It was just a brush of their lips and Felixa pulled back immediately.
"You kissed me and said that you're sealing your promise with the kiss! It was-"
Felixa paused, seeing Maximus taking a couple of steps away from her. Covering his mouth with the back of his hand, he appeared to be mortified.
"It was you, right?" Felixa took a step towards him, holding the stone tighter in her hand. In that dim light, she couldn't read his expression and she didn't particularly care about it either. "You called me 'Lexa' back then too. No one calls me that way."
[I caught you in a lie, didn't I?]
And without knowing, she had made the greatest warrior of their time, retreat several steps without even a single weapon in her hand. She had no intention of harming him either.
But the one who was fearfully called as "the Brute" by his enemies and hailed as the fearless conqueror by his men, gave ground to the petite woman who couldn't even carry the weight of her dress.
"Wait," he took a couple more steps back and ended up tripping on the protruding root of a tree behind him. Somehow he balanced himself and ended up with his back against a tree. "Stay there!" he stopped her still.
His face tingled. He placed his hand on his lips where the tingle originated from. The exact place where her lips touched him before felt warm and it spread all over his face. He didn't expect she'd do that. And it stunned him completely.
He knew it is pathetic of him to act this way over a kiss; no it was just a peck. But he couldn't help it. It was her lips that touched his. His heart was beating like a war drum and even his hand stung for some reason.
He looked at his hand. The vine around the tree must have had thorns. As he leaned over, the thorns had pricked his hand and blood was oozing out in his palm and one of his fingers.
'This is nothing.'
He tried to get away pretending everything is fine, but he couldn't step forward. He could feel Felixa's eyes were trained on him. Pretending to be casual, he turned to see what is keeping him from moving.
It was his cape!
His cape had gotten caught in the vine and he struggled to get out.
His heart started to beat fast and he got embarrassed for acting like a teetering imbecile in front of her, just because he couldn't handle her kiss.
'Will she mock me? Where can I hide after this?'
Felixa walked closer to him seeing his struggle. He told her to stay away but she couldn't watch him fighting with the vine with all his might, and failing rather miserably.
[Is he not the Brute? Is he the same man who is said to have conquered the lands of the realm with his sword? Why is he struggling with a vine? He has a sword hanging on his waist which he can use to get rid of the vine... Or he could just leave the cape... But maybe this is his favorite cape..?]
"I'm fine..." he tried to stop her but that didn't stop her from reaching to him.
She tried to get a piece of vine that was stuck on his cape.
"Careful! It has thorns!"
Felixa didn't understand why he panics about something so obvious. She noticed the thorns and was careful.
"I will-" She answered nonetheless but before she could finish her sentence, he tried to grab her hand.
"Hss!" she hissed as she accidentally got pricked in the finger by the thorn in her reflexive motion to avoid his hands.
A drop of her blood dropped on the stone she was holding.
"You're bleeding!" She watched him panic some more and he held her hand to look at her finger.
The stone she was having in her hand, slipped and fell. Before she could catch it, he reached out to catch it, probably instinctively.
The moment his hand caught the stone, there was a blinding light.
Felixa covered her eyes with her forearm and took a step back.
She heard him grunt, "Not like this," he clicked his tongue. The next moment she was pulled closer to his chest and he rubbed her back, gently.
She now saw the light turning green and she heard a lot of footsteps running towards them. Judging by the shouts, she figured they must be his guards. Getting out of his hold, she turned and looked back.
She was awed.
There was a magic circle glowing green in front of them. It pulsated flashes of green light and she was overwhelmed as each of the ripples passed through her. She didn't know what that feeling was, but she didn't hate it. She noticed the stone she was holding till then, being in the center of the magic circle.
With the magic circle in front of her, she couldn't see anything else. She wasn't scared and she didn't have the urge to run. She didn't feel tied either.
At that moment, what occupied her mind were, the bright magic circle in front of her and the warmth of the man behind her.
"What is-?" she asked as his arm wrapped around her waist.
As she was speaking, some characters started to appear in the magic circle and it passed through her in a flash and ended up disappearing the moment it touched him.
"What happened?" she turned and asked him and he looked at her.
He looked shocked and she had a feeling that he didn't like what happened just then.
"Our souls got bound together," he said, and then his face relaxed as if he had found peace with what happened. She saw the same gentleness she saw on him some time ago returning.
"We are married."
Felixa's heart skipped a beat.
[Married..?]
She blinked her eyes as she couldn't get what is going on. Before she knew it, she saw a bunch of Knights kneeling in front of them and they all started to recite their oath to protect the King.
Julius kneeling in the front smiled in his heart.
So this is what he meant by "his bride". After this long, I found out where he "lost" the Aion Stone.
This cheeky brat!