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“Yes,” he responded, just a short.

“This is what is tattooed onto your chest and arm.”

“Again, yes.”

“Why? You are not the Heir,” she said, eyeing his chest like she could see through to his skin.

“I understand that the dragonhead ships are designated for the King and Queen of each kingdom, but I had it inked into my chest surrounding my fatemark so that they may work together,” Herrick explained.

Eydis turned to them both, curious at their conversation.

“What is your fatemark?” Eydis asked, curious .

“It’s the vegvisir ,” he said to Eydis.

“Ah, I see,” she nodded in approval.

Maude seemed confused.

“Why are the two related?” she asked, a bit impatiently.

“My vegvisir guides me down the right path to my fate,” he explained. Maude shifted uncomfortably at the topic. “And the dragon protects me on that path. The dragonhead ships are for more than displaying wealth and titles; they also protect against storms and jormungander , the Midgard serpent.”

“And the runes?” Maude asked, referring to the runes tattooed as scales on the dragon.

“Someone has been paying attention,” Herrick smirked.

Gunnar and Hakon were at the stern of the boat, guiding the rudder to stay on course, while Liv sat and sharpened her many knives, a nervous habit of hers.

“People get runes on their bodies for lots of reasons, right?” Eydis asked before Maude could snap at him.

“Yes, usually they are reminders to the bearer,” Maude said, taking her eyes off Herrick.

“And you’ll have to get me drunk before I reveal why I chose the runes I did,” Herrick replied, bringing the subject to an abrupt end.

Eydis laughed and turned to face Hakon, catching his attention.

Herrick watched as his brother’s features softened when she spoke to him.

Herrick knew it was killing Hakon never to be able to commit to her.

Much like it destroyed Herrick that he could never pursue Maude either.

Unable to stay away, though, he continued his particular slow torture and watched Maude as she started sharpening her weapons with Liv.

Liv said something to Maude that forced a half smile to her face, her teeth flashing in a way that would look predatory to anyone else but to Herrick. For him, it was a sign that she had opened up to him and his friends since they found her in that fighting pit, whether she realized it or not.

Needing to interact with her in some way, even if it was to annoy her, Herrick flicked his fingers to launch a sphere of water at Maude.

The sphere slammed into her back, dripping down the black leather vest she wore over her sleeveless shirt.

Maude jumped up, causing all the knives to clatter to the floor of the boat while Herrick roared with laughter.

Maude whipped around, her face red with her anger. He could swear steam was coming out of her ears.

“You beast,” she growled, raising her hand at her side, flames already burning bright in the midnight air. “Do you want me to burn down your precious longboat?”

Well, getting her anger to the surface was easier than the last time he’d tried.

“You won't,” he said, brushing off her warning. “You need to practice your control.”

“I have been practicing, just not with you,” she bit out.

“Then show me.”

Maude clenched her jaw, the muscle in her cheek flickering with the movement.

She moved the flames in both her hands up her arms until the fire spread over every inch of her skin.

The bright orange and yellow of her fire skimmed across her skin, touching but never burning. She held out her hand, an invitation.

Herrick reached out with no hesitation, knowing she would not burn him, and grasped her forearm as she grasped his. They stood there for a moment, triumph in her eyes before they released each other once more.

“Good,” he said. “But control when you were calm was never your problem. Your temper gets the best of you, and that is when your galder controls you instead. ”

Hakon and Eydis were now paying close attention while Liv and Gunnar ignored them. Maude’s eyes flashed.

“Show me your air galder ,” Herrick said when Maude did not speak.

“No,” she said between her teeth.

Herrick held her eye as he directed another water sphere to land on top of her head, soaking her thoroughly. Maude, in response, whipped her hand in a quick circle to dry herself off and then pushed her palm forward toward him. A gust of wind violently knocked him onto his ass.

Herrick heard Eydis’s wind-chime laughter before she said to Maude, “You have to show me how to do that!”

“She won’t be showing anyone how to use their galder until she can control it herself,” Herrick said, sitting up and grinning at Maude.

