A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen

Author:Danielle L. Jensen [Jensen, Danielle L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Published: 2025-05-13T00:00:00+00:00

My father’s voice filled my ears, and I whirled, ready to throw my axe.

But I was too late.

“Stand down!”

Freya doubled over as though she’d been punched, and then fell to her knees on the bottom of the ship.

“He’s got control over her,” I shouted. “Tora, sink them!”

Tora lifted her hands and lightning crackled between them, but before she could send a bolt into Snorri’s ship, Freya moved.

Quicker than I’d believed possible, she threw herself at Tora, a cry of pain tearing from her lips as she hit the charge of lightning.

“Freya!” I fell to my knees next to her. She was curled up in a pool of water, teeth clenched in pain but alive. Tora lay stunned next to her.

“Don’t hurt him,” she choked out. “Don’t hurt him!”

“Bjorn, they’re going to board us!” Guthrum shouted. “What do we do?”

Freya caught hold of one of Tora’s wrists, covering her hands with Hlin’s magic so that Tora could not call her lightning. “No!”

Tora struggled to get out of her grip. “Bjorn, what do we do!”

“Stay down,” I shouted at Tora, then caught hold of the side of the drakkar and pulled myself up. Three vessels were almost near enough to board. Near enough for me to hear Snorri scream, “Sink his fleet! Let Nordeland pay the price for its actions, but bring me Harald alive!”

Word spread across the fleet like wildfire, and with a roar, they began to row. I knew that even with Skade, Troels, Astrid, and the other Unfated among them, my people might not win this fight. My eyes filled with my mother’s vision of thousands of dead. Not in fields but floating on the waves while the Skalanders carried on to inflict carnage across all of Nordeland.

“Bjorn, stop him!” my mother screamed, on her knees next to Freya. “Stop Snorri!”

“Tyr,” I snarled, my axe manifesting in my palm as Snorri’s drakkar bumped against ours.

“Freya!” Snorri shouted, clambering to the edge. “Freya, we are here! You are liberated!”

“Get back!” I shouted at him and our eyes locked.

“What are you doing, Bjorn?” he demanded. “Stand down! You are saved, and all of Nordeland will burn for taking you!”

I lifted my axe to throw. Ready to silence him once and for all, to Hel with my mother’s prophecy. But Freya slammed into me right as the vessel rolled over a swell.

I staggered and nearly went down, vanquishing my axe so that I could catch Freya without burning her.

My mother was still on her knees in the bottom of the drakkar, cowering out of Snorri’s sight. “Stop him,” she repeated. “You must wield her to stop him.”

“No!” I regained my balance. The Skalanders were converging on the Nordelander fleet, Skade’s arrow flickering over and over. “I will not!”

“Freya!” Snorri shouted. “Come to me! Climb over!”

Freya’s arms wrapped around my waist and her whole body shook with the effort of resisting his command. “Do not let him take me!”

Lightning burst from Tora’s hands into one of the other drakkar but the vessel only glowed a bright blue, the runes carved into the wood flaring brightest of all.

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