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Fire ignited down Maude’s spine.

“I am no daughter of yours,” she said to her father, her voice low and acidic.

Movement came from behind her, close to the hidden door she had emerged from, like he was waiting for her. The dalkr Hela was heavy on her thigh, the blade almost wanting to make its presence known.

“You’re right,” he replied, his tone light. “No daughter of mine would have so recklessly abandoned her duties to behave as a vitki .”

The derogatory way her father said the word vitki made Maude see red. She turned, then, to lay eyes on the man who had so thoroughly destroyed her life.

Standing on the other side of the table map of Ahland stood her father in all his resplendent glory. He was dressed similarly to Maude; their clothes were each black and fit for battle, the slim fit of the clothing showing off their honed muscles and powerful bodies.

Where Maude was dark with shadows in her coloring, though, her father was lighter with honey-colored hair and hazel eyes as light green as her sisters.

Maude had always likened their mother over their father, the wine-red hair and deep green eyes so similar to her mother’s that they could be twins. Maude’s tanned skin was a mystery, but living in the desert meant that most pigments were on the darker side .

“So, you have brought the dalkr Hela here to kill me,” her father said, his tone still light as he circled the table closer to Maude.

She smiled sweetly at him while smothering her panic over his guess that was entirely true. Maude mirrored his movements exactly, keeping her axe and short sword drawn against him as they circled each other. The predatory gleam in his eyes never dulled as he took in her appearance.

“Your skin is stained with the ink of the lower class,” he pointed out. “You have degraded yourself to their level, dóttir.”

“I could never degrade myself by living amongst them, Papa ,” Maude replied, her voice becoming honeyed like his. “They are my people.”

He scoffed. The King took a seat as he reached his monstrous velvet chair. Maude remained standing where she was, staying on guard for whatever he was planning. Herrick’s words speared through her mind as she plotted all the ways to get close to her father.

You are not a monster. You don’t have to sink to his level.

For Herrick, she would try.

“Last time I saw you, you were running, like the coward I always knew you were,” the King said to Maude, a knowing glint in his eye.

He was baiting her, and she knew it.

Breathe , she reminded herself.

“Never a coward, father, just sick of your bullshit.”

Maude watched as her words landed. Her father’s eyes became violent as the temperature in the room increased. To anyone else, it would have become uncomfortably hot, but lucky for Maude, she always burned.

“Speak with respect toward your father, the man who raised you,” he growled.

“I will speak with respect when my father deserves it,” she shouted back.

They glared at each other, the temperature continuing to rise. At her side, some of the furniture began to smoke, the coils of gray rising to the ceiling in escape from their confrontation. The air grew thicker, the smoke creating a hazy film over everything.

Cooling her anger and remembering Herrick’s words, Maude took a deep breath in and spoke again, “You will never earn my respect, Father, so we might as well cut the crap and move on to why we are here.”

He watched her, the image of his once obedient and innocent daughter crumbling before his eyes. Good.

“I see you’ve spent some time with the rabble as your once flawless etiquette is now destroyed,” he murmured, the light tone taking its place once more.

She ignored the comment, choosing to switch tactics. She needed him to attack first so she could disable him. She wouldn’t draw the dalkr Hela until she had to.

“I am not the same girl who ran from you all those years ago,” she said quietly but not weakly. “Your reign must end, Father. You are killing the people of Logi. Galder is starting to protest the restrictions we have placed on it.”

On those three days that Maude had ridden to Logi, she had thought about all the things she had learned about galder these last few weeks. How the gods had left a message warning them about the upheaval that was to come if they did not change their ways.

Galder was rebelling because they had restricted its flow with the laws of the Treaty.

After The Elemental Wars, the people of Ahland needed to find peace.

The kingdoms became separated, the elements, and the galder that fueled them, were separated.

Now, two hundred years later, the elements and galder were fighting back.

The child with fire galder in a family of farmers, the rune left by the gods in Amsbrook, the strange way her galder reacted to Herrick’s— all of it led back to the Treaty and its restrictions.

