Catylen flashed a smile for the third time, she was tired of waiting. She regretted choosing to wear this heels, her eyes focused on the door that led to the throne room again.

Was he coming or not she thought to herself, deep down she didn't want him to, he was going to ruin her life, limit her from reaching her full potential. She wanted to be queen, and ivo wasn't cut out to make her one.

Not only that, but she wished Edric were here, she wanted to slip into his bed after all of this drama passed. She adjusted her light blue gown with white flower patterns, her mother had picked the dress for her—something along the line of looking the best for her wedding, not that she cared.

Maybe he had gotten cold feet and ran away, Ivo had always been a coward, so it will make sense, if he walked through those doors she had already planned a thousand ways to send him back but lifeless.

A raspberry flower, black roses, slitting his throat, poison water, dragon eyes she couldn't help but smile from all the various ways she had thought up of killing him. She had to quickly fix her face as her mother glanced at her.

Just a few minutes more, and he would be declared a runner and the wedding will be canceled, she would be betrothed to another hopefully Edric or Thag, she didn't care who it was.

As the bell tolled in the distance she could hear the king groan in anger, it was finally over—her never-ending nightmare, she stared at the front roll as the God's bride began to sing. Edric had left the capital a month ago, riding for the North—frostguard with a thousand men and his half sister, the guardian of the North to stop the snow crawlers.

Which was an irony as she was almost married to one herself, she realized a whole minute had passed. Come on catylen she said to herself, she has to get her act together, she said under her breath as she threw herself on the ground crying.

Her mother was already by her side to console her, she could see the queen climbing down and the king ordering the throne room to be cleared out. He said something to his brother before staring at her with a smile and disappearing behind the large curtains.

She continued to cry.

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It was water.

Ivo had never been more glad by the realization that the dark mass under them was water—very cold but it was water regardless.

He missed his wedding for this, he thought as the fast current swept him and Jakob—who couldn't stop wailing, down the tunnel. He tried to find something to hold on to, but his hands couldn't come in contact with anything.

His bag and Jakob's stolen sword were still fastened around his waist by the rope, he had to shut Jakob up, so he did.

“Shut up, or I will drown you” Ivo called out and this immediately shut him up, now he had to find a way out of this cold watery tunnel. He reached for the narrow walls as he saw the crafting of the tunnel itself.

The flowing water helped with stabilizing the castle, Ivo didn't want to go into the details he had more important things like why didn't Jakob tell him that the tunnel lead to a waterfall

“You son of a bitc—”

He was cut off by the water as it jerked him and Jakob into the air for a few seconds before they crashed into the water.

They didn't have enough time to find an anchor to hold on to as the waves pushed them down the water fall.

Squeeze butt, head first, arm straight something along that line, Ivo didn't care or remember he just wanted to survive. All his swimming training went out the window as he only clenched his body in last-minute diving like he saw professional swimmers do.

The water was heavy against his body as he swam away, he held a loud crash, probably from Jakob's fall, he hoped that the fool lived as this was half of his fault in the beginning.

They had to find land, Ivo slowly lifted his head above the water, he could see Jakob had stretched out to help him out of the water. “It's cold right” Jakob called out with a smile on his face.

He was a blessed—individuals gifted to be resistant against certain forces of nature. Jakob's was water, he could never be killed by anything water based.

“Show off” Ivo called out as he grabbed Jakob's hand to help him out, he immediately tackled Jakob to the ground sitting over him.

“You could have had us killed…multiple times” Ivo called out.

Jakob tried to move, but he couldn't as he simply stared at Ivo's face, his rough hair was now wet with water flowing down.

“Well, we survived didn't we?” He asked with a smile, but ivo ignored him. He rolled over as Jakob moved to tackle Ivo, he simply waved him away, he grabbed his arm in a lock and dropped to his back, pinning Jakob in a death lock.

Jakob screamed from pain, but it didn't stop Ivo from holding tighter.

“I give up” Jakob cried out as Ivo let go of him, he rolled and sat up to catch his breath. “What's next?”

“North” Ivo replied.

“Okay.”

They both sat in silence.

“Well, lead the way” Jakob called out

“What do you mean lead the way? If I knew the way, I would be half way there without your sorry ass for sure.”

“What? You don't know the way north?”

“How do you intend to go north by the way ?” Ivo asked.

“That way” Jakob pointed to the mountains.

“That was the direction we just came from, dumbass.”

Jakob stood up and took a fighting stance again.

“Don't you ever learn?” Ivo asked.

“I know the way!” A voice called out.