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Maude hauled herself up, crushing her lips to Herrick's infuriating mouth.

Sweet berries and sunshine flooded her taste buds as his tongue surged forward to explore hers.

His hands gripped her waist roughly as she reached around his shoulders to wrap her fingers in his thick hair.

Herrick thrust his tongue into her mouth, exploring the space like he didn't already own it.

She might have groaned as his taste fully invaded her senses.

Hands roughly explored territories previously conquered.

Frustration surfaced in each push and shove taken to get further underneath each other's skin.

Maude felt her breath starting to leave her faster than it returned as Herrick consumed her every thought and cell.

For the first time since she had been stabbed in the chest, she felt alive .

There was desperation in Herrick's movements, a cry for normalcy in his touch.

The pit she had created from blasting the black sands into tall dunes stood tall enough for Maude and Herrick to remain hidden from prying eyes.

As his hands trailed down her sides to cup her ass, Maude felt him guiding her back toward the wall she had created.

The sand was dense with moisture in the ground, the chill biting into her skin as he pushed her roughly into the wall, her hands untying the cloak that hung on his shoulders so she could force it off him.

Her fingers clawed their way up his abdomen under his tunic, the muscles there tensed as she roamed over their planes.

Removing his hands from her body for only a moment, Herrick pulled his tunic off and threw it to the sand before reaching for the laces keeping her vest tight.

Though her head was foggy with desire, Maude was aware enough to pull on her galder to create a windshield around them.

The Elven of Nida did not need to see their King's daughter rutting in the sand.

Herrick's fingers ripped through the laces of her vest roughly, yanking her body closer to him with each motion, but she didn't care. She was currently raking her fingers through his curls down to his shoulders and over his chest until the pads of her fingers felt the ties of his trousers.

Heat filled their small bubble of privacy as Maude burned for him.

Their tongues danced with each other, their battle for dominance one they were familiar with.

She pulled on the ties holding his trousers up, allowing the waistband around his hips to sink low enough that her mouth almost watered.

Herrick's hands explored every dip and curve on her body as he pressed even closer to her.

She groaned into his mouth when she felt the glorious evidence of his attraction to her on her hip.

The sound must have unleashed Herrick because as soon as it had escaped her, he pulled away from her mouth and trailed his tongue down the long column of her neck until he reached the spot on her chest where her loose tunic had parted to reveal her fatemark.

Herrick froze as his eyes traced over the bright red runes that now circled her fatemark.

Shit.

The heat that had been flaring higher and higher into the growing darkness was doused by reality, leaving Maude aware of the chill that had descended their once warm bubble of privacy.

Herrick stepped back, his chest heaving from how hard he was breathing.

His face tightening as he scanned the runes that mapped out her fate despite how hard she had tried to ignore it.

She watched as his focus traced over each stroke and swipe of the damning ink, his focus lingering on gebo for a second longer than the others before he continued. Maude needed to say something before his imagination took off, but when she tried to summon the words, they got stuck in her throat.

"Is there anything else I need to know about? Any other important details about you that you've been hiding from me?" Herrick asked, his eyes downcast on the black sand. "Is that how you are alive? "

He pointed to the rune for reincarnation and a chill ran down her spine.

"Did you know that you would survive?" He asked, his voice cracking.

Hope, heartbreaking in its sincerity, flashed in his face as the space between them filled with silence.

Sharp heat pierced her chest, stealing her breath as she realized what Herrick was asking her.

He wanted her to say yes; after all, he knew that she had been told her fate.

But even Maude had not known the entire fate telling.

The truth was ugly and cowardly, it dishonored their very culture to speak the words out loud.

"I—," Maude started to say but her voice cracked as it dried out. She cleared her throat before speaking again, quieter than before. "No, I didn't know before I got in front of Bryn. I didn't know until I woke up."

If Herrick had been distant before this revelation, it was nothing compared to the distance that grew between them now. It shouldn't change anything about what happened, but she could see that the crushing reality that she had chosen to die in that moment was hitting him all over again.

"In that moment, I chose Bryn," she continued, her voice growing stronger as she spoke. "And I would do it again. I don't regret it one bit. Don't ask me to apologize for protecting my sister the same way you would protect your brother."

He reeled back like she had slapped him. "I would never ask that of you."

She nodded once as they looked away from each other and started to lace up their clothing again. The air grew uncomfortable the longer they went without saying anything to each other. Only once Maude concealed her fatemark and the burning red runes there did she feel like she could breathe again.

In silent agreement, Maude and Herrick slowly made their way back to the Midnight Palace as the moon started to crest over them. Aeric's dinner was still a few hours away, but their exhaustion from the hot and cold interactions that had taken over started to wear on them.

Their bedrooms turned out to lay opposite each other in the same hall as their friends.

Maude reminded herself to both thank and berate Liv for the proximity.

Her friend must have known they would end their game eventually, or she had decided for herself that they needed to end it. Neither motive would surprise Maude .

The dim lighting of the hall wrapped around them as they each reached their doors, the quiet between them heavy with the unspoken words that weighed on Maude's tongue.

She wanted to tell Herrick that she missed him, wanted to talk to him about her fate telling and what it meant for her.

She wanted to say she had been lost without him.

But nothing came out as he turned to face her, his golden eyes aglow in the moonlit hall.

Her door was at her back, calling for her to disappear behind its safety, unsure if she would survive whatever Herrick planned to say next.

He took a step toward her that had Maude instinctively mirroring to keep the space between them.

He continued his pursuit of her until the door to her room was pressed into her back, the long ropes of her hair chilly from the night air as it pressed to her exposed skin.

After the revelation of her fate runes, she wasn't sure where they stood anymore. Was he still angry with her? Or did he understand? A few weeks ago, she would not have questioned his understanding. But too much had happened now, leaving her unsure.

Slowly, never taking his eyes off of hers, Herrick lifted a hand and tucked a curl behind her ear. Her chest caved in, the sensation crushing her focus. Maude could feel the emotional barriers beginning to build again even as she tried to force them down.

Reaching past her to the vines of night flowers that grew intermittently up the walls inside the palace, Herrick plucked a jasmine flower from its resting place.

The delicate white petals glowed in the moonlight that peeked through the constellation carvings in the ceiling until the small bloom glowed with life, its zesty perfume teasing Maude's senses.

Before she realized what he was doing, Herrick pinned the flower behind the same ear he had tucked her hair before turning away and entering his room.

The door shut on her, and the tension that constantly lived between them made Maude's stomach clench. Unsure of what she expected to happen, Maude sighed as she turned to enter her room and the solitude it offered to get dressed for dinner with her father .

While Maude would normally let her thick hair dry naturally in its unruly haze of curls, the dinner seemed somewhat formal, so she dressed accordingly.

She flicked her fingers in a short motion toward her freshly washed hair, drying it while she brushed out the tangles until her hair shone like the gleaming rubies found in the Kingdom of Flame.

Deciding to leave it loose and wild, Maude pinned the jasmine flower that Herrick had plucked from the vines in the hall back into place behind her ear, where she had roughly braided back some of her hair to keep out of her face.

As she admired the floral he had placed there, the bubbling in her chest making her feel lighter than air and more ridiculous than she had ever felt before, Maude took a moment to trace the soft curve of her ear.

Her thoughts drifted toward Aeric. Obviously, she got most of her coloring from him— the bronze skin, the circle of black around her moss eyes— but she had also resembled her mother so closely.

How fortunate her mother had been that Maude was born with rounded ears.