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A small gasp escaped from her lips, the sound involuntary as Herrick held her in place.

His grip was firm but not constricting, and she knew that if they ever acted on their impulses, they would tear each other apart.

He leaned into her and breathed in her scent, the low cut of her shirt exposing how hard she was breathing.

“Is this nice , minn eldr ?” Herrick’s voice was a whisper that dragged over the sensitive skin of her chest.

She had kept her hands firmly wrapped around the bow that was in her lap, refusing to touch him, but the leash on her control slipped.

Throwing restraint aside, she moved her hand behind her and ran her palm down his impressive bulge.

Herrick bucked his hips slightly at her touch, letting out a groan, and she grinned at her triumph.

“I am not a fragile maiden who needs to be wooed by pretty words and declarations of love,” Maude purred, unveiling the Helcat that prowled beneath her skin just enough for him to sense.

“If I wanted to, I would have you on this forest floor. I want actions from you, Herrick. I don’t need soft words; I need the truth. ”

She released him and snaked her hands back to the bow.

Herrick gripped her by the neck for a moment longer before he released her in turn.

Her chin dipped as she caught her breath, her heart pounding so fast from her arousal that she thought the others might hear it.

Herrick was quiet for some time before he finally spoke to Maude, his voice barely hiding the desire laced in his words.

“When I make you mine, minn eldr , there will be nothing soft about it. I will have you screaming my name through the night, and every time you move, you’ll be reminded of when I was inside you. You’ll beg me for more.”

He placed his hand on her inner thigh again and wrapped his other arm around her waist, bringing her closer to him as he spoke.

His dark hair had fallen forward a bit and was tickling her still-sensitive skin from their standoff, but the heat she had been feeling banked a bit at his possessive words.

“I belong to no one but myself,” Maude said quietly. Her mother’s words echoed again in her mind.

Love, like the ones in the stories, does not have a place in your reality.

Herrick ran his thumb over the inside of her leg absentmindedly for the rest of their ride to Veter while Maude tried and failed to push the feeling of his hands on her skin out of her mind. She had decided that once they were settled in for the night somewhere, she would take him to her bed.

She had always thought that their undeniable physical attraction to each other would fade if they just gave in to their passion once or ignored it long enough. The latter didn't seem to be working, so she decided she was going to clear him out of her system.

His touch had never faded from her skin, and she was burning alive from the inside with desire for this charming and exasperating man. She could still feel his hand on her throat, tight and immovable. Maude blew out her breath as she shook the feeling from her mind .

The ride to the bridge that separated the woods from Veter was generally uneventful. The trees all looked the same, and the green never varied in shade, so Maude found it just as repetitive as the dunes of the desert could become.

She had always preferred the warm beauty of the desert when the sun was setting and the sands reflected all shades of reds and oranges. The green blended into a blur that had Maude convinced she was losing her sight.

Maude could feel it when they crossed an invisible threshold into the Kingdom of Rivers.

The air became heavier with humidity, the earth taking on the same intoxicating rain-soaked scent that Herrick had.

Rather than the humidity reaching for them, Maude felt like they had passed through a solid wall of moisture.

She instantly felt like she had begun breathing underwater with how much water seemed to linger in the air, making her miss the dry heat of the desert.

An hour after they crossed into the river lands, the loud rush of running water over rocks crashed in her ears. Finally, the tree line thinned enough for her to see through.

Maude turned to look at their party and saw Hakon and Eydis coming forward to approach the bridge at Herrick’s side. They hung back for a few seconds longer, and Hakon whispered to Eydis urgently, her face turning ashen.

Curious, Maude went to ask Herrick what was going on when they broke through the woods into the late afternoon sun to see Kingdom of Rivers soldiers in formation, blocking a carriage that sat at the entrance to the bridge.

Their navy uniforms had a sage green sash across their chest, the style much simpler than the Kingdom of Flame's vivid colors and trimmings.

The soldiers' weapons were sheathed, though .

Herrick looked at Maude, and she saw the shocked apology before it came.

“I’m so sorry, minn eldr. I didn’t want you to find out like this.”

“What does that mean?” She demanded as she turned to face the lone captain making his way to them. “Herrick?”

The captain stopped and bowed in front of them, and Maude felt her face drained of color as the truth rushed toward her.

