Page 139 of Kingdom of Embers and Ruin

His hands still on her face, Herrick leaned in and whispered, “Breathe.”

She did.

“Again.”

The noise faded to nothing as his thumb stroked her cheek, her focus zeroing in on his touch.

“Now try.”

Maude snapped her fingers, feeling the warmth of her fire spread over her hands. Herrick grabbed her wrist then and slammed Maude’s hand to the bite on Eydis’s arm. Her eyes flew open as she took in Herrick’s hand, wreathed in her flame as he held her hand down onto the wound.She immediately extinguished her flames and withdrew her hand. Herrick iced over his burnt skin and stood to grab Hakon.

Maude had closed the wound, but Eydis had not woken up, too far gone to notice. She tried to ignore the echo of Eydis’s words bouncing in her mind as Herrick took over and forced his brother to take Eydis and leave them.

“Take her now, we’ll finish here,” Herrick ordered his brother, grabbing him by the shirt and shoving him toward Maude.

Hakon bent to pick up Eydis and cradled her in his arms; then, he took off down the tunnel, disappearing around a corner. She used the last bit of hergalderand forced a wind behind him to help him get out.

Maude, shaken from her panicked stupor, wasted no more time getting to her feet and turned quickly, jabbing Liv’s short sword past Herrick’s shoulder, catching thedraugrin the throat. Gunnar came up behind it and finished the job, killing the last of the ambushing creatures.

Another loud crack sounded from where the cavern was. The ice was giving way from the pressure of the water gathering behind it. If they were still in the Caverns when the ice broke, they would drown.

“Run,” Herrick said, voice shuddering.

They all sprinted toward when Hakon had disappeared with Eydis. As fast as they could manage, they blew past the last of the torches lighting their way to open air and safety. The streaks of light from her fire blurring in her vision reminded her that she almost had not been able to stop Eydis’s bleeding.

Maude’s legs were heavy, dragging with every step she took. Moonlight hair and kind caramel eyes that held friendly smiles and secret jokes flashed in her mind.

Eydis. She needed to get to Eydis.

Her lungs burned with every breath, the stitch in her side growing with every inch she gained. Burnout was beginning to settle in her bones, but Maude ignored it.

Finally, the light of the fading moon shone at the end of the tunnel. Just a little bit farther…

Water began to pool at her feet, slowing her relentless pace, and they still ran. When the water reached their knees, Maude put on a final burst of speed through the rising tides.

They crashed through the opening of the tunnels, one by one, falling to their knees into the open air. Torrents of water pounded against them as it poured through the tunnel they had exited, the salt choking her as she tried to right herself.

Maude threw herself up to the place on the wall where she had traced the seam of the rock and ran her finger down it again, drawing more blood in payment to the Knotted Caverns.

The wall slammed shut, the rushing water battering against the other side.

They all breathed heavily, trying to force air down into their lungs and catch their breath. Liv was holding Gunnar up by his waist, the older man huffing harder than the rest of them. Herrick absentmindedly reached for Maude, running his fingers down her spine, and then wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close to him like he needed to reassure himself that they all made it.

“Eydis,” Hakon’s broken voice came from behind her.

Ice washed through her at the sound of Hakon’s plea.

Soul moving out of her body, Maude felt herself turn out of Herrick’s grasp and face Hakon’s kneeling form in the center of the flat space. The ancient runes circled him as if they had been laid down after he had been rooted to that spot, curled over the woman he loved.

Maude saw Eydis’s pale arm fall from where it had been placed against Hakon’s cheek, limp and lifeless.

No.

Moving forward on legs that did not feel like hers, Maude fell to her knees at Eydis’s head and cradled her face upside down as her eyes traced over the delicate features of her first friend.

She tried to memorize her face: the curve of her cheek when she smiled, the sound of her laugh that mirrored the tinkling of wind chimes, the color of her hair in the moonlight.

Maude lowered her forehead to her friends. Her body was shaking with the cold setting in her limbs like Hakon’s grief that hung in the air like another presence.

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