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These soldiers didn’t care about the towns and lives they destroyed, while their ruler never lifted a finger to stop them. They had run unchecked for too long and had no interest in stopping now.

Maude had laid down her weapons and kept her hands up in surrender, motioning for the townspeople to disperse so no one would get hurt. Two soldiers had gripped her arms, binding them behind her back, but the commander laughed and slit the boy's throat anyway. She had never felt such shock before and had reacted without thought, only her raging emotions that spurred her on.

She had become a living flame, melting through her bindings and lifting her hand to direct her fire to the commander. At the time, however, Maude had only been seventeen and untrained. In her rage, she had flung out too much of hergalderat once, burning the entire village to the ground at the injustice.

She had fainted on the spot from the amount of fire she had channeled. When she came to and saw the destruction she had wrought on the innocents of Brastone, Maude knew hergalderwas not a gift but a curse. She fled the ruins of that town and hid herself in the slums of Logi, where the Flame Soldiers would never suspect her to be.

From that day on, Maude swore always to keep herself under control. She kept herself distant from anyone she could hurt and never willingly showed hergalderto the world again.

Maude wondered if the Allfather was punishing her for her carelessness and cowardice. She had run away from her life when she rejected her fate and had kept running until she ran into Herrick in The Broken Bones Pub that night in the pits. Maude wanted nothing to do with the fate the Grand Soothsayer had given her and marked on her flesh, and it seemed the Allfather did not approve.

She opened her eyes to see the sun had nearly set on the horizon, casting the desert in bright reds and oranges that looked like flames on the sands. Hergalderreacted to the sight, wanting to contribute to the beauty of the moment, but Maude knew her flames could only do horrible things. She shoved the power deep inside of her and smothered the embers that glowed in the depths of her soul, where all the worthwhile things about her had been smothered as well.

8

Maude returned to the group shortly after the sun had disappeared behind the horizon to prepare for their departure. Gunnar saved her some of the meat he had cooked and she gratefully accepted the wrapped bundle, finding a spot in front of the fire and settling down to eat. A few blissful minutes of silence was all she could experience before Herrick walked up behind her and shattered her unearned peace.

“Before night falls completely, how about you show me what your fire is capable of,minn eldr?”

“I’m not sure you want that right now, beastie. I’m in a foul mood.”

“When aren’t you?” he chuckled.

Maude shot a sharp glance over her shoulder to Herrick, who had moved to lean against one of the horses, balancing a small sphere of water in his hand with a wicked gleam in his eye. Before she could respond, he shot the small projectile toward her face. Reacting on impulse, she dove out of the way and rolled into a crouched position. Herrick stopped the water before it put out the fire and redirected it to his hand.

“That’s boring,” he teased, that wicked gleam intensifying and stirring something buried in Maude’s core being.

“It’s not a good idea,” Maude said through gritted teeth, her annoyance and fear fighting for control over the rising flame inside of her.

The power threatening to overwhelm her forced Maude to rise to her full height, the effort of keeping her fire within the confines of her skin becoming painful.

Herrick’s friends stood in a loose circle around them, their interest in what their friend was doing halting their activity until they stood like statues in Maude’s periphery.

She glanced at Eydis, who had not seen Maude lose her temper before, and found the young woman eyeing her curiously. When she caught Maude’s eye, Eydis winked and gave Maude a broad smile of encouragement before tipping her head toward Herrick.

Unsure of what to do with Eydis’s seemingly positive reaction, Maude brought her eyes back to Herrick to find his focus still on her. She had a feeling he was seeing more than the false front she kept up, his eyes stripping her down to the very base of her soul.

“Burn for me,minn eldr,” Herrick whispered, bringing his attention back to her face.

Maude ground her teeth and focused on pushing her emotions aside and pulling the fire from within her to her hands. Feeling the warm crackle of the flames around her palms filled her with satisfaction that she was able to draw on hergaldereasier than usual despite her heightened emotions. Herrick had taken up a defensive position in front of her.

They circled each other, only stepping when the other did. Maude, on impulse, launched a tendril of fire from her palm like a whip with the intention of wrapping it around his ankles, but Herrick responded with a wall of water that forced the flame back. Before she could get a hold of her fire again, Herrick whipped a waterspout out from the oasis and moved it toward Maude with the intention of trapping her fire.

She quickly dove forward into a roll and swiped out a leg from underneath Herrick, causing him to fall toward the ground where she had laid a net of flames that would not burn him but contain him.

As he fell into her trap, the fire constricted around his hands and rendered him powerless. Pleased that her plan had worked, Maude went to stand and heard Herrick shout, “Child’s play, you can do better.”

Herrick released himself from the net created by Maude’s flame after he doused himself with water, rendering his white shirt completely translucent. Keeping her eyes firmly above his neck, Maude asked, “How did you do that? I had your hands tied.”

Her eyes betrayed her as she glanced down, her words trailing off.

“Something wrong?” He asked, noticing her effort to avoid looking at his sculpted abdomen.

“Answer the question,” Maude snapped, her need for answers overpowering the thoughts of what those muscles would feel like under her fingertips.

“I don’t always need my hands to manipulate the water around me. I’ve had extensive training on controlling mygalderwith minimal or no movements in case I was ever bound,” he said with a cheeky smile on his face because she had completely ignored his comment, revealing that she had, in fact, been distracted.

Ignoring the wave of incompetence Maude felt at his skill, she ground her teeth and focused on her internal fire again. When she had been growing up and begun her training, Maude had been told that her use ofgalderwas natural to her. Having taken that comment to heart, she had been lazy through most of her sessions and had been behind on her lessons when she had escaped from her life. Most of what she knew now came from ten years of trial and error, while a small part manifested from that natural talent.