Maude’s fate was Herrick, a man from another kingdom with different galder from her own.

The Treaty needed to be absolved, and that would never happen as long as her father still breathed.

“If we don’t align the kingdoms once more and undo the restrictions on galder , our world will perish. The gods will act; they’ve already warned us about it.”

Maude tried to plead with her father about it, but she could see how her words were not affecting him. There was a long silence.

“And who is going to align these kingdoms and rule them both?” her father asked, humor dancing in his eyes. “You?”

“Of course not. The kingdoms will remain, but the power system needs to be dismantled once and for all,” she replied quickly. “The Treaty needs to be lifted. The restrictions on who can wed and procreate need to be lifted, or we will all suffer.”

Her father laughed. He laughed .

“You’re choosing poorly,” she ground out as her father continued his sinister laughter.

“ Dóttir, the Treaty will not be lifted because you want to be with your General of Rivers.”

Maude stiffened, failing to veil her true emotions. Her father knew her better than anyone else, though, and could see right through her. Fast as lightning, the air around her restricted, and Maude found herself unable to move.

“You think that I did not know of your feelings for the General of Rivers?” he asked, standing and moving toward where she stood immobilized. “You think that I have not watched you all these years as you pretended to carve a living out under my nose?”

Bitter betrayal washed through her. Bryn.

She had foolishly trusted her and came here alone because of that trust. Maude should never have believed her, as Bryn had to be working with her father.

What else should Maude have expected? She had left Bryn here on her own all those years ago.

Maude swallowed the betrayal and kept herself neutral.

Maude closed her eyes as her father moved to stand behind her. His bitter ash scent made her eyes water as he enveloped her space.

“You think I did not see that you grew into the woman I always knew you would become?” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “You are my mirror, Maude. My creation.”

Maude exhaled as the rage in her heart burned brighter. The air around her from her father’s galder fueled her flames until the restrictions on her limbs disappeared.

“No,” she said as the last of the bonds lifted. “I’m worse.”

Maude’s fire exploded out of her in a blast radius that could have detonated the town square. Her father was blasted back with the force of her fire. He slammed into the wall by the door as Maude turned, her entire body wreathed in her golden flames that billowed out from her chest in fiery waves.

The war room began to crumble under her power, the foundation falling apart as she raged. The table map of Ahland ignited, the cities and borders burning away as if she had ripped up the Treaty and watched its rigid rules disintegrate at her fingertips.

The chairs went up next, the burning velvet causing black smoke to billow out the large windows, signaling anyone who would help their treacherous King.

Ten years of repressed anger flooded through Maude as she looked at her father, his rage beginning to kindle the fire in his eyes.

Helvig sprinted for the door as the floor began to give away under the pressure of Maude’s fire.

She followed him, sheathing her short sword as she ran after the monster who molded her.

The walls of the long hallway that led to the war room shook as they were destroyed beyond repair.

Maude dimmed her fire as she approached her father.

“You always did have a nasty temper,” her father chuckled as he removed the battle axe from his back. “Your anger will not win you this fight, dóttir. ”

Maude bit back her rage once more, attempting to keep Herrick’s words in the front of her mind.

You are not a monster. You don’t have to sink to his level.

“I am not going to fight you,” she said, trying to let Herrick’s calm flow through her instead of her anger. “We can solve this peacefully.”

“Peace? You were not raised for peace.” He spat the last word out like poison. “You were raised to be ruthless, a warrior, a force of nature.”

A force of nature. That was not the first time someone had referred to her as such.

Herrick had said together, they could be a force of nature.

The Grand Soothsayer had said she would be a force of nature if Bryn were to be believed.

Maude felt the weaving of the Norns felt present again as the words made their way into the ether.

“My daughter does not know peace,” he continued as her introspection continued. “My daughter slices first and demands later. My daughter is strong and powerful, not this whimpering fool who hopes for peace.”

