Page 94 of Kingdom of Embers and Ruin

“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 borderingVeter, 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 hergalder,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’tthatgood 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 aquick 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.

Trying to focus on the night sky to calm her raging emotions, Maude blocked out her traveling companions. Gunnar and Liv were silent, each person absorbed by their task. Hakon and Eydis had stayed bundled up together in the back of the longboat, exchanging whispers and the occasional hidden kiss. Hakon had seemed determined to remain faithful to Eydis during his Betrothal Ball, and Maude could not fault him for wanting to follow his heart. She had been trying to outrun her fate for ten years and still found herself in its clutches from time to time, but at least she only had to contend with herself in this.

Hakon, torn between his kingdom and his love for Eydis, was finding it impossible to decide to do anything but run from his responsibilities.

Pity swelled in Maude at their circumstances. Eydis was lovely and seemed to dote on Hakon endlessly, while Hakon was always careful with her but supportive and encouraging. They had found each other in a world that separated them by class as well as a kingdom. Still, they held firm to the belief that they would end up together. Maude hoped they were right.

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