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“We’ve talked about this before,minn eldr,” Herrick began to say.

“No, that was before Eydis,” she cut him off. “There are things you don’t know about me.”

“You can tell me,” he said softly.

He was aware that he didn't know all there was to know about her, but it wouldn’t stop him from feeling the way he did.

“But I can’t because when I do…” Maude took a deep breath and looked him in the eye with a vulnerability he had never seen on her face before. “When I do, you won’t look at me like this anymore. And maybe that's selfish, but I don't— I don’t want you to stop looking at me like that.”

Maude motioned toward him and the expression that must have been on his face. Moving quickly, before she could stop him, he grabbed her hand and brought it to his face.

“Nothing you could say would stop me from feeling this way,minn eldr. I will still lo—”

She put her other hand over his mouth to stop him from speaking the words that had been burning inside of him for longer than Herrick would have liked to admit. The terror in Maude’s eyes was the only thing keeping him from speaking further.

“Don’t say it,” Maude whispered before removing her hand from his mouth. “Not before I tell you why I left.”

Herrick nodded once and moved to sit on the bed. Leaning forward, he rested his forearms on his knees and motioned for Maude to speak.

If she wanted him to listen to her story, to listen to what she needed him to know, of course, he would take it seriously and hear what she had to say. Herrick knew that Maude had a temper and that she acted impulsively sometimes, but those were some of the things he adored about her.

He was not afraid of her or hergalder. She was his Maude, his warrior, his fire.

She began to pace, seeming to have an internal argument about where to start. When she finally stopped and faced him, Maude’s face was twisted with grief and anger so palpable that he felt hergalderbegin to react. The last time he had seen her face like this was when they had met with his mother for supper, and she had brought up how Maude’s mother died.

Maude had brushed her off, and they all knew it, but he hadn’t pushed on the topic. He guessed tonight was the night he would get the full story.

Flicking his fingers to create an ice bubble in case her emotions ran away with her, he nodded once more to tell her he was ready. Maude gratefully looked at the ice around her and swirled her fingers twice, causing a shield of air to form around them, blocking any sound from leaving their bubble.

Herrick braced himself for Maude’s story.

28

Wind rushed around her ears as Maude fell through the air. Unbridled joy sang in her heart as she continued to plummet, the rush of adrenaline pounding through her. It wasn’t until she got close enough to the ground that she realized she had no way to stop. Her airgalderhad never been reliable, and there was nothing beneath her to break her fall.

Panic began to set in, and she extended her palms out in front of her like she was going to catch herself before her body hit the hard ground. Trying to find some sort of concentration, Maude tried to push the air around her to slow her fall. Time slowed as the ground crept nearer and nearer. She heard screams echoing from the windows she passed.

“The Heir Apparent!”

“What’s happened?”

“She’s falling!”

“Someone catch her!”

Maude focused until the only thing she could hear was the sound of the rushing air inside her ears. At that thought, her palms began to tingle in the same way they did before she used fire for the first time. Maude opened her eyes and saw she was only a few feet from the ground when she pushed with all her might against the air.

And stopped falling.

One foot more, and she would’ve been flattened. Maude’s airgalderhad lashed out and stopped her from falling to her death. She looked above her, expecting to see her father in the window of her bedroom, but there was no sign of him.

Finding no time to think on it further, Maude righted herself and withdrew her axe, her short sword still in hand.

The shrill sound of a bell sounded from deeper onto the palace grounds. Maude ran in the other direction, toward the private courtyard belonging to Mama, where the palace wall was easy to climb because of the night-blooming flowers that grew up the side. Any soldier she met on her path to freedom was cut down without a second thought.

The further she fought, the more exhausted she became, having already burnt out her galder that night in her anguish. Thoughts of Mama and Bryn, when they discovered she had left, were heavy in her heart. Maude thought that if she were lucky, they would be in her garden trimming the weeds like they used to years ago. Then they could come with her. Maude would keep them safe and protect them, just like the shieldmaiden she had read about all those years ago as a child.

Maude rounded the corner, the blood of the Flame Soldiers mixing with the blood still pouring out of the wound her father bestowed on her in her tower.