Snow swirled through the opening of the balcony sending a cold draft of wind inside . The room itself was extravagant, no cost spared.

High up on the mountain, it showcased an amazing view of the city below, the mountain range and the ever frozen sea.

The view out has no impact over the sickness that prevailed in the room. In the dead center laid a bed, huge I'm dimensions with the finest furs and silks covering it and in it rested a slight figure.

The moon light that had fought through the dense clouds of snow, somehow finding its way into the room, fell upon the harsh planes of the once beautiful face. Misery and sickness had the cheeks gaunt and eyes, hollowed pools of haunted darkness.

She was the once famed beauty of the land.

She was queen Elena.

With difficulty she sat up and tried struggling her way to the edge of the bed and gave up as she panted for her breath. The sickness had started a few months ago, innocently enough with small things like things slipping from her hand or tripping till it escalated to fainting.

At last she had realised. It was the curse.

She sighed as she slumped in defeat as she stared out of the balcony. How foolish she had been! In the midst of her anger with Adam, she had tied her life force to the curse and now that the spell was slowly getting dissolved, it would take her life along with it, when it broke.

Instead if Adam happened to die, the curse would remain unfulfilled and she, being the person who casted the spell would remain alive.

She gave out a small laugh, despicable at how hung up she had been on love. She had thought that her love was the ultimate. But how life had taught her otherwise

On the other hand it was better if Adam died. He was after all a king of a kingdom that was longer was remembered and a palace full of talking furnitures. But she, she was the queen of an entire nation that was alive, full of hopes and dreams who depended on her.

Yes, it was better that he died.

She hoped that her youngest would soon complete the job that she had sent him to do. He had no choice after all.

Useless child.

She scoffed in her head. All that he had ever been good was in hunting. Not a royal bone was in his body. A brute was all that she encompassed him to be.

She hoped that Adam hadn't turned the boy into shreds, considering he was a beast now. The boy was the only one she trusted and was expendable enough to do the job. If Ivan did die bringing down Adam, it was of no concern to her.

She clutched her heart as another bolt of pain passed through her robbing her a bit more of her life force.

"Mother!" She heard her eldest son shout.

She smiled as darkness consumed her.

***

Far down in the south Ivan stood at the narrow edge, his feet buried in the ankle length snow.

This would be the perfect opportunity.

He thought as the smaller man headed to the edge without any regard to his own safety as he solely focused on the plant in front of him. Admittedly it would have required a bit of concentration to realise that one was on the edge as the fog obscured what was beyond. The piece of land was hanging precariously in the air and Beau's digging was making the situation more dire.

But Ivan kept quiet.

Beau looked up at Ivan and gave him a bright smile as he held the plant, freshly dug, with pride. The conscience that usually gave up in Ivan, suddenly sat up.

How could he let this man who had saved his life, die? It was even against the mercenary's code of honor that he lived by. He might have lost everything back home, but was he willing to loose his honor too?

He knew that he was all but a glorified guard dog for his mother, his brothers, who were no better. An outcast all his life. The moment he had seen Adam he had known that his mother has no regard for his life either.

So, was he willing to do it for a women who by his birth should have given him love and compassion?

The angel and the demon, metaphorically, in his mind fought for supremacy as he saw Beau take a step forward.

CRACK!

Horror stood out on Beau's face as all the blood drained from his face and Ivan knew that he couldn't let the man die when he himself had put the man in that condition.

"Ivan! Help!" He shouted, terrified.

"Beau!" Ivan ran forward catching his hand as he scrambled away from the crumbling ground.

"Pull me up!" Beau's voice shook as terror had his eyes rolling in his head as his fought not to look down.

"Don't let go!" Ivan shouted as he tightened his hold on Beau's hand.

It wasn't working.

He looked at Beau in horror as his hand slipped from Ivan's and plunged towards his death and Ivan did the only thing he could do. The only thing he had sworn not to.

He used his magic.

One moment Beau was plummeting towards his death and the other, he was next to Ivan on the floor, knocked out cold. Ivan staggered at the sudden loss of his energy and sat down as his knees threatened to give out under him.

Knowing lot about death situations and magic, he knew that Beau would wake up with no memory of how he had been saved and did not look forward to explaining it to Beau.

It was getting darker outside as the day shifted to evening. There was no time to go searching into the woods along with his and Beau's condition and neither could he leave Beau along and go searching for them.

Next go Beau, he looked to see the sun set amids the cold winter clouds. If it were possible, he would have long time ago simply run away from all the things that life had in store for him. He honestly didn't want to do any of this. A quiet life in the woods where a honest hunt was enough to keep the belly full and a humble abode was heaven compared to the treachery and betrayal that was back home. Even if one could consider that place to be home.

Adam and Beau deserved to be happy after all that had happened to them. But sadly, having a vow already extracted out of him from his Mother, there was little he could do to defy her until he went through the vow. The vow would comple him to finish the job and more he resisted, more he would suffer.

The stars had appeared in the darkness that had veiled over the sky as cool breeze brushed through the trees in the silence of the night and Ivan gave out a sigh.

♥️