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Maude stood alone on the edge of a clifftop, the chilling wind cutting through her layers of fur-lined leather until her bones shook with the cold.

Tonight, there would be no warmth for her until Herrick was free from the iron Helvig and Vilde had clamped around his throat.

As the sun dipped closer to the horizon, she recalled how she had spent the day.

The night of the summer solstice arrived too slowly for her.

The idle hours of the longest day of the year stretched on until Maude was convinced they had all been thrown into stasis.

To pass the time, she had spent hours either sparring with Bryn or Liv with both fist and galder .

Bryn used every ounce of her air galder to land harder and faster hits on her, knocking Maude onto her ass more than once.

Liv practiced with some of her galder , mostly air and light.

She showed Maude how to tap into that part of herself, the part that could blind people with a flash of her power.

Gunnar worked with her a little to get in touch with her earth galder which seemed to lay just outside of her grasp.

But mostly, she practiced her shadows with Aeric.

That morning, he had observed her and Bryn sparring with a soft smile on his face.

She did not ask if he thought of their mother when he looked at them; she didn't need to.

Maude could already see that Aeric cared for her sister as if she were his kin.

The way he spoke to her and laughed with her, the gentle way he helped her off the ground when they sparred.

He acted with what Maude could only assume was fatherly affection toward both of them .

Neither of them was used to it, so their reactions had been slow, but eventually, they warmed up to him.

"You girls truly need no assistance," Aeric said as he stood up from where Bryn had just blown him backward with the force of her wind gusts.

He shook the dirt from his tunic, a true, wide smile stretching from ear to ear.

"You rival Sylvi's strength with her fire.

She was a force to be reckoned with, especially when I made her angry. "

"She never used her galder much, except for when we were very young," Bryn commented as she swiped a curl from her sweaty forehead.

"That would make sense," Aeric agreed as she handed her sister a flask of water. "According to Sylvi, her mission was incredibly important. She would have done anything to protect you, even if it meant dimming her flame."

Aeric's voice seemed to tighten a bit as he spoke, his eyes downcast. When he wasn't paying attention, Maude would study his features to see if she recognized anything of herself in him. It was difficult for her to realign her thinking when it came to her father— Aeric or Helvig? Or both?

The way he walked was identical to her as their shoulders were broad in the same way, she supposed.

Their coloring was almost exact, except that his hair was a deep black with auburn highlights when the sun hit it.

Though her green eyes were darker than her mothers, they were still the same mossy shade.

The more she looked, the less Maude could deny that Aeric was her birth father. She didn't know how to reconcile that with what she had believed her entire life, but it felt right to claim him as her sire. Actually being able to voice the words was another matter entirely.

Herrick and Gunnar had sparred as well, but as Gunnar was still recovering and Herrick was meant to be resting before the ceremony that night, both men became not-so-silent commentators on their fighting skills.

Gunnar would offer advice from time to time while Herrick would throw out unhelpful comments about ducking after Bryn or Liv had landed a solid hit on her.

While Herrick had remained close to her, she could see that he was anxious about the unknown ceremony that awaited them at moonrise.

She didn't know what to say to him, so she asked him to spar with her, hand to hand, to see if she could still one-up him.

Herrick may not have said the words but she could see the gratitude in his eyes.

Hakon was missing, most likely sleeping off all the alcohol he had drank the night before, while Dahlia was meditating nearby, perched on a rock— as still as a statue.

Liv made a joke at Aeric's expense, the insinuation crude and not kingly, but he laughed with a deep rumble that made her want to laugh with him.

When he retorted with another joke aimed at Liv, Herrick, Gunnar, and Bryn howled with laughter.

Even Dahlia cracked a smile, the camaraderie cutting through her meditative state.

Maude had watched them all laugh with each other, their ease of just being around each other astonishing.

Soon enough, she had been chuckling with them.

Drums started up behind her, low and menacing enough that they pulled her from her memories. The smallest of smiles graced her face when she was lost in the revelry of her friends from just hours ago—her family.

Maude turned away from the sun that now kissed the skyline.

The full moon on the longest day of the year would only be visible because of the solar energy that charged this day.

By now, it was well on its way to rising above them to give Hildr and Dahlia enough energy to remove the iron from Herrick's throat.

It needed to be enough.

As she entered the tree line, the drumming increased in tempo until she was sure it matched the rate of her heartbeat.

Smoke from the torches that circled the clearing her friends stood in threatened to choke her but she pushed through the uncomfortable mix of incense and char until she reached Aeric's side.

At the center of the clearing, Hildr stood in her billowing navy robes with her seers behind her and Dahlia at her side.

The Matron Elven of Healing had donned similar ceremonial robes, a deep plum shade that made her eyes glow brightly.

Herrick kneeled in the grass in front of them, chest bared to the elements with his trousers hanging low on his hips.

His feet were bare, and his hair hung loosely around his face, hiding his profile from her .

