A Fate Inked in Blood (Saga of the Unfated, #1)

by Danielle L. Jensen

But I wanted to do more than just survive. I wanted my days to be more than time I needed to endure. I wanted to live them, to relish them. To find passion and excitement in them the way I had for that fleeting moment on the beach with a stranger.

was the wanting that made my life hard. If I could only stop wanting, perhaps I might find some happiness in what I had.

But fights were unpredictable, and I was not without skill.

“Fate cares little for your opinion on how things should go.”

“All that is and all that will be is already woven by the Norns.”

“My fate is my own to weave.”

“Nearly two decades ago, a seer spoke a prophecy to me of a shield maiden who’d been birthed the night of a red moon. She told me that this woman’s name would be born in the fire of the gods, and she would unite the people of Skaland beneath the rule of the one who controlled her fate.” “Fate is woven by the Norns.” My tongue felt thick and I swallowed hard. “They control it.” “All is fated except the lives of the children of the gods,” Snorri corrected. “Your path is unknown and as you walk it, you rearrange the threads of all those around you.”

“The truth women tell other women is not the same truth they tell men.” His smile grew. “There can be only one truth. All else is falsity.” I managed to choke out, “Exactly.”

not sure what was worse, disgust or pity—only that I hated both.

eyes. “Not all scars we earn are skin-deep, Freya Born-in-Fire.” He loosened his grip, my hand sliding through his. Though my scarred palm was numb, I swore I felt his fingers trail across it, and the sensation caused me to shiver. “There is no less honor in them.”

“I vow to serve no man not of this blood.” “I vow allegiance to him who is of this blood. I vow to protect, at all cost, him who is of this blood. I vow to speak no word of this bargain except to him who is of this blood.”

my mother always said knowing the future was a curse because, good or bad, you couldn’t change it.

My mother always said that I had the temper of a caged mink, prone to saying the worst sorts of things, only to regret them later.

“She, the unfated, she the child of Hlin, she who was born in fire must give sacrifice to the gods on the mount at the first night of the full moon else her thread will be cut short, the future that was foreseen unwoven.”