“General. Scouts reported your return— we were not expecting you back so soon.”

Herrick, the General of the Kingdom of Rivers armies, and not the man she had been traveling with, responded, “We ran into some difficulties and were being followed by Flame Soldiers, so we returned early. Ready our quarters and make up two extra rooms for our guests, please.”

“Yes, sir,” he nodded and waved two of the soldiers off, who made their way past the bridge, past the simple carriage, and into the heavy fog that lay over the rushing water beneath.

The captain turned to Hakon, who had just arrived next to Herrick and bowed even deeper.

“Your Highness, we are overjoyed to see your safe return to Veter.”

Every thought and emotion emptied her mind as she looked at Hakon. He again held that same air of aristocracy that she had felt was so familiar, as if he had slipped into another persona.

In Ahland, the Heirs to each throne would be hidden from society until they were eighteen years old.

That was why Maude had thought he was so familiar when she first met him.

Maude had stayed out of social circles in recent years, but a long-blocked memory from right before she had run away from high society ten years ago resurfaced.

She remembered hearing the name of the Kingdom of Rivers Heir: Hakon Kolbeck .

As if it could not have gotten any worse, she saw two tall figures wearing silver crowns with matching droplet sapphires encrusted on the sides emerging from the carriage that had been behind the line of soldiers. Hakon dismounted from his horse and helped Eydis down, who was still pale and shaken.

It can never last between them , Herrick had said to her. Now she understood why.

Herrick hopped down from their shared saddle and offered help dismounting to Maude, who mentally checked that her hood was still up, concealing her face.

She allowed Herrick to wrap his strong hands around her waist and lower her to the ground; she didn’t trust her legs to get her down without them giving out on her.

Herrick’s surprise and regret were not lost on her; he had not meant to reveal himself this way.

What shocked her almost as equally as this reveal was that she was not angry. She didn’t feel her veins fill with the wrath of her flames, but rather, she felt them burn out into nothing but smoke, like the water in the air had stifled her fire.

Her body felt foreign and numb, with small waves of icy heat shooting through her veins with every beat of her traitorous heart.

Her nervous system was on high alert; Maude felt like she needed to run far away and never stop running from this feeling of impending doom.

She had never wanted to come here, and now she was trapped in high society again.

Perhaps they would throw her behind bars and hand her back to the Kingdom of Flame.

They all walked forward to meet the King and Queen of the Kingdom of Rivers. Hakon and Herrick stepped forward first and bowed their heads with fists over their hearts, then straightened to hug their parents, exchanging affectionate greetings .

Eydis trembled slightly while Maude had gone entirely still, hoping they would not notice her. Liv and Gunnar stood behind them, hands on the hilt of their swords, faces hard.

Maude kept her eyes on the grass below her feet until she felt a soft, calm presence in front of her, like the first few drops of rain before a storm.

Silver slippers and an ice-blue gown stopped in front of her.

Slowly, a pale, slender hand belonging to the Queen of Rivers reached for the deep indigo shawl wrapped around Maude’s waist.

“I know this cloth, who it belonged to,” the woman said in a surprisingly strong voice, fingers running along the edge of the thick fabric and up to the hood.

She reached into the shadows of her hood and lifted Maude’s chin to look up at her.

The River Queen's square face, her jaw the same cut as her sons, but somehow softer, was beautiful and delicate. Her hair was coiled into a smooth chignon behind her head, the dark brown chestnut color streaked with silver. The most unnerving sight though, were her bright, golden brown eyes that so closely resembled another’s.

They were kind and filled with grief and surprise as she looked at her.

Maude could do nothing when the Queen lowered her hood and revealed her scarred face to the entire party gathered on the banks of the roiling river.

A ripple of shock moved through the crowd surrounding them.

Herrick was looking at her fully revealed face now that she no longer was in disguise, and all that shone there was surprise.

She had listened to Herrick and foolishly exposed herself to the world, unable to hide behind her pit fighter disguise any longer. Maude’s heart was beating so impossibly fast. It was all she could hear until the Queen of Rivers spoke.

“I know you, dear child,” the Queen said with a sad smile. Maude closed her eyes as her secret was revealed to the world.

“Maude, Daughter of Sylvi. Heir to the Kingdom of Flame.”