Page 5

“Gods, what now?” Maude blew out a breath .

When Bryn didn’t say anything but only kept her eyes on her fatemark, Maude looked down.

Five runes now circled Yggdrasil before the Valkyrie wings flanked either side.

Uruz. Hagalaz. Gebo. Dagaz. Eihwaz.

The damning evidence that had forced Maude to run from Herrick after she had surrendered her entire heart to him now lay inked on her chest with the wonderful addition of two more runes. It still didn’t explain why the Valkyrie had brought her here, to the Kingdom of Shadow.

Her attention snagged on one of the new additions to her fate telling. Reincarnation.

Reincarnation ? she thought numbly.

"It seems you have nine lives just like the stray cats you love so much in Logi," Bryn joked, her tension making her words land awkwardly despite her efforts to ease Maude's confusion.

Maude gave her sister a flat look as she tried to process what she was saying, but the rune for reincarnation shone in bright red ink around her Yggdrasil fatemark, the Valkyrie wings flanking the Tree of Life seeming more like a sick joke than ever.

Oh gods, she thought as the connection snapped together in her scrambled mind.

"Oh gods," Maude repeated out loud. "The Valkyrie wings were always abnormal for a fatemark. Is this why Mama told me to keep it a secret? Did she know?"

Her words were cracking as she processed yet another lie from her mother, the full fate reading that had been hidden from her becoming even more devastating than before.

"Actually, I don't think she knew any of it after gebo ," Bryn said as she grabbed a small book from the crease of the chair that was positioned at her bedside.

Her sister flipped through the pages until she reached the one she was searching for and handed it to Maude. With shaking hands, she grasped the journal from Bryn and read her mother's neat script:

In my time in Nida, I've learned more about the ritual of fate tellings. The standard three runes that dictate a person's fate are the most common type of telling to occur, especially with humans. The Elven, however, as Aeric has explained, can have five runes pulled during a fate telling.

It is fascinating to me that the fate tellings for human children only hold three runes, but Aeric explained that it is the same reason that humans can only control three types of galder at the very most. Simply put, our bodies aren't designed to withstand that much power.

Only a few recorded cases of human children had five runes pulled during their ritual, and all of these children grew to become great influences over Ahland.

Though human children rarely have five runes pulled during their ritual, it is almost never communicated to the parents what the final two runes are as they are more precarious in one's fate.

In other words, the last two runes depend on the choices made by the bearer of that fate.

It leads to multiple avenues, or threads, of fate that affect the world around them.

The information would be too dangerous for anyone to know.

For the Elven, these runes don't even show themselves in the ink until the bearer starts down that leg of their journey.

Like a sponge, I sit in the grand library housed in Aeric's chambers and absorb all the information that was lost to the rest of the country. I am so fortunate to be one of the few who have learned what I have.

Aeric ? Maude thought back on her mother's stories, and she never mentioned anyone named Aeric. How could she have known all of this and never said anything? Though, was it possible that her mother truly didn't realize that five runes had been pulled for her?

Unanswered question after unanswered question filtered through her thoughts, leaving Maude more overwhelmed than before.

"I don't believe that Mama knew you had five runes pulled," Bryn said as she gently removed the journal from her hands. "From the entry I read in Nida where she recounts your fate telling, she only mentions the first three runes before the Soothsayer takes you away for the fatemark."

"How do you have that journal anyway?" Maude asked, needing a new topic.

"The King of Shadows had them," Bryn said slowly.

"Them? There's more? "

Her sister hesitated before motioning to the boxes piled up in the corner. The overflowing journals that rested in them lingered in an old, faded scent that reminded her of her mother: cinnamon and warm sugar.

Gods above. Maude shook her head again before asking the real question that was plaguing her.

“If I died and the Valkyrie really brought me back to life, why would they bring me here? To Nida?”

Bryn pressed her lips together, an old habit she had when she was unsure of what to say.

Maude tried to find patience, but she was spiraling, and she needed something to balance the chaos raging in her mind.

Suddenly, her swirling thoughts paused as she remembered the other rune that was new to her fate.

