She couldn't stand it.
"I never stopped looking for you," he replied just as softly. "My spies were not as ingrained in the palace halls as they are now and by the time I had someone on the inside, you had left that life behind. It's a miracle that Liv found you, but then again, I like to think the gods designed it that way."
Though her friends sat at her side, Maude did not feel they were intruding on this moment with her birth father. If anything, they gave her the strength to be vulnerable in the safety of their presence.
"How could I possibly trust you?" she whispered, though in her heart she knew she already did. "You were hiding the truth of our history from us all. How could you not tell us?"
"How does one shatter a person's worldview delicately? How does one explain that sometimes the hardest choices are not rooted in duty, but love?" he asked her instead of answering. "The love I have for my people and their survival was more important at the time. Now that has begun to change— not only because of Helvig's cruelty, but because the physical embodiment of the love I shared with myhjartparsits before me now, searching for a reason to trust me."
Hjartparan— souls destined to complete each other. He couldn't be speaking of her mother…right?
"Soulmates are just a legend," Bryn whispered, her voice cracking as she observed Aeric in a new light. "They don't exist."
Maude could only gape.
"They are now rarer than before, yes," Aeric nodded as he responded to her sister, but his silver stare still penetrated hers. "But Sylvi was myhjartpar— the other half of my soul— and when she died—"
Her father's words were choked off like he had been strangled by the very memory of her mother's death.
"I felt it," he breathed. "I felt as she left this world and joined the gods in Valhalla."
The room was silent as the blanket of grief that radiated from the Shadow King swallowed them all into its cloying embrace. Across from her, Herrick had stiffened as her father had spoken about feeling Sylvi's death just as Bryn sniffed quietly at her side, swiping away the emotion that had poured over onto her cheek. Somethingsettled in her at the words, a confirmation her soul had been looking for radiating from her gut. He could be lying, but somehow, Maude knew he wasn't.
Without thinking, Maude stiffly reached out her hand and placed it on top of Aeric's. His skin was cool under her touch, but it seemed to crack the memory that haunted him. Mirrored grief stared back at her as that warmth in her chest flared— the type of warmth she had only ever felt when she thought of her mother. Safety. Comfort. Perhaps, it was even love. Even if her mind did not recognize it yet, her heart did.
"Why didn't she tell us any of this?" Bryn asked, her voice thick as she cleared the sorrow from it.
"Why do you think I kept Sylvi's journals all these years?" her father replied, finally tearing his attention away from her to focus on her sister with a soft smile. "They are spell-locked—coded only to the blood of Sylvi's children. I cannot read them. And I didn't need to—I lived it with her. But for you, they will tell you everything you need to know about me. About us."
Maude cursed herself when a single tear tracked down her cheek. Aeric leaned forward and wiped away the show of emotion with his thumb before continuing, "Take your time,minn måne. I'll be here when you are ready to let me in."
She deflated in the wooden chair she sat in, the rough grain digging into her exposed skin as she faced Aeric.
Her father, if she would let him be that to her.
"We have a lot to discuss it seems," she said as she expelled her breath in one big gust, her hands falling into her lap in defeat.
"Indeed," Aeric murmured. Maude met her father's silver eyes as he spoke, gentle teasing humor instead of the frustration she expected stealing any response from her mind as he winked at her before continuing in his declaration. "But our familial reconciliation must wait as we have more pressing needs to attend to. With the arrival of our friend Herrick, the General of Rivers, we celebrate reunions and our relief at his escape. However, with his escape, more troubling news has come to my attention."
Herrick only kept his gaze on her as the room's mood sank into the seriousness of their discussion. His golden-brown eyes were bright and unreadable in the candlelight that flickered in front of him. Liv's voice pulled Maude from his hypnotic stare as she began to fill everyone else in on the information she had gathered.
"As you all know, when we were in Logi, we freed thevitkithat had been imprisoned at the palace and brought them to our longship," Liv started, her fists clenched on the table in front of her, knuckles pressed into the hardwood. "One woman in particular was very skeptical of our freeing them. She resisted at first but ultimately put her children's freedom above any skepticism she had. When we were finally aboard the ship and settling those we had rescued, I sat down and spoke with this woman more. She told me her story, and it is one I believe we all should hear."
Liv looked over her shoulder to the guards at the door and nodded once. As soon as they opened the doors, a tall, slender woman walked in with her shoulders back and her golden head held high. Maude recognized her; she had seen Liv speak with her often when they sailed back to Nida.
Since their arrival, she had been given the chance to clean up. She stood in front of the open doorway with her golden hair loose and waving down her back. Thick braids with silver clips were woven from her hairline to the crown of her head so her face was clear. She was dressed in an elegant, maroon wool gown that hung loosely on her, the long sleeves billowing out in true Shadow Kingdom fashion. A silver braided rope belt was tied around her midsection, showing off her painfully narrow waist.
Her piercing blue eyes took in every one of Maude's friends until they landed on her and Bryn. As soon as this stranger recognized their red hair and how similar Bryn looked to the King of Flame, her eyes narrowed.
Liv continued, "This is Astrid. She was one of thevitkibeing imprisoned, along with her two children. She wields earthgalder, just like her children, and she has been a prisoner of Helvig for a very long time. She is also Sigurd's wife."
23
Amethyst eyes flashed behind Baldr's closed eyes, the defiance and humor in them the fuel that kept his ruse together. Memories of sun-warmed skin under his fingertips faded as the morning light pulled him from his dreams.
Sitting up with a groan, Baldr rested his elbows on his knees as he scrubbed the remnants of sleep from his face. He'd dreamt of her again— the small moments in Finniskali that were all Baldr had left to hold on to until his mission was complete. Whenever that was. He groaned again as he stood from the small cot he had built in the corner of his office. He didn't like having to trek to the lavish rooms the King had appointed for him in the palace. The plush bedding that swallowed him whole and the gilded surfaces only infuriated him, so rather than set the entire palace ablaze in his anger, Baldr chose to sleep in his office.
The mess of papers scattered across his desk, keeping him informed of his soldiers' progress and updates from the sergeants below his rank, darkened his already sour mood further. He sat and began organizing the reports he had poured over late into the night. The tea he had been drinking last night was still sitting in a carafe that had long since gone cold, but Baldr served himself some more and settled into his morning routine.
