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Maude focused on the feeling of Herrick’s skin against hers, how his touch soothed a ragged part of her soul.

She thought about her friends and how they made her laugh, accepting her sharp edges.

Slowly, the room began to cool a bit as her wind breezed through the room to calm the fire in her veins.

Maude went through her breathing exercises and found enough calm to stop her hands from shaking.

Not wanting to waste another second, she gathered up the ale and headed to their table.

She placed the tankards on the table and pivoted to turn to the stairs, muttering about needing to use the washroom.

Herrick gave her an odd look but nodded, sensing her need to be alone.

Maude forced an annoyed smile to her face, attempting to look somewhat normal in the moment.

A lazy grin spread across Herrick’s face, the ridiculous dimple appearing once more before turning back to the table.

As she made her way to the stairs, Maude figured she had very limited time before he or one of their friends would come looking for her, so she quickly made her way up to their room, turning to place a chair under the doorknob.

Wasting no time, she walked straight to the window and opened it so she could climb through.

The smooth surface of the gray stone building proved to be much more challenging to scale than Maude had thought, but she managed to find enough footholds that she could get up the roof of the building.

When Maude finally reached the top, the soft wind blew the scent of burning incense and smoke toward her. She saw the stranger, still cloaked and hooded, facing northwest.

Maude withdrew her dagger before she spoke. “Who are you?”

“A friend,” a deceptively light female voice answered.

The figure lowered her hood and turned to face Maude.

Her deep onyx hair fell in long waves around her shoulders, framing her slender face in a way that was exotic even for Logi; her deep russet skin was smooth and ethereal in the moonlight.

Maude had never seen this woman before, but on the roof next to her lay a shield with the symbol for the Kingdom of Flame imprinted on it.

“A shieldmaiden,” Maude nodded to the shield, raising her dagger in front of her in a defensive position.

“I am a friend to your sister Bryn,” the woman continued, keeping her arms at her side. “I came as a favor to her to deliver you a letter. My name is Revna; I serve under your sister in Logi.”

“Not the General?” Maude asked, not lowering her weapon.

“No,” Revna scoffed. “That fool has his days numbered. ”

“Why would Bryn reach out to me,” Maude asked, finding herself reluctantly liking Revna already. “I haven't spoken to her in ten years. She hates me.”

Maude’s voice cracked. Revna’s eyes softened a fraction.

“She doesn’t hate you,” she said softly. “She’s angry, yes, but she doesn't hate you.”

Maude’s throat burned.

“How are you even able to get this far to deliver this to me?” Maude asked, suspicion still heavy in her words.

“The King sent me to bring you in. He’s known where you are the whole time. When the General's Flame Assassins failed to capture you, Bryn knew that he would ask her to send her soldiers out to finish the job. She sent me to deliver the letter instead to warn you.”

“Warn me about what?”

“The King. He’s planning to get his hands on the dalkr Hela, and that absolutely cannot happen,” Revna said, voice becoming serious. “We think you may have it. Don’t tell me if you do. I don’t want to know, but the King needs to be destroyed. You’re the only one who can get close enough to do it.”

Maude didn’t move when Revna held out a letter to her. The scent of dry, desert lavender drifted toward her.

Bryn . Maude reached out, fingers clasping the letter from her sister gently. Revna released it and lowered her hand. The letter felt heavy, as if the information inside was weighing down the paper.

“Likely, we will not meet again, Maude,” Revna said, pulling her hood up again.

Her voice was tinged with a quiet sadness that Maude couldn’t quite understand.

“In three days, the eastern gates of the palace, near the soldier’s barracks, will be unlocked at moon rise. There will be no guards posted there. ”

Maude looked up from the letter to see Revna dipping down to grab her shield before she turned back to face northwest.

“May the gods watch over you and guide you to glory, Your Highness,” Revna said, bowing low with one fist over her heart. “The Kingdom needs someone like you. Someone like Bryn.”

Before Maude could respond, Revna stepped off the edge of the roof, her hands catching her on a line that extended from this roof to one of the lower buildings in the city.

She slid down the long rope and landed on her feet on a neighboring rooftop before sprinting down the set of stairs, disappearing into the building.

Sheathing her dagger, Maude took a seat at the edge of the rooftop, holding the letter from her sister in her hands. She looked down at the messy scrawl that belonged to her sister, her vision blurring slightly.

Maude ran one fingernail under the edge, opened the envelope, and pulled out the thick paper. Sister, it started:

I hope this reaches you in time. I’ve unearthed information from our mother in her journals. By now, Revna will have told you about Father’s plans, but there is something else you need to know.

Maude kept reading until the last words on the page were out of focus. Then she read the letter again as her world crumbled around her.

Herrick began to worry about how long Maude had been gone. Not wanting to crowd her, he decided to wait, but this uneasy feeling had started to settle in his gut. His friends were laughing at something Gunnar had said, and even Hakon participated a bit more in conversation.

Worry had gnawed at him over Hakon’s sorrow, knowing there was nothing to be said or done about his grief, but Herrick had hoped that he would emerge from this fog soon. Hakon was not out of the woods yet, and Herrick wasn’t sure he ever would be, but for now, he seemed to be handling it.

The longer Herrick waited for Maude to reappear, the further away she felt. Deep in his chest, it felt as if Maude were getting further and further away from him. He looked over his shoulder at the stairs, hoping Maude would appear and shake this sense that something was wrong.

She never showed.

Deciding to trust his instincts, as he always had, Herrick stood and ignored his friends when they asked him where he was going. He moved automatically, not paying attention to the crowd around him as he cut through the throngs of drunken locals.

Standing in front of the door to the room he and Maude had finally crossed that final barrier between them in, Herrick hesitated.

He didn’t want to crowd her so soon. Maude was flighty, and he knew if he put too much pressure on her so soon after she let him in, she would push him away again.

But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was profoundly wrong.

He turned the doorknob and tried to open the door but found it being blocked by something. He pushed against the door again, warning bells drowning out every thought in his mind.

“Maude?”

Nothing. No sound to give away any sort of presence in the room.

Herrick shoved his shoulder into the door, attempting to break through whatever was barricading the door.

Finding no luck the first few times, desperation began to claw at him.

With one final shove, he shattered the door and brought forth his axe, unsure of what to expect.

The room was deserted .

Maude’s packs were missing and the window was wide open, the sheer curtains billowing in the night air. Herrick moved through the space, feeling like he had been ripped out of his own body. The dull sound of rushing footsteps came from behind him, followed by his friend’s voices.

On the pillow was a folded piece of paper that had been ripped from a larger sheet. Balanced on top of the paper was his water rune necklace, which Maude had been wearing during their time together. Gunnar asked him something, but the words were thick and foreign to him.

All Herrick could do was walk toward the slip of paper and necklace.

With one hand, he unfolded the note and ran his fingers over the wooden rune with the other.

Her cedar smoke scent laced with jasmine wrapped itself around his senses as he opened the paper to find a note addressed to him with only two words on the page.

The necklace slipped from his grasp and landed on the floor with a dull clunk .

Forgive me.

Every thought emptied from Herrick’s mind as a ringing built up in his ears.

Maude was gone. And she had taken the dalkr Hela with her.