Balance. Herrick. Gods, her entire body shook as she thought of him. Where was he? Where was that insufferable man?

“Where is Herrick? Why isn't he here?”

Before Bryn could answer, the door at the far end of the room opened, allowing a tall male with pointed ears and midnight hair to glide in.

He was a warrior, but his posture was indicative of someone who carried themselves with authority.

The moonstone crown on his bronze brow gave away who he was before Maude could ask: the Shadow King.

Dressed in fighting leathers with thin plates of armor on the arms, chest, and thighs, the Shadow King strode into her room, his silver eyes only on her.

Maude tensed as he prowled into the room, Liv following close behind him.

The sight of her friend relaxed Maude, but that ease quickly vanished as she looked at Liv’s tapered ears and glowing aura, as if her true form was happy to be seen without its glamour.

“Maude, you're awake,” the Shadow King breathed as he scanned her face.

There was joy in his face that Maude could not understand. She looked past the Elven king to look at her friend, who sheepishly averted her gaze from Maude.

She asked again, “Where is Herrick?”

Liv finally looked at her, her eyes wide, before she glanced at Bryn. But the Shadow King answered her, his pleasant voice tinged with sadness.

“The King of Flame has him as his prisoner. ”

Silence rang in Maude’s head, the sounds around her drowning under the furious pounding of her heart. Heat flared in her chest, her fatemark pulsing before fire exploded from her veins and engulfed her.

“I hadn’t quite gotten that far yet,” Bryn shouted as she wrangled her wind to form a protective bubble around her sister, shielding the room and the others from the outburst.

“Clearly,” Liv responded, raising her palms to help. Bright citrus joined with Bryn’s desert lavender as their galder worked together to contain Maude’s rage.

“She’ll burn herself out back into stasis if she keeps raging like that,” the Shadow King said, observing his daughter's burning form with his head tilted to the side slightly.

He was watching his daughter with such a deep curiosity that it was almost comical.

“Your Majesty, you just told her that the man she loves is the captive of her greatest enemy,” Bryn said, grunting through the effort to control her sister's emotions from burning them all. “There is nothing that will stop her from retrieving him now, not even herself.”

Just as suddenly as her temper had flared, her flames abruptly extinguished.

On hands and knees, Maude breathed heavily through the waves of fire that still cascaded over her skin.

She moved to step off the bed again, but before she could get very far, her knees gave out from their lack of use.

Liv caught her this time, the harmless golden flames coasting over the air shield she had erected as she helped her sister sit on the edge of the bed.

“We have to go after him,” Maude panted through her teeth, hands on knees to keep her propped up. “We can’t leave him there.”

“No one is leaving him there,” Liv said, stepping back to give her some space .

“You already have!” Maude seethed as she shot to her feet again. This time, her legs did not collapse beneath her weight even as they shook—like she was staying upright through pure stubbornness.

Stiffening from the harsh words, Liv hardened her features before turning from the room and leaving. Something in Bryn's chest made her want to follow the Elven to soothe the frown lines from her face, but she forced herself to remain at her sister's side.

“Maude, we couldn’t exactly leave you here,” Bryn said, sharpening her tone. “You have been out of it for almost three weeks.”

Her knees buckled at that. She refused to go down, legs shaking harder with the effort to remain standing.

“ Minn m?ne , you need to sit down. You can’t be pushing yourself so soon,” the Shadow King interjected, his tone placating. Humor glinted in his eyes though as he watched Maude turn toward him, her fire sparking at her fingers again.

Bryn realized she hadn’t even gotten to that piece of information either: her true heritage and that Maude was about to throttle her actual father. She jumped in front of Maude, blocking her path.

“There’s something else you need to know, Maude,” Bryn said quickly.

Maude let out a humorless chuckle before she croaked, “What more could there possibly be?”

Bryn hesitated, looking over her shoulder to the Shadow King. To Aeric.

He nodded and stepped around her. Maude eyed him warily.

“She speaks truly, Maude Sylvisdóttir,” Aeric said, his voice tinged with sadness and a bit of wonder.

Maude swallowed hard, her flames dying out.