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She had spent her life running from her fate, and now she had run from him.

Maybe Liv was right. Whatever may have come to light most likely scared her, and she ran.

But that didn’t make him feel any better or make him any less angry with her.

The fatemark on his chest began to pulse. They were running out of time.

“Saddle up,” he ordered his friends.

By the time Herrick reached the walls surrounding the city, the pulsing of his fatemark had begun to burn incessantly.

Where is she? Which way would she go?

They had arrived from the east, choosing to bypass the south entrance to the city and head toward the east and north gates instead. Scanning the walls for any signs of Maude, he noticed a blood bay mare grazing at a nearby oasis that was outside of the northern gate.

“There,” Herrick said, pointing out the mare.

After what felt like hours, they arrived at the northern gate, where they could hear the clashing of metal.

Signaling to his friends to prepare themselves, Herrick spurred the stallion into a full-out sprint.

A flash of red that shone like blood rubies in the dying sunlight appeared on top of the wall, the familiar indigo of a shawl highlighted in the setting sun.

Maude.

Herrick watched as Maude rose from her crouched position after evading an attack from a Flame Soldier.

Splattered across her vengeful face was the blood of the soldiers she had already cut down.

She sliced her axe once across the belly of the soldier she was fighting and pivoted to catch the sword of another soldier behind her, stabbing her short sword up into his gut.

Herrick thought that he had never seen such rage and despair blend so beautifully on one person's face.

As she continued to cut her way through the crowd of soldiers throwing themselves at her, Herrick knew he had to move to help her.

Struck stupid by how fluidly she moved through each attack, he was reminded that Maude was a warrior before she was anything else.

She had been born and bred to be a Warrior Queen.

Maude was rage, passion, vengeance, and power all combined to create the most complicated person Herrick had ever met. And he loved her fiercely, even if she couldn't let him.

Making it to the gate, Herrick leaped off his horse and rolled into a run that put him face-to-face with the soldiers attempting to shut the gates early in the wake of Maude’s attack.

Getting through the threshold of the gates, Herrick turned to his left, where stairs would bring him up to where Maude was still fighting off two soldiers.

“Go!” Liv shouted from where she had faced off with one of the soldiers with Hakon.

Needing no more encouragement, Herrick took off up the stairs.

Every soldier he met fell under the blade of his axe.

Blood sprayed with every hit, coating him in it, the taste of metal drenching his senses.

The rush of battle swelled in him, the roaring in his ears from seeing Maude under attack transforming into stark clarity as he raced up her.

By the time he made it to the top of the wall, Maude was sprinting toward another small group of soldiers as she made her way north toward the palace. Herrick followed her, the clashing of his friends fighting behind him, signaling that they still lived.

Maude ducked, avoiding a swing of a soldier's axe, and spun with her short sword extended.

She sliced through two soldier's tendons in their ankles, bringing them to their knees as she stood.

From behind, she cut their throats and silenced their screams of pain.

Herrick came up behind Maude quickly, the need to be close to her relaxing a bit in her presence, as he brought his blade through the thick neck of the soldier, aiming to sneak up on her.

Taken by surprise, though, Maude pivoted with her sword held over her head to strike him down.

Their blades clashed together above them, halting in place with the force of their collision. Surprise and dread flashed in Maude’s eyes when she saw him.

“What are you doing here, Herrick?” she almost shouted, panic overwhelming her features as she pivoted, looking over her shoulder to see more soldiers flooding the walls.

“I came to help you, Maude,” he said incredulously. “Why else would I be here?”

She grit her teeth and shoved his blade from hers as the first soldier came up behind her. She stabbed through his breastplate with a force that rattled even Herrick before she extended one palm and closed her fist.

The soldiers, robbed of the oxygen from their lungs, collapsed as they tore at their necks, searching for an obstruction that was not there. Fist still clenched in front of her, Maude looked over her shoulder at Herrick. He tried to keep the shock off his face at her brutality, but she saw.

“This is who I need to be, Herrick.” She nodded her head toward the soldiers beginning to pass out, their faces purple. “I don’t need you. Leave. Now .”

“Why are you trying to do this without me?” he asked, stepping toward her. “We had a plan; we were supposed to do this together.”

“It needs to be this way,” she said bitterly, releasing her fist as the soldiers fell still. “He created a monster. Now, he will have to deal with the consequences of molding me in his image.”

She turned away from him and began to sprint toward the palace again, heading toward the eastern gate that separated the palace from the city within the outer walls. Herrick followed her, refusing to allow her to disappear again so soon.

Before she could make it down the stairs, Herrick grabbed her forearm.

Maude retaliated instantly, as she always did, by slamming the end of her axe into his stomach.