Maude flinched at his words, her fire dimming further in the verbal assault of her character.

With every word that landed on her psyche, Maude felt herself grow smaller, felt herself withdraw into the girl she was when she lived under his thumb.

Maude shrunk until she was sure she could hide under her boot.

“My daughter would not waste her time on a boy who has shown that he would rule with peace over strength.” The king scoffed. “Come to your senses, girl. He will lead to your death, and for that, he must die.”

Maude halted in her self-deprecating spiral .

“You do not touch him.” Her voice came out harsh and guttural with the strength of her newly stoked wrath. “If you touch him, I will obliterate you.”

She looked up at the last word, her eyes meeting her hateful father's as she promised death to him.

For the first time in her life, her father was unsure of himself. Whatever he saw in Maude’s eyes made him pause.

It was all the time she needed.

Maude charged forward, the edge of her sword glinting in the dim firelight of the torches lining the long hall.

At the last second, her father lifted his battle axe and blocked her swing.

It was too late, however, because her fist shot out and slammed into his side, forcing him to his knee.

The king swiped out a leg in a move so reminiscent of what she had done when she ran from her father ten years ago, causing Maude to hit the ground.

Her hip slammed into the stone floor, sending waves of agony through her side as she struggled to get to her feet. Her father swung his axe, the large blade promising death as it aimed for her belly. Maude twisted away, throwing her arm out with the axe to try and catch her father’s flesh.

A second before his scream sounded, Maude was rewarded with the feel of her blade slicing down her father’s face.

From his right temple down to the corner of his mouth, a new jagged cut, courtesy of her blade, poured crimson blood onto the stone floor.

Maude gave him a savage, satisfactory smile as she eyed the latest token from her anger.

“Looks like we really are mirrors, Papa ,” Maude shot at him, winking.

Fury flooded the hall as her father exploded, orange flames billowing out from his chest. Maude only laughed as his fire skated around her air shield that she erected seconds before his explosion.

He moved forward, his honey-colored hair disheveled and his face twisted with blood and outrage as he attacked Maude. Their blades clashed together, hit after hit, and neither person landed another blow on the other.

Locked in a battle for the freedom of Ahland, Maude and her father relentlessly clashed again and again. No one could interfere, and nothing would stop them until the other was dead.

Herrick sprinted down the abandoned servant’s hall, trying to find his way to Maude. His fatemark pulsed on his chest faster than his heartbeat, which led him to believe that each pulse was a blow that Maude was taking in a fight for her life.

When he had reached the eastern gate of the palace, he had found it deserted. Not a soul guarding it. Then, the earth rocked as a section of the palace began to crumble under some great power.

Maude .

He knew her power, had felt it caress his own in the past. He knew that if he followed the path of destruction, he would find her again. The only sound in his ears was the sound of his heart pounding against his ribs to the rhythm of his feet hitting the red-stoned floor beneath him.

Maude. Maude. Maude.

It was the only cadence Herrick needed. He needed to find his fire, his Maude.

He smelled the smoke before he saw the clouds of black billowing through the cracks of a secret door to the main halls.

With little hesitation, Herrick pushed through the wall and found a deserted hallway with grand tapestries and gilded sculptures lining the alcoves.

To his right, where the smoke was heaviest, he could hear the clashing of metal.

To his left, he could hear frantic footsteps belonging to soldiers coming to protect their King.

Herrick turned right, diving into the smoke and ash.

Bryn was still being dragged by the soldiers she had once commanded through the halls of the palace when the blast came from the other side of the grounds. Her uncle was in front of her, leading the way to the war room, when the ground shook beneath them.

Bryn had grinned. It meant that Maude was with their father.

She’ll kill him, and then we will all be free , she thought to herself.

Her uncle has assembled a small host of soldiers, ordering them to go with them to the war room.

He told them their King was in danger of the collapse of the structure.

She allowed herself to be dragged by the men she had trained, allowed herself to be dragged to her sister's side where they would rid this land of their poisonous father once and for all.