The Sleepy Princess Loves The Cold Duke

Chapter Thirteen: A Little too Late

Steven ran out the basement. Locked the door again with his own key and began heading to the one place he knew she would be.

Poppy put her hands in front her and braced herself for the recoil. "Tornado." A rush of wind twisted and flung half the monsters into the air, cutting them into pieces. Her arms felt like they were being stabbed from the inside out. 'Not enough.' Poppy touched her palms together and with the tips of her fingers she made a gap. "Dragon Breath." Fire burst through her finger tips. Every monster at the flames touches incinerated to ash. The heat scorched her hands. She knelt down in tears from the pain.

More monsters came forward. 'Not enough.'

She raised her hands. "Ice storm." Icicles the size of trees filled the sky. She curled her fingers into a fist and all the icicles shot down and killed the last of the monsters.

Loki had cleared out the all the flying monsters and left the ones on land to his soldiers. He cushioned the blow from the talisman as he landed on the ground. He was so far away from his mansion that it would take a couple hours to travel by car. But it was because of Poppy's magic that he was able to protect his people.

This realization dawned on him and guilt filled his chest. "Duke Frost!" A knight yelled out to him as he ran over to Loki. "We got news that all the monsters have been cleared. Thankfully there was minimal damage." Loki nodded in understanding. The solider scratched his head, "Actually I think the person in the worst state right now is your fiancé," he whispered but because of Lokis exceptional hearing he could hear the knight's words as clear as day.

Loki jumped into the air and headed to the mansion. Even at this speed it would take him a couple minutes to make it home.

Steven had watched only the end of the battle but his fear kept him from moving a foot. He wasn't afraid because of the monsters. But of Poppy. She was clearly killing herself with these spells but kept using the highest level spells of each element like it was nothing. She was about to throw out another spell but Steven ran to her and grabbed her hands. He covered her eyes with her hand and made a line with his hands in the air. A line of water sliced through the air. The remaining monsters, which wasn't a lot at this point, cut into pieces. "You've done well Poppy. The monsters are all gone." "Peace." He whispered.

A small rainbow appeared before her. Small water droplets pattered over them. This was a spell used to calm the mind. "You are okay," he soothed. He cooled off her hands with cold water.

Usually mages don't hurt themselves when casting magic but he knew the reason she was so injured right now. 'She has so much mana that her body can't handle it.' He realized this is probable why she uses talismans. But if she practiced a bit and trained her body, she had the capacity of becoming the strongest mages in the world.

Poppy fell unconscious in his arms. Steven picked her up. He wasn't as fast as Loki but he still was fast enough to run to the nearest clinic within only a couple minutes.

Loki opened the basement and asked the staff where Poppy was. The doctor answered first, "I think sir Steven went to her."

•••

"Where is she?" Loki ran into the infirmary. A knight had informed him that Steven had brought Poppy to the infirmary and immediately ran as fast as he could. A doctor pointed to the a bed on the side of the room. "She is fine. Just a bit beat up," the doctor tried to say but Loki was already down the room. He stomped up to Poppy's bed with eyes raging with fury. "Are you insane! You could have died out there! What were you thinking fighting on your own?!" Steven was sitting beside Poppy, and spoon feeding her soup. Poppy swallowed and glared at Loki. "You were the one who left me there! If I had died it would have been your fault, not mine."

Steven pushed his rolling chair away so he was out of the way of their quarrel. Loki scoffed, "so I was supposed to abandon my people for some spoiled princess?" Poppy crossed her arms. "Am I not one of your people? You protected everyone but me. Why? You say it like you had a choice to make but if you could save the thousand and still fight off the enemy then why wasn't your fiancé included into that?" Loki flinched.

"Clearly my life was of no importance to you so don't you dare chastise me about the decisions I made to protect myself when you left me to die." The room went quite. It was true. He had left her there because he had seen an opportunity to get rid of the person chaining him down. He did leave her. So why was he so upset?

Author:
This is a bit longer of a chapter than I usually do. But finally we have gotten to a turning point of the story and I am so excited for you guys to read the upcoming chapters! :,)