"I'm serious, beast. We need to talk about this," Maude whispered as her fingers dove into Herrick's thick hair.
She let out a soft moan as he started to pull her dress over the tops of her thighs and her hips.
"No more protests?" Herrick teased as his fingers drifted toward her core.
Her hips bucked forward as he pulled away, but she'd had enough of being ignored. Hooking one ankle around the back of his thigh, Maude twisted until she straddled Herrick. She reached out and pinned his hands on either side of his head, her long hair falling in a curtain around them and blocking out the rest of the world.
"I know you don't want to talk about this, but we have to," she panted, trying to swallow her desire as she hovered over him. "It is easy to get lost in each other, gods know I want to do the same, but too much has happened for us to use sex as a temporary solution to our fucked up situation."
Below her, Herrick only traced her features with his golden stare until she started to feel self-conscious. As quickly as they had come together in the hall, distance yawned open between them in the privacy of her bedroom.
With her hands still holding his to the bed, Maude tried to gauge what he was thinking. The sly and wicked smile he wore when he teased her was gone, replaced by a serious and contemplative look he used when he was trying to figure something out about her. Releasing him, she sat back and tried to figure out what he was thinking but his face was blank. He reached up, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. The act was gentle and completely at odds with his grave manner.
"What is it?" she asked, unable to stop herself.
Herrick was quiet for a moment before responding, his decision to speak weighing heavily in his eyes.
"You are still hiding things from me," he replied quietly. "I don't know what I have to do to get you to let me in."
Ice filled her at his accusation. Suddenly, they were too close. Too intimate.
Maude lifted herself off his hips, adjusting her dress until it fell to the floor again. Taking a few steps away from him as he sat up on the edge of her bed, she tried to figure out how they went from being wrapped around each other to this distance. Their closeness was only ever a result of their lust, not one of mutual respect, apparently. And yet, they kept getting drawn together like it was out of their control.
"I don't understand what just happened," she whispered. "I am trying to talk to you now, we don't have a lot of time but I thought I was doing what you wanted by trying to discuss everything that was revealed tonight."
Herrick ran his hands over his face before he brought his eyes to hers, the gold sheen duller than ever.
"Yes, but only after you confronted Dahlia about Baldr being the spy for the Kingdom of Shadows. Now that the information is out there, you want to talk? Not before? You didn't think I should know about your suspicions?"
"I was going to tell—"
"And while I appreciate all you said and did to pull me from myself during that dinner, the longer I sit with the fact that you still hid something important from me, the angrier I become," Herrick continued, cutting her off when she tried to defend herself.
"There was no way to know if I was right, and rather than hurt you by bringing it up, I kept it from you. I never planned to hide it from you forever," she argued as she started to pace the plush carpet in her bedroom.
"I don't trust you," he said simply, though his voice was tired. "I don't know how to anymore."
She stopped short. Like a dagger had been thrust into her chest, Maude felt the air leave her lungs. Was she dying again? That had hurt less than this.
"I've told you everything, there is nothing more for me to reveal," she replied, breathless. Her disbelief permeated every word, every movement. "What do I have to do to make you believe me?"
Herrick hesitated as if he was unsure of the answer. When he finally did reply, it crumbled whatever strength Maude had left.
"I don't know. I'm not sure there is anything youcando."
All at once, her body numbed.
"Get out," she breathed.
Shadows slithered toward her from the corners of the room until she was encased in their darkness, blocking whatever his reaction would be.
"Maude—"
"Get.Out."
Footsteps sounded before her door opened and then shut again. It didn't break through the remnants of the walls that she was fortifying. She needed to prepare for their trip; they were leaving so soon, but her body wouldn't obey her commands to move. She had twenty minutes before she needed to be in front of the palace—twenty minutes to pull herself together.
In her artificial night and the safety of her mind, only the sound of her dry sob and her heart shattering echoed around her.
