Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
The Gods aren’t dead—they’re only sleeping, locked in mortal bodies, scattered across the world, waiting for the right spark to wake them. And my father is the most ruthless of them all.
He raised me to obey. To bleed. To be his blade when the time came. Now he’s sending me to Endir University, a place filled with ancient bloodlines and deadly secrets, to steal back Mjolnir, the hammer of legend. If I fail, everyone I love dies.
But Aric Erikson wasn’t part of the plan. He’s the enemy’s heir. Distant. Dangerous. And…the one person I can’t afford to fall for. He’s closed himself off completely behind a wall of ice, but the more I’m ordered to unravel him, the harder it becomes to remember where the lies end and I begin.
There's only a mission I never chose—and a man I was never meant to love—standing between me and a war that will decide the fate of the world.
But if I’m the spark, maybe he’s the fuse. And the Gods? They’re about to wake up angry
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
Rey
“Would you?” I whisper, hating the tremor in my voice.
We’re stopped in the middle of campus, a cool breeze brushing against my heated cheeks giving me the courage to ask again. “Would you run away with me, knowing that the world would eventually end? Knowing that the world would burn?”
Weeks ago, I never would have thought we’d have a conversation like this. Now the air between us is cold enough that his breath fogs in front of him in a frosty haze. In another life, I would have thought it poetic. Now, it just reminds me exactly what he is.
A Giant.
Ruthless.
Powerful.
A God in his own right.
Aric shifts his weight, and silence stretches between us like a chasm neither of us can cross.
Maybe I never should have let go with him. Not after knowing what was really behind the war between the Gods and the Giants. Now it just feels like the end.
“You’re hesitating.” I can barely get the sentence out.
His dark gaze holds mine, and his jaw clenches.
“I can’t promise you,” he finally says. “Not until we end this.”
All I wanted was for him to say yes. I wouldn’t have made him go through with it. I just wanted to know that he was willing to take the risk—for me.
The soft rustle of ancient leaves threads through the space between us, a low reminder of where we stand…and what’s at stake.
“So that’s it, then? We’re doing this.” Heat burns my cheeks, but I had to ask. Just one last time.
His tongue slides across his bottom lip, then his jaw tightens—like he’s trying to keep himself from saying too much. As a few errant flakes of snow float through the air, his eyes remain locked on mine.
I shake my head. One of us needs to be strong enough for this.
“I don’t need the cold,” I say and feel even more pathetic. “I don’t want it.”
“But I still need your warmth,” he adds, and I know he means it. But it’s no longer enough. Snow dusts his broad shoulders, the same shoulders that have carried so much.
“One of us is going to die.” I finally say the words out loud.
And deep in my soul, I know.
It’s going to be me.
Chapter One
Rey
One week earlier…
The note in my hand is so crumpled and damp with sweat that I’m sure the ink is etched into my skin like a brand. But that’s not what gets me.
Despite the way he treated her, I’ve never seen my stepmother cry. Not once. In all my years with her, Laufey’s been a fortress—unshaken, unreadable. Through his abuse, through her sickness, through everything.
Until today. My eighteenth birthday.
At first, I thought it was because of what my father finally asked me to do—that one “favor” I always knew was coming but prayed never would. Until of course it finally did.
But this? It feels heavier.
Like she’s been holding in something massive for years, saving her tears for this very moment.
Today, Laufey finally broke.
Between sobs, she begs, “Please, Rey. Don’t do this. We can find another way.”
I can’t meet her gaze. She was the only safe space I had other than Rowen. She protected me, and now it’s my time to protect her. She may not be my real mother, but she’s the only one I’ve ever known. And her tears cut through me like a blade.
I glance around my father’s opulent home and, for the first time in my entire miserable life, wish I could stay. But I can’t. Father has given me a mission—and promised me the world if I succeed.
My stomach pitches, but fear doesn’t matter. Can’t. Not if it means setting Laufey free.
“I know what you dream about, Rey. One day being away from me,” Father says, unmoved by his wife’s hysterics. “I know it eats you alive.”
His words dig deep into my skin like an ache I can’t get rid of, and I don’t bother to deny them. Instead, I turn to hold his dark gaze, and I let just the tiniest hint of a spine bring my shoulders higher.
An icy smile spreads across his face, and my gaze shifts. White hair pulled back into his signature low ponytail. Patch covering his right eye. Three-piece navy suit accented by a sharp walking cane. Gold adornments draping from his tie. One a hammer, the other the head of his enemy.
He’s a riot at parties.
Father glances at his bodyguard leaning against the darkened doorway to my left and nods. Without a word, Rowen moves to collect Laufey. He’s just a few years older than me and taller than Father, his shoulders seemingly twice as wide, his demeanor youthful and strong. And yet, he’s always appeared the weaker man. Maybe that’s because he obeys Father’s every whim without question.
I get it. I feel just as small in his shadow.
My stomach twists as Rowen wraps an arm around Laufey’s waist and hauls her up. She collapses against his broad chest as he leads her down the hallway to her private rooms.