Chapter 250 - Her Destiny

"You damn stupid monkey?! How dare you?! How dare you try to touch her?!" Alexander exclaimed, with utter contempt and irritation emanating from his voice. His face changed, and it was impossible to hide now that he was no ordinary human being. The shadows reflected on his beautiful face. A being touched by the Netherworld.

Beside Alexa, Countess Godiva let out a heavy sigh and plummeted to the side, exactly Alexa's side. The princess tried to support her, but she would never have the strength because Godiva was heavy. Meanwhile, Kurt shrank as the flesh of his body dissolved under his skin, his hair turned white as snow and finally fell from his head.

Konrad was paralyzed with terror, gaping at Alexander directly.

Magnus turned to his brother, sword drawn,

"STOP!"

"Do you really want me to stop, Magnus?! Your hypocritical piety has no limits!" 

The brothers met eye to eye, but Alexander did not give in, keeping his hand extended in Kurt's direction.

Kurt groaned, and everyone looked at the poor creature huddled on the floor, grabbing his severed arm against his stomach. He had aged over five decades in seconds, his clothes were loose around his shrunk body and his skin was wrinkled and withered.

Magnus snorted, frowning in anguish, and turning, he struck yet another violent blow at Kurt, pulling him out of that painful existence with a stroke of mercy.

'Hgg!' Alexa gently laid Godiva's head on the floor, getting rid of her weight, and ended up sitting down. Her legs were also shaking at what she had witnessed.

"You had no right to have done that! Whoever you are!" The First Prince hissed, without taking his eyes off Alexander again.

"You are wrong, Magnus. I had a right. You and I agreed that innocents should not die. We are working on it. But this man ... he wasn't innocent." Alexander closed his hand and shook it, placing it behind his back.

And then he looked around. First for Alexa, on the floor, his aunt, and finally Konrad.

Alexa saw the always kind and well composed young Duke with his face upset in shock. Trembling lips and red eyes, a pale, contorted face, until he cried out, pointing to what had once been his beloved cousin.

"ALEXANDER?! WHERE IS ALEXANDER?!"

Alexander looked at the one who was once his best friend, and his brow furrowed and his lips tightened, his violet eyes turned the color of sapphires.

"Oh, Konrad… Forgive me. This is me."

°°°

Konrad's cry of despair, hatred and pain still echoed in her mind when Alexa woke up to Romeo's excited singing. Colored lights danced around her, and she realized she was in her room, at the castle.

Astonished, she sat up suddenly, looking around.

She saw Alexander by the stained glass window, sitting absently, and Magnus standing by the door, staring at her.

"Why ... Are you in my room?"

Neither responded immediately, and Alexa understood the reason. Neither wanted to leave her alone so that the other could be with her.

"Since you're here..." she said, smoothing her hair and her wrinkled dress. She didn't remember exactly how it ended or how she ended up in her bed. Alexa just didn't want to close her eyes again to avoid remembering Kurt's demise. "I don't want to talk about anything else right now, except our future! Neither war nor succession… I want to know who I'm married to!"

"WITH ME!" both responded immediately and faced each other in defiance upon hearing each other's response.

Exasperated, she clapped her hands on her legs,

"NO!"

"Don't even try to be a single woman!" said Magnus, frowning.

"Don't even try to escape!" completed Alexander, raising an eyebrow, and adding, "It's dangerous."

"What are you talking about? Now that the three of us are here, know! I know I did enough, and you yourself admitted that I tried hard to help you, to the limit of my strength. Stop being stubborn and set me free from this marriage! You said that it's just a paper for the church."

"You were treacherous in everything you did ... And you know that," muttered Magnus. Just by his low tone, Alexa could imagine he had already said all the variations of that to Alexander before. That was just another repetition.

"I also said that the old and innocent Alexander, my forgotten self from days ago, cannot be held responsible for anything," he tossed his hair back. Magnus' eyes were now fixed on him, like a hunter who follows a predator. "But I can't be accused of everything either, although it doesn't make much difference to you how things happened. Alexa, you are my wife. Half your life is mine. And you are connected to me by the little pomegranate seed you swallowed ... Just like Mags is connected to me by the heart in his chest. I cannot let you go; I don't want to let you die."

'So why don't you just leave us alone?' it was the first thing that came to her mind. But Alexander was different today. His sullen face had dark circles under his puffy eyes, showing suffering and tiredness. Alexa might be audacious, but she still had a love for life. Even though she had just heard that he didn't want to hurt them, she preferred not to take any chances.

"If you're really going to put yourself between me and Alexa, wait and see, Alexander! I will find a way to get rid of you. You know I didn't mean to, but you don't leave me any other choice!" his older brother stated.

"It will be useless for all of us, Magnus. The magic that unites us keeps you alive. If you break that magic, when you try to kill me ... and if you succeed, of course ... you will die... And if you die... What is the purpose?" Each pause for Alexander seemed well thought out so as not to say anything on impulse, to reveal nothing beyond what was necessary.

Alexa already suspected that, and ran her hands over her face, unnerved.

"And do you think it will be bearable for us to live like this? Do you think I will accept living with you just because of a role, or because I am afraid of you?"

Alexander shook his head, "I understand that you're angry. But I said before, it got out of my hands some time ago." 

"Alexa... My... brother, he says that something will happen to you, because of the pomegranate seed..." Magnus approached Alexa, beside the bed, grabbing her small hand with his big, warm hand. That brief touch made her feel a little comforted from that scary conversation.

"What will happen?" Immediately, the legend of Proserpina came to mind, and although Magnus initially scoffed, they discovered they were wrong, after all.

"When winter comes, you won't be able to walk among the living, Alexa," said Alexander. "Making the long story short, however much you wanted to run away and leave Holstein behind as if it were another tragic episode of your life, you will come to my home in the winter. You will fall asleep at the end of the solstice day, and you will only wake up when spring comes. And so it will be until the day your mortal life fades... As long as I live, you can live with me, however."

The princess blinked again and again.

"What?!"