The carved wooden rune necklaces that Alva had given him were wrapped around his wrist, the runes for water and earth twisting between his fingers as he fidgeted with them.

At some silent signal, the seers behind Hildr started to chant just as the smoke from the torches seemed to thicken.

Maude blinked and she was watching the same scene unfold in front of her only Herrick wasn't kneeling in the grass any longer.

Instead, a baby was being placed on the white sand while an animal bled to death behind the Grand Soothsayer.

She blinked again and the scene returned to normal.

It reminded her of what Bryn had told her about their mother's journal entry she had read.

Her sister had shown her the entry from Sylvi after retrieving it from her room in Logi, wanting Maude to be able to read the entry about her fate telling.

Now, it seemed that moment in time was playing in Maude's mind.

Shaking her head, Maude placed her hand over her fatemark at the same time that Herrick did.

Their actions mirrored each other, their unease spreading between them as if they had each seen the same beach and ritual that took place on it.

That bond she refused to name that stretched between her and Herrick seemed to thrum to life the longer the seers chanted.

Soon Hildr joined in, her speech unrecognizable and guttural as Maude's head began to swim.

Whatever Hildr was saying or doing caused a bolt of dread to shoot through Maude, and she could see that Herrick felt the same way. More than just the removal of the iron band would happen tonight; more than just their next steps would be revealed.

Herrick stiffened at the familiar scene unfolding in front of him as his fingers pressed into the vegvisir mark on his chest. The skin under the black tattoo tingled under his touch, the ink flaring silver and gold in such a quick burst he wasn't sure if he had made it up .

It won't matter, Prince , the voice in his mind whispered. I am already inside you. You are changed now. You have already lost.

He shook his head once, banishing the voice. This would be over soon. He would be free soon.

Behind Hildr, one of the seers broke off from their semi-circle where they chanted and returned quickly, guiding something behind them that was attached by a rough rope.

A round of sharp inhales behind him came before the creature stepped into his line of sight.

With a steady prowl, a large wolf with fur as black as night stepped into the clearing with little coercion by the seer guiding it.

Round yellow and gold eyes landed on Herrick causing him to hold his breath.

With a stare more penetrating than a wolf should have, the animal walked up to him until their noses almost touched.

After a few sniffs, the wolf seemed to nod before stepping back and hopping onto the altar behind Hildr. Herrick could only widen his eyes.

Dahlia took her place behind him. Her presence should have been comforting but apprehension filled him, swirling and heavy in his gut.

Just as he was about to speak up— to say what, he didn't know— Hildr stepped around to the back of the altar where the wolf now lay calmly on.

The animal had not taken its gaze off of Herrick for longer than a glance, even as the Grand Soothsayer removed an old silver knife from her billowing sleeve.

The flash of the moon on the blade caused lightning to run down Herrick's spine. Two figures now stood before him, their backs to him, as they lowered an infant to the sands in front of Hildr.

He blinked and the scene returned to normal.

Hildr stood before the altar with the black wolf that still held his stare.

There was sentience in its gaze, and understanding of its surroundings.

Something that should have been impossible, but as Hildr's chants grew louder and her seers responded in kind, Herrick wasn't sure what to believe anymore.

Another one of the seers began to trek around the clearing they all stood in, a bundle of herbs in their hand smoking on the end that reminded him of something familiar. The longer they circled, the hazier his mind became .

They're drugging you so the restraints on your mortal mind will fall away , a voice whispered. It was lighter than the sentience that inhabited his mind lately, its words flaring brightly in his mind like the fires that burned around the clearing.

Why was it being helpful all of a sudden?

Herrick, son of Tyr , the voice whispered again. Heir of War and Justice.

This time, he realized it was not the same voice that had been living in the corners of his mind; it was something else. When it spoke again, yellow and gold irises flared in front of him. The wolf?

Pay attention to what will be shown to you , the wolf whispered in his mind. You will know what to do when the time is right.

Able to clear the drug-induced haze from his waking mind for a brief second, Herrick saw the moment Hildr drew the silver knife across the willing black wolf's throat before he fell back into the heavy fog overwhelming his mind.

At the same time, Dahlia placed her hands on the iron band and began chanting in Elven, her musical voice low and haunting.

The Grand Soothsayer dipped her fingers into the pooling blood of the dying wolf before walking to stand in front of him.

"Allfather, we call on you now to free this man from Hela's shadows," Hildr's clear voice rang out over the silent clearing.

The seers had stopped chanting and it seemed as if the world was holding its breath.

"Allfather, hear our pleas. If it is in your plan, free Herrick, son of Alva and Njal, from his shackles. "

Before Hildr reached forward with her bloodied fingers, she caught his eye.

With one subtle shake of her head, she told him that whatever would happen next was not to be shared.

He nodded once before the Grand Soothsayer leaned toward him and drew three fingers down the left side of his face.

Herrick did not register the motion, however, because as soon as the blood touched his skin, a fire broke out in his veins, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

Darkness and heat swallowed him, transporting him to another time where the truth of his existence was revealed.