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He knew Maude well enough now that he knew she was still hiding something, but he also knew he could not push her. Only the gods knew he tried every day.

After his mother had taken her leave and told him that she needed to meet with him for breakfast, he turned back to Maude and saw how unsteady she was on her feet. He’d offered his arm again and felt the heat of her skin through his sleeve, making him shiver. He had attempted to speak with her a few times, asking if she was feeling alright. She only nodded mutely and kept her eyes forward.

Once they reached the hall where her room was, Herrick stopped walking and gently tugged on Maude’s arm as she kept moving, her dazed thoughts consuming her. Maude’s eyes cleared a bit as she looked at him.

“What?” she asked him, pulling her hand from his grasp.

Herrick felt the absence of her touch as keenly as a brand on his skin.

“I just need to know that you are okay. You’ve taken in a lot of information that was clearly new to you, and anyone would be shaken,” Herrick replied, crossing his arms.

“I’m fine, Herrick,” she said, brushing him off.

She began walking toward her room. Herrick reached out to grab her hand, unable to swallow his need to touch her.

“I know you were holding back when you told us about your escape,” he said quickly, pulling her to a stop. “I saw it in your eyes when you decided not to tell us the rest of the story.”

Maude’s back was still to him. He could feel her trembling slightly, and Herrick wondered if her walls were starting to crumble at last. When she turned to face him, he saw how wrong he was.

“It’snoneof your business what happened,” she hissed as she snatched her hand back. “Leave it alone.”

Maude took off down the hallway, her navy gown that had been torturing Herrick all evening billowing around her legs at her speed. Herrick followed her, finding himself unable to catch up to her. Realization dawned on him as she turned the corner, almost to her door.

Quickly, Herrick threw up a wall of ice between Maude and her door, forcing her to face him. Her balled fists lit with her flames, orange and yellow lights dancing on the stone walls around them.

Herrick felt the stagnant air of the hallway begin to pick up around him, swirling in toward Maude and stoking her fire hotter. He should’ve realized sooner that she would have control over two types ofgalderbeing a royal.The events of the day had forced the knowledge of who Maude really was to slip between the cracks in his mind. Herrick still saw the pit fighter with an anger problem when he needed to see Maude, the Heir of Flame.

Reaching deep within himself, he tunneled hisgalderin between the stones of the floor they stood on until vines began to sprout from between the cracks to push their way up underneath Maude’s feet. Herrick had forgotten that she was an Heir, but Maude had forgotten that he was the General of Rivers. He controlled two types ofgalder,as well.

The air Maude had whipped into a cyclone pulled at her hair, causing its length to almost stand on end like she was a burning pyre, her flame burning brighter and hotter as the air fed her fire. Herrick had begun melting the wall of ice behind her and gathering it up into a rain cloud above her, keeping the formation far from her windstorm. Maude lifted her hands, the fireballs she had formed dancing inches above her skin, and moved to throw them at Herrick.

The green vines shot up and snared around her legs as the cloud of water behind her exploded over her, dousing her flames and rendering her immovable.

Letting out a sound of frustration, she flicked her fingers, and the wind she had been manipulating battered him with the raindrops he had created, making them feel like needles puncturing his skin with the force of her power. In one swift movement, Maude clenched her fist and pulled it back to her side like she was pulling on a rope. His back began to heat as he felt one of the flames from the torches lining the hall's barrel towards him.

Herrick dove forward, rolling into a crouch as Maude caught the fireball. She slammed her hands together over the fire and then pulled them apart, creating a sword out of the flames that she used to cut the vines restricting her. Using one hand, she cocked the fire knife behind her head and flung her arm out, throwing it straight at him. But before it could reach him, awall of water shot up from the floor in front of Herrick, blocking the knife and extinguishing it.

The barrier of water provided a reprieve for him as he tried to anticipate what Maude would do next. The opaque barricade provided enough visibility for Herrick to see the shadowy silhouette of Maude's curvy figure pacing on the other side through the movement of the liquid. The movement was so feline that he could only describe it as a predator stalking behind bars. At the last second, Herrick reared back as the silhouette sped toward him.

Maude burst through the wall of water, her already tight gown becoming indecent as it soaked through. Herrick pivoted to his side but was too late. She slammed into him, and they rolled onto the floor. When they finally came to a stop, Herrick found himself on his back with Maude straddling him, the seam of her dress ripping up her thigh with the movement. Herrick went to reach for his axe but found that she had already swiped it from his belt and was holding it against his throat; the dagger she carried, pulled from only the gods knew where, was pressed against his ribs.

Shifting to try and grab the handle of his axe, he felt Maude push the edge deeper into his skin, causing the blade to break the skin. Herrick froze.

“I don’t understand why you seem to think you are entitled to my story, but it ends here,” Maude whispered, voice lethal. “I said it was none of your business.”

Herrick studied her face and saw nothing of the Maude he had begun to know. This woman was fury and wrath in human form. She would kill without the slightest provocation. This was the woman who had slain all those soldiers with half a thought when escaping from the Palace of Wind and Embers. Whatever had happened that day with her mother had to be horrifying if this were the lengths Maude would go to protect this secret.

Now, Herrick only saw feral black irises where her green ones had been. The shadows around them in the darkened hall seemed to thicken as Herrick felt a drop of his blood run down the side of his neck.

Maude watched the bead of scarlet make its way down the column of his throat. Her gaze cleared a bit, and he could see that she was coming out of the heat of her rage.

Controlling her features into neutrality once more, Maude said to him, “We both seemed to have underestimated each other again, General.”

Herrick eyed her drenched form: the kohl around her eyes running down her cheeks, red hair plastered to her face, and the tight gown now clinging to her form in the most distracting way, the rip in it from her movements.

Somehow, even throughout all their fighting, Herrick looked at Maude and still felt his breathing become uneven. He felt himself hardening, his cock pushing against the restraints of his trousers where Maude was currently perched on.

Herrick watched Maude’s features become feline as she felt him respond to her.