Valkyrja, known as Kyrja (KEER-ya), is the thirdborn child and second daughter of the reigning king, Isidor. In her father’s eyes she’s nothing but “Mamma’s pet,” the extra child her mother petitioned him for after already giving him an heir and a spare. Or as her sister likes to call her, “pretty and useless.” Though beloved by the people for her frequent trips into the capitol, Reykstoll, to give aid to the commoners, called thanes, the ruling body of magically Blessed considers her weak of magic and far too emotional. In a world ruled by ice, passion and emotion and faith are considered destructive to the logic needed to guide the land.

Born and raised beneath the greenhouse dome of Harroby, Nik should have been a farmer like everyone else…but he didn’t mind when his revolutionary father sold their plot of land, because Nik never wanted to farm. What he wants is to learn. To study. In Fjordlandi, only sixty men at a time are allowed to join the church, so his heart’s desire to study the Words is forbidden…but he finds a way. To learn the scriptures, and to study the law—as if a thane would ever be allowed to do that either.

But when he and his best friend, Raf, travel to Reykstoll to join Nik’s father for what he thinks is a summit requesting more resources for the thanes beneath the domes, a horrific attack shakes his world…and sends him on a course that redefines everything he thought he knew about himself, his family, and the Giver of All who he’s always sought with all his heart.

But Fjordlandi has a secret that no one but the king knows…a secret they call the Curse, which stands in opposition to the Blessing of magic over snow and ice. A century and a half ago, a new magic was discovered, one that gives its holders control over lava and flame.

Daemon was the first, and for many years he was the only man living in the heart of Helviti, Fjordlandi’s biggest and most ferocious volcano. He is now the head of a small family of Cursed…but it’s Elianne, the newest member, who he tries not to be too intrigued by. In the years since she joined them in Helviti, a mountain once thought to be the gate to the underworld, she has resisted his training, always holding back, and she seems to have some tie to the king Daemon despises, the one holding his family in the mountain as slaves.

They are glad to help their land, to control the ring of volcanoes encircling the island nation…but what would it be like to taste fresh air again? To see the sun, to mark the passage of time? To feel the wind cool their brows?

And another unexpected visitor arrives…

from the ever-warring land of Ellas.

Thrown together by chance…or the Giver?

It seems to be only happenstance that put Kyrja and Nik together when the attack shakes Reykstoll, but as they work together to save whoever they can, a bond is forged…one that only deepens as her father’s desire for revenge on the revolutionaries who orchestrated the attack focuses on Nik in the weeks to come.

Do they have a hope of changing their land, though? Can anything better come? Or are all their hopes for a fair Fjordlandi bound to go up in flames?

Book 2 of the Awakened Series, 
Aflame,
will be coming in 2026!