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“We can’t wait that long.”

“He might already be halfway here, if not in the town.”

“You don’t know that.”

“And you don’t know that he was taken prisoner,” she snapped, patience running thin as she bit down on her pain.

“She’s right, Herrick,” Gunnar added. “Besides, the both of you are too wounded to travel any distance right now.”

“My leg is already almost healed. One more day, and it’ll be good as new,” Herrick argued.

“I’m sure you’re right, but you are not well right now. Hakon is capable of taking care of himself. Rest now. Liv and I will get another room down the hall.”

He motioned to Liv as he walked out of the room. She paused before exiting and looked to Maude, who was still hunched over the edge of the bed. She said nothing before she walked out and closed the door, her face unreadable.

Alone again with Herrick, the only sound in the room was their breathing. She had never fully recovered from their arduous journey to Engate, and fighting off Liv had taken all the energy she had accumulated, expunging it entirely.

“I’m sorry about Liv. I don’t know why she went after you like that; I’ll talk to her.”

“Don’t bother. She won't change her mind about me until I give her a reason to trust me,” Maude replied tiredly.

She sat up to push herself higher onto the bed and leaned against the headboard, sighing at the effort. Herrick only watched before he made his way to the other side of the bed and sat, his back to her.

“You have a fatemark,” Herrick said to her. She closed her eyes. “It’sYggdrasil, the mark you only see on the firstborn in noble families. It’s rare.”

“Was there a question for me there?”

“I’ve never seen one; they don’t pop up often in the Kingdom of Rivers.”

“That familiar with the kingdom’s nobility, are you?”

Maude opened her eyes to look at Herrick and saw the back of his neck was red. To spare him, she said, “I am the firstborn in my family. What about it?”

“Yours also has the wings of a Valkyrie around it. I know that’s not common either.”

“I’m still waiting for a question, Herrick.”

“Who are you?” He asked, turning to see her face.

Maude had only enough control to keep her face smooth. She could feel hergalderswelling inside her, the rise of her anger and self-hatred making an appearance once more. She knew she was radiating heat again and could feel Herrick’s cooling presence move closer.

“I’m nobody,” she finally said, voice quiet. She felt his fingers grip her chin, turning her head to face him. She knew her skin had to be burning him, but instead of flinching, he only held tighter.

“I don’t believe that for one second,minn eldr,” he whispered to her, searching her face. The gentleness in his eyes could’ve broken down every barrier she held in between them.

But she couldn’t allow it; couldn’t allow him in, couldn’t allow him to get too close. So, Maude closed her eyes, blocking out the kindness that she didn’t deserve, and did what she knew best.

“When are you going to get it into your head that I am only here for my own goals, Herrick? I’ve only allowed you so close to me because you are the key to my own end goal, and once your usefulness has run out, I’ll be gone again. Sure, bedding you would be a decent release, but there is nothing else here for us. I don’t care what you call me, and I don’t care about what you think of me. We are nothing.”

She saw her words slicing into him like the lashes of a whip. Maude kept her face hard as she watched Herrick build a wall around himself. To protect himself from her. She ignored the pain that lanced through her at the sight and turned away from him.

Thora chose that moment to walk through the door, a bundle of clothes in her hand. She swept through the room, telling them that food was downstairs in the tavern if they wanted to eat and that she found some clothes to fit them both. Thora either ignored the atmosphere of the room or did not pick up on it as she tidied the room and exited once more.

Herrick silently reached for the bundle and separated clothes meant for her, handing them over without looking. Again, that pain echoed in her chest. He took the clothing meant for him, turned his back to her, and dropped the bedsheet to dress. Once clothed, he slowly made his way out of the room and shut the door between them without another word or looking back at her. Exhaustion weighed on her heavily, and Maude could only ignore the clothes left for her and roll onto her side, curling into a ball. She closed her eyes and escaped from the waking world.

7

Herrick moved as quickly as his leg allowed him and made his way down to the tavern on the first floor of The Cask and Crow Inn, heading straight for the barmaid carrying four tankards of ale. He grabbed two from her as he passed, placing a coin in her now open hand, and sat down at an empty seat at the long bar.