"I am Dahlia, Matron Elven of Healing."
He felt a ghost of a smile tilt his lips upward. "Hakon Kolbeck, Heir of Rivers."
Unsure of what came over him, Hakon brought Dahlia's hand to his mouth and pressed a soft kiss on the back of her palm before releasing it. Surprise flashed on her face before she masked it again, her face tilting away from him to hide the flare of pink in her cheeks. She thought she had hidden it, but Hakon caught the small betrayal of her thoughts.His lips tipped up in the beginnings of a rakish smile.
"Goodnight, Your Highness," she responded before disappearing through the front door, leaving Hakon alone.
As he lay back on a stack of cushions in front of the violet-hued fire, his thoughts bounced from his conversation with Herrick to the strange anger that radiated from the Elven when they spoke. Dahlia had seemed so collected on the outside; her mannerisms were refined, and her touch was gentle as she healed those in need. But underneath the soft words and royal manners was a sharp tongue and stubborn soul that enticed him.
It was only when he closed his eyes and drifted into a dreamless sleep that he remembered the grief that had been eating him alive for weeks. Only now, he could breathe. Now he could see.
38
Maude stood alone on the edge of a clifftop, the chilling wind cutting through her layers of fur-lined leather until her bones shook with the cold.
Tonight, there would be no warmth for her until Herrick was free from the iron Helvig and Vilde had clamped around his throat.
As the sun dipped closer to the horizon, she recalled how she had spent the day. The night of the summer solstice arrived too slowly for her. The idle hours of the longest day of the year stretched on until Maude was convinced they had all been thrown into stasis. To pass the time, she had spent hours either sparring with Bryn or Liv with both fist andgalder.
Bryn used every ounce of her airgalderto land harder and faster hits on her, knocking Maude onto her ass more than once. Liv practiced with some of hergalder, mostly air and light. She showed Maude how to tap into that part of herself, the part that could blind people with a flash of her power. Gunnar worked with her a little to get in touch with her earthgalderwhich seemed to lay just outside of her grasp. But mostly, she practiced her shadows with Aeric.
That morning, he had observed her and Bryn sparring with a soft smile on his face. She did not ask if he thought of their mother when he looked at them; she didn't need to. Maude could already see that Aeric cared for her sister as if she were his kin. The way he spoke to her and laughed with her, the gentle way he helped her off the ground when they sparred. He acted with what Maude could only assume was fatherly affection toward both of them.
Neither of them was used to it, so their reactions had been slow, but eventually, they warmed up to him.
"You girls truly need no assistance," Aeric said as he stood up from where Bryn had just blown him backward with the force of her wind gusts. He shook the dirt from his tunic, a true, wide smile stretching from ear to ear. "You rival Sylvi's strength with her fire. She was a force to be reckoned with, especially when I made her angry."
"She never used hergaldermuch, except for when we were very young," Bryn commented as she swiped a curl from her sweaty forehead.
"That would make sense," Aeric agreed as she handed her sister a flask of water. "According to Sylvi, her mission was incredibly important. She would have done anything to protect you, even if it meant dimming her flame."
Aeric's voice seemed to tighten a bit as he spoke, his eyes downcast. When he wasn't paying attention, Maude would study his features to see if she recognized anything of herself in him. It was difficult for her to realign her thinking when it came to her father— Aeric or Helvig? Or both?
The way he walked was identical to her as their shoulders were broad in the same way, she supposed. Their coloring was almost exact, except that his hair was a deep black with auburn highlights when the sun hit it. Though her green eyes were darker than her mothers, they were still the same mossy shade.
The more she looked, the less Maude could deny that Aeric was her birth father. She didn't know how to reconcile that with what she had believed her entire life, but it felt right to claim him as her sire. Actually being able to voice the words was another matter entirely.
Herrick and Gunnar had sparred as well, but as Gunnar was still recovering and Herrick was meant to be resting before the ceremony that night, both men became not-so-silent commentators on their fighting skills. Gunnar would offer advice from time to time while Herrick would throw out unhelpful comments about ducking after Bryn or Liv had landed a solid hit on her.
While Herrick had remained close to her, she could see that he was anxious about the unknown ceremony that awaited them at moonrise. She didn't know what to say to him, so she asked him to spar with her, hand to hand, to see if she couldstill one-up him. Herrick may not have said the words but she could see the gratitude in his eyes.
Hakon was missing, most likely sleeping off all the alcohol he had drank the night before, while Dahlia was meditating nearby, perched on a rock— as still as a statue.
Liv made a joke at Aeric's expense, the insinuation crude and not kingly, but he laughed with a deep rumble that made her want to laugh with him. When he retorted with another joke aimed at Liv, Herrick, Gunnar, and Bryn howled with laughter. Even Dahlia cracked a smile, the camaraderie cutting through her meditative state. Maude had watched them all laugh with each other, their ease of just being around each other astonishing.
Soon enough, she had been chuckling with them.
Drums started up behind her, low and menacing enough that they pulled her from her memories. The smallest of smiles graced her face when she was lost in the revelry of her friends from just hours ago—her family.
Maude turned away from the sun that now kissed the skyline. The full moon on the longest day of the year would only be visible because of the solar energy that charged this day. By now, it was well on its way to rising above them to give Hildr and Dahlia enough energy to remove the iron from Herrick's throat.
It needed to be enough.
As she entered the tree line, the drumming increased in tempo until she was sure it matched the rate of her heartbeat. Smoke from the torches that circled the clearing her friends stood in threatened to choke her but she pushed through the uncomfortable mix of incense and char until she reached Aeric's side.
At the center of the clearing, Hildr stood in her billowing navy robes with her seers behind her and Dahlia at her side. The Matron Elven of Healing had donned similar ceremonial robes, a deep plum shade that made her eyes glow brightly. Herrick kneeled in the grass in front of them, chest bared to the elements with his trousers hanging low on his hips. His feet were bare, and his hair hung loosely around his face, hiding his profile from her.
The carved wooden rune necklaces that Alva had given him were wrapped around his wrist, the runes for water and earth twisting between his fingers as he fidgeted with them.
