentatively. They had repeated the experience in a few ways. And as the couple escalated in their free exploration of each other's body, new, fantastic new climaxes ensued, till their complete exhaustion.

Now they were both sweaty, clinging to each other's bodies, and barely fitting on the wagon bed.

Alexa was nestled on top of his body, with no strength to move.

His chin was resting on her hair, and he was, as usual, playing with her earlobe absently. Alexa's finger slid over a scratch she had done on his flank with her nails. It was still red.

The time had come for the good and bad news, and she was in no hurry to tell him. But it would be horrible to leave him without knowing.

Magnus closed his eyes for a moment, and Alexa took the opportunity to touch the little mole on his face with a finger.

"What is it?" he asked, still with his eyes closed, holding her finger.

"This is the thing I like most about you."

"Uh. I was hopeful, earlier, that it would be the last thing I showed you." He opened his golden, swollen eyes, staring at her with the shadow of a naughty smile.

She laughed, "Give it to me so I have nowhere to go."

He pretended to hand the beauty mark over her fingers, with his as tweezers. "Here it is. Your new North Star. Come back to me, Alexa. I'm serious."

Alexa's eyes suddenly filled with tears. And then she said,

"I didn't want to ruin our time together, but ... when I go in the morning, I don't know if I'm going to be back at night."

Magnus' caresses ceased immediately, and he turned her face to him, holding her chin,

"Will you come back to me?"

More than the question, what was happening in Magnus' golden eyes disturbed her. Alexa only had one answer to give,

"No."

Magnus' face changed completely, and Alexa continued,

"There was no more time, my love. Sigrid's spell is over. Let me tell you what happened, so we can think about what to do now."

He nodded and she reported the day's events. Magnus narrowed his eyes when he heard about the events at the lighthouse. But was horrified to hear her account of the Forbidden Garden.

He stretched his neck from side to side, trying to relax his shoulders, getting ready for something, and bit his lips thoughtfully, and finally, he kept running his hand through his hair. Anyway, all his tics in a single sequence. It would be funny if it wasn't worrying.

"So, I put the seed in the back of my throat..." she finished the report looking anxiously at Magnus, feeling all the disapproval that emanated from him.

Placing her carefully seated on the bed, Magnus got up and took the pitcher of water to drink, before saying anything. After pouring a cup and offering it to his wife, he sat on a bench in front of the bed, and faced her.

Alexa thought that if he needed the physical distance to say something, it shouldn't be a good thing. It looked like he was choosing words.

"Alexa ... Did it all really make sense to you?"

"What do you mean, Magnus?" She was feeling cold now away from his body, and maybe because he reacted that way. "I did this to save Alexander! After all that has already been done... ?! I mean... How could this end? We really thought we would have time to get to Languedoc, but we didn't have all the hitches or what happened in Holstein! We didn't expect Sigrid's spell to weaken ... "

"I mean… If picking up the damn pomegranate was the solution for Alexander from the start, why weren't we told?"

"Because... Sigrid didn't know about it, perhaps?"

"Sigrid was Gisela's damn mother! She should know!"

"I didn't know that!"

Magnus sighed. "No, you didn't know. But Gisela knew about this solution ... And was she never able to say that?"

"Well, there are the rules of the dead ... They can't reveal what they know - in fact, they forget things over time..."

"To hell with the rules of the dead. Because nowadays she is talking a lot! And everything she wants to, when she wants to!" he snapped.

Alexa blinked. Well, she had never stopped to think about it, maybe because whenever Gisela spoke more, Alexa was in a state of unconsciousness, and not awake. Besides, Gisela was a special Shade ... Wasn't she?

"Are you saying that your good stepmother is not quite who she seems? Does she really want to harm me and Alexander?"

"Alexa my love!" Magnus got up and came to her, taking her face in both hands in a desperate gesture, "I always worried, but so far I was sure she didn't want evil - neither Alexander nor yours. However, the pomegranate tree ... I don't know what that means. That cursed tree cannot be the solution..." Releasing her when he realized that he was pressing too tightly on his beloved's face, Magnus pulled away again, too restless to stand still.

"It's scary! I don't have a good impression of it anymore!"

Alexa swallowed hard at Magnus' words. She remembered her own feeling when she touched the pomegranate ... It was not a good feeling.

"Mags, why would she want Alexander's evil? What she said seemed to make a lot of sense. Not only that ... If it works, I will return to my body, and Alexander will be able to enter his again ... maybe all she and Sigrid tried to do was to avoid using the last resort - the pomegranate seed."

In saying this, the memory of the Persephone myth struck Alexa. The maiden who swallowed a pomegranate seed in hell and could never leave it.

Suddenly, her eyes filled with tears.

"Mags ... Mags, I swallowed the pomegranate seed!"

The Prince, who was uncomfortably walking back and forth in the restricted space, even at the height of the wagon, stopped and turned to Alexa. His nervous expression softened and his eyes went dark when he saw his wife's face, and he immediately sat down next to her on the small bed. Putting Alexa's head on his chest and stroking her hair, he asked,

"What is it? Do you know anything more about this?"

Alexa told him the legend of Persephone and Hades, in a nutshell, and saw the worry in his eyes disappear when she reached the end.

How could he have a smile in his eyes while her eyes were watering? She wouldn't be up the next day or the next night! She would be in the dark and the cold, lost in the Realm of the Dead! Or at best, forever in Alexander's body! Their love and their marriage were ruined!

"Are you finding it funny?! How can you be happy when it will ruin everything? I swallowed the pomegranate seed! I was deceived!"

Magnus wiped away her tears, trying not to show her reaction was amusing to him, which only made her angrier.

"Wait a minute! At least my little brother used his intelligence to advise you well! And I love him for that!"

"Hpf, what are you talking about? Now that you've got what you want, don't you care anymore?"

"PFHHFFFF!" this time he barely managed to contain his laughter. "Alexa, at dawn you are no longer a maiden… If that was a requirement… You can no longer be stuck in 'hell', whatever that is really. You already have your connection with the upper world… ME!"

Alexa opened her eyes wide, then narrowed them accusingly,

"Oh my goodness, are you all happy to consider yourself my savior ... That's why such a silly face!" she was a little relieved, but annoyed that Magnus was laughing at her.

"No, that's not it. I am happy that my brother thinks of avoiding the price in this way."

"But, we're not sure that was a requirement, Mags ... And does that change your distrust of Gisela's plans?"

"I don't know. I dont know. All the things I have discovered recently confuse me more than they clarify. I'm only sure of one thing. I need to go back to Holstein now."

Alexa bit her lip. In fact, with the uncertainty of what would happen at dawn, Magnus must return.

"About what the pomegranate seed really is, Orcaius, Volos and the secrets under Holstein ... Maybe my brother can reach Master Petrus. If Iacintho achieves this, it will be even better than just me coming. He will take Master Petrus to Holstein, and he will help us!" Alexa spoke optimistically, getting up. "I'm going to talk to him now, I can't be..."

Magnus tugged on her arm, preventing her from running.

"Hey, where are you going n.a.k.e.d in the middle of the night?"

"Ah," Alexa reached for the dress, but Magnus sat her down on the bed again.

"No. I will solve this. We have little time together, listen to me."