“How did the father and son catching up go?” Ida asked as she rolled him back to his room.

Melisa, who had disappeared all evening, now stood by his side as she offered him a glass of water, but she clearly needed it more as her hand shook and her feet wobbled.

The only thing that kept her from falling over was that she held on to the metal railing and used them as a guide down the hall.

Soon they were in front of Ivo's room as Ida kicked the door open, she rolled him in and moved to help Melisa to the window.

Soon she was done, and she helped her sleep on the bed while she pulled a chair next to Ivo.

“So tell me everything” she said.

“What?”

“Don't play me for a fool, I know that you have ulterior motives, and you have something planned out, tell me”

“I can't”

“Why? Do you think I would betray you?”

“No, I would slit your throat if you do.”

“You have really changed little brother, you now even hand out threats, but do you really think you can slit my throat?”

“You would rather not find out”

“Oh, then I will leave you to your devilish plans and pray they consume you”.

“I will get you that steel and the humongous amount that you need, I pray you make a very fine blade out of it”.

“Blades” Ivo corrected, but Ida pretended she didn't hear him and simply walked out of the room.

Ivo stared back at Melisa who was sleeping soundly on his bed, she had passed out because of the amount of Ale in her stomach.

“Giants can't help themselves, can they?” He thought as he closed his eyes to sleep, part of him pitied her. In the coming week, she was going to have the roughest part to play.

Ivo thought back to how much he was willing to sacrifice to make sure he was king, was he really making the right decision? He thought, but no answer came as warm air blew, drawing him into a soft sleep.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Elvira laid in bed, her entire body ached, but her heart was the one with the worst pain.

She stared at her husband sound asleep as his words echoed through her ears again tormenting her.

She has been with this monster for 28 years, and she has given him her body and soul just for him to reject her child—his first blood claims to the throne.

Furthermore, she wished she could strangle him, but she couldn't, she had seen him snap bones of men in half, and she had seen him do vile things to people who tried to take his life in this very bedroom.

She swallowed hard, one more moment in this room, and she might just risk strangling him with her pillow.

Elvira stood up and grabbed her night gown, she was as quiet as possible, and soon she was out of the room down the east wing of the iron castle.

She continued to walk until she was at the royal garden, she took the small rose gate into the whispering forest, and she tried to say a prayer to the Pentakratos.

She wept and prayed to Kairos the guider of fate, she thought it was wrong as she was in the whispering forest and decided to pray to Elyria the mother, but she didn't need comfort, she needed strength, justice—she needed war.

Soon she found herself running down the forest, she had slipped a couple of times, but she simply stood up and continued running to nowhere.

Her knee and feet were bleeding as she remembered she was barefoot, she didn't want to stop until she stumbled upon someone and crashed to her back.

Her eyes opened wide from surprise as she was about to scream, but the figure held her mouth closed.

She bit and fought back, throwing her fist in the air, but the figure was too strong.

It lifted its hand and slammed her in the neck as she could feel the light draining from her eyes.

Her last words as she screamed, “was, please make it stop” she begged as she finally lost consciousness.

The figure checked its hand from her bites and then stared at the woman now on the ground.

“You're one vicious woman” it called out as it lifted her over his shoulder and walked down from the path she came from.

The weeks rolled back, and the king game was in 3 nights, Ida had disappeared without a notice, word or trace.

Ivo had no plans to find her either way, she was old enough to fend for herself.

Presently, he simply chose to enjoy the tea with edric in the garden.

He wore a white shirt with a black and gold jacket, he let his hair fall wide as it was also impossible to get it to stay right, his black pants and boots matched the black roses in the garden but edric was rather dressed for the occasion with a red leather jacket that reached his knees, ivo could see only a glimpse of his brown pants before his long boots covered the remaining part of his feet.

He was wearing a crown—which was a symbol of being the crown prince and supposed heir, but that being revoked a few weeks back, Ivo could only see it as prince edric's little act of rebellion which, by the way, wasn't really going well.

“I came as soon as I received your invitation” Ivo said as he placed his cup on the table and smiled.

“I will be honest with you brother, do you want to join the royal council?”Edric asked as he leaned forward with

a grin that showed he was up to no good.