Page 36 of Kingdom of Embers and Ruin

“Your problem is emotional regulation. You allow your emotions to control you— your anger takes over and controls you rather than the other way around,” he said softly as he continued gripping her hand. “I can help with that; we all can.”

He was wrong. When she let go of her control, hergalderseemed to breathe and relax, but she didn’t feel like explaining herself. “I can’t just change how I feel, Herrick.”

“You don’t have to. You only have to learn to workwithyour emotions and not against them.”

“Sure,” she said as she pulled away from him. She scrubbed her face a few times as she turned away from Herrick. “I don’t know if I can do that— work with my emotions. They get away from me most of the time, as you just saw.”

His eyes were still on her; she could feel them. “You can because I did. You’re not the only one who struggles because they feel everythingintensely, Maude.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” She brushed the double meaning in his words.

“You do.”

Maude didn’t answer; she only turned to look at Herrick. There was no pity in his eyes, only calm resolve.

She could let them help her, she thought to herself.

She would have to force her pride down, but she could do it if it helped her neutralize Helvig. Maude looked over to their spectators. Hakon and Gunnar looked impressed as they excitedly spoke in hushed tones to each other while Liv looked weary. Eydis, the sweet creature that she was, had a mixture of awe and determination on her face as she analyzed Maude’s movements.

Gods above, save her from having to instruct Eydis in galder.

“Okay, I’ll do it, but I won't apologize if I burn you again because you decided to piss me off,” Maude finally said, her voice heavy with the bitterness of her concession.

“I can agree to that,” Herrick laughed, but the look on Maude’s face made him pause.

“Don’t ever push me like that again, Herrick,” she said, weariness creeping into her words. “You don’t know me or why I am the way I am, so if we’re going to do this, you need to promise that you won’t push me like that again.”

Herrick’s intense gaze scanned her face, his eyes tracing the scar that cut through the left side of her face and bisected her eyebrow before making its way down her cheek to the corner of her mouth.

“Okay, you set the limits,” he said softly.

Tension pulsed between them as the world quieted around them. Maude felt something tug at her center, making her sway toward Herrick slightly. He must have felt the same because he took one step closer to her,closing the gap between them until one deep breath from Maude would have her pressed against his sculpted frame. From how close they were, Maude could count the freckles that ran over the bridge of Herrick’s nose.

Maude ran her tongue over her lips to wet them, causing Herrick’s gaze to flicker down to her mouth. Desire flared in her core at the sight. Herrick leaned in, his cool breath skating across her flushed skin. Time seemed to stop for a moment as Maude tried to sort through the riot of feeling in her chest. One second. Two seconds.

Their small bubble of suspended time was broken by the sounds of Herrick’s friends readying to leave and Gunnar walking up to them. They quickly stepped away from each other.

“Hey, if you two are done pummeling each other into the sands, we should head out if we want to make it anywhere tonight,” Gunnar said as he tossed Maude’s pack to her.

She caught it and quickly slung it over her shoulder, walking over to their horse. The others were settling onto their mounts and were heading southeast. Maude pulled herself onto her shared horse with Herrick and settled in front of him for the second time that day, but he thankfully spared her from any comments this time.

The interrupted moment between them was still ebbing away as they set forward, picking up speed to catch up to Hakon. Eydis had leaned back against Hakon’s chest with her eyes closed, her silver hair glowing even in the darkness of the new moon above them. Hakon quickly pulled a hood over her head to cover the beacon she had become. Herrick steered their horse over to his brother as Maude kept an eye on their surroundings in case of bandits ordraugr.

“Will you tell me what delayed your arrival to Engate now, brother?” Herrick asked him, his voice low so they didn't attract the attention of any creatures hunting through the night.

“There really isn’t much to tell you,” Hakon sighed, the movement causing Eydis to wake a bit and shift against his chest. He absentmindedly reached out a gentle hand and smoothed her hair down beneath the cloak but stopped once he noticed Maude’s attention on him.

“I think you have an interesting story to tell, even if it was uneventful,” she said to him, eyeing Eydis and then looking back up at him with a smirk.

“I didn’t say it was uneventful, just that only one small setback occurred on our escape,” Hakon gruffed, tightening a protective arm around Eydis’s waist.

“Out with it, Hakon,” Herrick snapped.

Maude snickered to herself as she realized his ever-present patience seemed to only come to a swift end with her and his brother. Herrick pinched her ribs at the sound of her amusement, and she promptly elbowed him in the stomach.

Ignoring them, Hakon began his story.

“We got to the wall with no problems until we stopped to strap her infant brother to her front so she could climb with both hands. A group of soldiers turned the corner before we could even get more than a few feet off the ground, and I realized we would never make it to the top if we kept going. We jumped down and ran before they could get close enough to question us, but that was the wrong thing to do. We ran for a few blocks, taking cover in an alley when they split up and cornered us.”

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