Grunting from the impact, his hold on her slipped, but now Maude was furious, and she did not hesitate in fighting him off.

She slammed an elbow back, intending to smash in his nose, but he caught it and twisted her around so her back was to his front.

“Maude, stop,” he panted, trying and failing to restrain her.

“No,” she growled, slipping from his hold.

They faced each other, weapons drawn and breathing heavily.

“Don’t do this alone,” he pleaded with her, lowering his weapons.

“I have to,” she replied, that despair from earlier leaking into her voice.

“You don’t,” Herrick insisted. “I can’t let you walk away from me again.”

Maude was silent. The clashing of metal and cries of dying men faded into the background as if the gods were listening closely to what she was about to say. Silence rang out around Herrick, his entire focus on the woman he knew he would follow anywhere in this world.

“Get out of my way, Herrick,” Maude said quietly. Her eyes landed on his chest as she raised her short sword and pointed it at him, right over his fatemark. “Or I will make you.”

Acid washed through him, sending waves of burning ice through his body, and his heart shattered before her.

“Maude,” he whispered, unable to do more than say her name like it was a prayer. Like it was a plea.

She stiffened, never taking her eyes off his fatemark.

“I guess we will finally finish what we started in the fighting pits,” she finally said, her eyes becoming black holes, swallowing the woman he loved within them.

“It seems so,” he replied, betrayal slicing through him sharper than any blade could .

Maude wasted no time dancing around their fight as she had before.

She launched herself at him, her blade arcing down in a move that Herrick was almost too slow to deflect.

Every hit she attempted was not lethal but wore him down rapidly.

He only defended himself, never lifting his axe in any other maneuver than to deflect her attacks.

Blow after blow, she tried to wear him down and force him out of her way, but Herrick would not budge. Frustration was building in her the longer they fought, and still, Herrick would not strike against her.

Desperation was carved into her features as she would occasionally glance toward the eastern gates leading to the barracks belonging to Flame Soldiers.

Her attacks were getting sloppy and rushed, like her impatience and refusal to harm him were warring with each other.

She did not want to hurt him, but he could see that she needed him to let her do this.

Reluctantly, Herrick was beginning to understand her need to do this on her own, even if it felt like a betrayal.

Maude would not rest until Helvig was gone; her need for vengeance outweighed everything else to her right now.

He still didn’t know what had happened to trigger her like this, but she would tell him when the time was right for her.

She would need the chance to talk to him again, and only he could give her that.

Herrick did not stop the next attack on him.

His axe was torn from his grip, and her blade was quickly pressed against his throat.

“You can’t stop me,” she said between her teeth, sweat running down her temple as fire burned in her eyes.

“I know,” he said softly, willing the understanding in his eyes to shine through.

Surprise and fury mixed in her eyes as she heard the truth in his words.

Unsure of what to do, she remained still, her blade still against his throat.

The noise around them died to a low buzz, the sound of soldiers trying to fight their way to Maude disappearing as they looked into each other’s eyes.

The press of the blade lightened on his skin.

“I don’t know what changed, but I trust you, minn eldr ,” he said, reaching out and running his fingers over her flushed cheek. “Tell me what you need.”

He traced over her scar that resembled the sign from the gods once before he withdrew.

Maude closed her eyes, pain crossing her features.

When she opened them again, her dark green eyes looked past him at the soldiers being held off by their friends.

Maude swallowed and looked at him once more, her gaze clear.

“I need time.”

“It’s yours,” he said without hesitation. “Go. I will see you again, whether it will be in the palace or with the gods.”

Maude sucked in a breath quickly before she swayed toward Herrick slightly, their lips hovering closer in the chaos surrounding them.

Just when Herrick thought she would move to press her lips to his, she pulled back with a shaky sigh.

Gratitude, pain, and love flashed in her eyes for a second before she turned and flew down the stairs, taking off toward the palace.

“Maude!” he called out, unable to let her leave yet.

She paused and looked over her shoulder.

“You are nothing like him,” he reminded her. “You are not a monster. You don’t have to sink to his level to beat him.”

Maude seemed rooted to the stone beneath her for a moment, the look in her eye hard as she finally turned away from him and his words.

Ignoring the flare of pain in his chest, Herrick bent to grab his axe.

If she needed this more than she needed him, he would just have to withstand it.

The thought didn’t settle in him as it should have, his fatemark pulsing with each step she took away from him .

He would follow her into the palace as soon as these soldiers were taken care of.

Turning to meet his friends in battle, Herrick slipped into the killing calm that he was familiar with and ignored the feeling that he had just made the wrong decision.

He swung his axe, the blade singing a death knell with each blow.