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She instantly felt like she had begun breathing underwater with how much water seemed to linger in the air, making her miss the dry heat of the desert.

An hour after they crossed into the river lands, the loud rush of running water over rocks crashed in her ears. Finally, the tree line thinned enough for her to see through.

Maude turned to look at their party and saw Hakon and Eydis coming forward to approach the bridge at Herrick’s side. They hung back for a few seconds longer, and Hakon whispered to Eydis urgently, her face turning ashen.

Curious, Maude went to ask Herrick what was going on when they broke through the woods into the late afternoon sun to see Kingdom of Rivers soldiers in formation, blocking a carriage that sat at the entrance to the bridge. Their navy uniforms had a sage green sash across their chest, the style much simpler than the Kingdom of Flame's vivid colors and trimmings. The soldiers' weapons were sheathed, though.

Herrick looked at Maude, and she saw the shocked apology before it came.

“I’m so sorry,minn eldr.I didn’t want you to find out like this.”

“What does that mean?” She demanded as she turned to face the lone captain making his way to them. “Herrick?”

The captain stopped and bowed in front of them, and Maude felt her face drained of color as the truth rushed toward her.

“General. Scouts reported your return— we were not expecting you back so soon.”

Herrick, the General of the Kingdom of Rivers armies, and not the man she had been traveling with, responded, “We ran into some difficulties and were being followed by Flame Soldiers, so we returned early. Ready our quarters and make up two extra rooms for our guests, please.”

“Yes, sir,” he nodded and waved two of the soldiers off, who made their way past the bridge, past the simple carriage, and into the heavy fog that lay over the rushing water beneath.

The captain turned to Hakon, who had just arrived next to Herrick and bowed even deeper.

“Your Highness, we are overjoyed to see your safe return to Veter.”

Every thought and emotion emptied her mind as she looked at Hakon. He again held that same air of aristocracy that she had felt was so familiar, as if he had slipped into another persona.

In Ahland, the Heirs to each throne would be hidden from society until they were eighteen years old. That was why Maude had thought he was so familiar when she first met him. Maude had stayed out of social circles in recent years, but a long-blocked memory from right before she had run away from high society ten years ago resurfaced. She remembered hearing the name of the Kingdom of Rivers Heir: Hakon Kolbeck.

As if it could not have gotten any worse, she saw two tall figures wearing silver crowns with matching droplet sapphires encrusted on the sides emerging from the carriage that had been behind the line of soldiers. Hakon dismounted from his horse and helped Eydis down, who was still pale and shaken.

It can never last between them, Herrick had said to her. Now she understood why.

Herrick hopped down from their shared saddle and offered help dismounting to Maude, who mentally checked that her hood was still up, concealing her face. She allowed Herrick to wrap his strong hands around her waist and lower her to the ground; she didn’t trust her legs to get her down without them giving out on her.

Herrick’s surprise and regret were not lost on her; he had not meant to reveal himself this way.

What shocked her almost as equally as this reveal was that she was not angry. She didn’t feel her veins fill with the wrath of her flames, but rather, she felt them burn out into nothing but smoke, like the water in the air had stifled her fire.

Her body felt foreign and numb, with small waves of icy heat shooting through her veins with every beat of her traitorous heart. Her nervous system was on high alert; Maude felt like she needed to run far away and never stop running from this feeling of impending doom. She had never wanted to come here, and now she was trapped in high society again.

Perhaps they would throw her behind bars and hand her back to the Kingdom of Flame.

They all walked forward to meet the King and Queen of the Kingdom of Rivers. Hakon and Herrick stepped forward first and bowed their heads with fists over their hearts, then straightened to hug their parents, exchanging affectionate greetings.

Eydis trembled slightly while Maude had gone entirely still, hoping they would not notice her. Liv and Gunnar stood behind them, hands on the hilt of their swords, faces hard.

Maude kept her eyes on the grass below her feet until she felt a soft, calm presence in front of her, like the first few drops of rain before a storm. Silver slippers and an ice-blue gown stopped in front of her. Slowly, a pale, slender hand belonging to the Queen of Rivers reached for the deep indigo shawl wrapped around Maude’s waist.

“I know this cloth, who it belonged to,” the woman said in a surprisingly strong voice, fingers running along the edge of the thick fabric and up to the hood.

She reached into the shadows of her hood and lifted Maude’s chin to look up at her. The River Queen's square face, her jaw the same cut as her sons, but somehow softer, was beautiful and delicate. Her hair was coiled into a smooth chignon behind her head, the dark brown chestnut color streaked with silver. The most unnerving sight though, were her bright, golden brown eyes that so closely resembled another’s. They were kind and filled with grief and surprise as she looked at her.

Maude could do nothing when the Queen lowered her hood and revealed her scarred face to the entire party gathered on the banks of the roiling river. A ripple of shock moved through the crowd surrounding them. Herrick was looking at her fully revealed face now that she no longer was in disguise, and all that shone there was surprise.

She had listened to Herrick and foolishly exposed herself to the world, unable to hide behind her pit fighter disguise any longer. Maude’s heart was beating so impossibly fast. It was all she could hear until the Queen of Rivers spoke.

“I know you, dear child,” the Queen said with a sad smile. Maude closed her eyes as her secret was revealed to the world.