Maude scoffed.

“I just knocked you on your ass with little effort,” she said, eyeing him.

“Only because I wasn’t blocking you,” he said, hoping to aggravate her more.

“Then block this time,” Maude said viciously.

She pushed her palm forward as Herrick placed a barrier of thick ice between them. The wind she controlled increased in velocity, sliding the block of ice toward him and increasing the speed of the boat floating down the river.

“How’s that for control,” Herrick heard Maude shout over the loud gusts.

The block of ice was slipping forward to crush him, and he had no more space to back into, so he shifted the ice into water, moving through the sheet of liquid and drenching him from head to toe.

Maude withdrew her wind and laughed. Herrick was again captivated by the bell-like laughter that rang around them. In the gardens, she had been hysterical, but like this… Her laughter was a call to him .

“Very nice,” he said, shaking off what her joy did to him.

“See? I’ve been practicing,” Maude said, her laughter calming.

“Seeing as I don’t want to burn the boat down, as you mentioned earlier, it’s best we wait until we are on dry ground again.”

Maude mocked a bow and turned back to speak with Liv.

Hakon and Eydis had become lost in each other again, ignoring the world around them, while Gunnar steered their longboat in silence.

Herrick’s fatemark tingled on his chest. He rubbed one hand over the front of his shirt, the unsettling feeling that his time was running out with Maude heavy in his soul.

He moved forward in his life, trusting in his fate entirely as Maude ran from hers. An idea crept into his mind that he was unable to shake as he looked over to Maude, who was briefing Liv on her fight with the Flame Assassin.

Herrick had always been transparent with Maude about how he felt for her, while Maude stayed silent and ignored what she felt when it was evident that she felt the same as him.

Herrick always trusted his instinct; it had won him every battle and solved every problem, and his instinct was telling him to stay close to Maude. She kept him at arm's length if she could help it. She ran from her attraction to him just like she ran from her fate.

If he trusted his actions, which always led him down the right path to his fate, and Maude always ran from hers, then was it their fate to meet and be together?

The moon was almost full in the reflection of the river.

Herrick knew that full moons ushered in significant changes; seeds planted during the new moon would bloom both physically and spiritually under a full moon.

As their longboat glided down the rushing waters of the river bordering Veter, Herrick’s thoughts spun endlessly around this idea that he and Maude were fated to be together.

So why did he have this sense of impending doom hanging over him?

Maude watched Herrick sit at the bow of his longboat and stare into the water. He did not speak to her after they had exercised her galder, and Maude wasn’t entirely sure why. Perhaps the kiss they had shared on Hakon’s balcony was weighing on him, as their circumstances hadn’t really changed.

They still could not be together. Herrick had taken the news poorly, and while Maude had been disappointed, relief had begun to set in the longer the information sat with her; she could not be responsible for his death when her father inevitably came after her.

If all they would have to hold on to were their kiss, then it would have to be enough.

Maude’s lips began tingling at the memory, the soft pressure of Herrick’s mouth on hers and how she had felt that they had fit together perfectly for just one blissful moment before he pulled away.

Resisting the urge to brush her fingers over the sensitive skin, Maude shook her head and rolled her neck to relieve some of her tension.

“It wasn’t that good of a kiss,” she muttered under her breath.

“What?” Liv asked, looking up from her sharpening.

“Nothing,” she replied, laying down on the long bench that stretched across the longboat.

“If you say so,” Liv said, her tone saying that she knew exactly what Maude had said.

Maude ignored her, looked up into the starry sky, and thought about how long the night had been.

It had started with a ball and ended with a quick flight from Veter after clashing with Flame Assassins.

Liv and Maude had fallen into a comfortable silence after they had spoken about Maude’s fight with the Flame Assassin, but she remained unnerved by how easily they had found her.

She scolded herself relentlessly about the feeling of safety she had begun to feel in Veter and felt the heaviness of her guilt settling in her soul the longer they traveled.