A Fate Inked in Blood

Freya is twenty and gutting fish alongside a husband she did not choose. She dreams of the shield maiden's life her late father spent years keeping from her. Then her husband's boasting forces her into a duel to the death with Bjorn, the firstborn son of Jarl Snorri.

The duel exposes her secret. A drop of the goddess Hlin's blood runs in Freya, and no blade can touch her. Snorri takes this as proof of a prophecy he believes in: that he will be the king who unites a fractured Skaland, with Freya as the weapon that puts him on the throne.

Snorri ties her to him with a blood oath, and Bjorn receives orders to guard her life. Freya must learn to command a magic she never asked for and face the trials the gods set before her. Bjorn, her guard, becomes a growing complication, because the attraction between them could break the oath, the prophecy and the kingdom all at once.

This is Norse-inspired fantasy with a romance running through it, built on a guard and his charge who are bound to each other by someone else's ambition. It is the first book of the Saga of the Unfated duology, which closes with A Curse Carved in Bone.