Rinda Elliott - Foretold

It is written that three Sisters of Fate have the power to change the world’s destiny. But only if they survive…

The Lockwood triplets have had the prophecy drummed into their heads since birth. Still, Raven, the eldest of the sisters, can’t believe it’s really happening. She’s the reincarnation of a Norse goddess? One of the sisters is destined to die? When it starts snowing in summer in Florida, the sisters fear the worst has come to pass. Ragnarok, the Norse end of the world, has begun.

Raven finds herself the secret protector of Vanir, a boy with two wolves, a knowledge of Norse magic and a sense of destiny he can’t quite explain. He’s intense, sexy and equally determined to save her when it becomes clear someone is endangering them. Raven doesn’t know if getting closer to him will make a difference in the coming battle, but her heart isn’t giving her a choice.

Ahead of the sisters is the possibility of death at the hand of a warrior, death by snow, death by water or death by fire.

Or even from something else…

Sisters of Fate

The prophecy doesn’t lie: one is doomed to die.

Praise for Rinda Elliott

“Vivid characters and an action-packed apocalyptic adventure!”

—New York Times bestselling author Rachel Vincent on Foretold

“With a fresh and original take on Norse mythology, Foretold is a breathtaking tale that will leave you crying out for more!”

—Jenna Black, author of Glimmerglass

“Not only did I want to run through my town telling everyone about [Dweller on the Threshold], I wanted to run down the highway and go to the nearest city! This is an excellent urban fantasy debut.”

—Yummy Men & Kick Ass Chicks

“From its unusual title, to its diverse characters, to their unique abilities, to the dark and disturbing world, I just knew that this book would set itself apart from the crowd. And it did that and so much more. Rinda Elliott’s new series is definitely one I’m adding to my ‘must reads’ list.”

—Fiktshun on Dweller on the Threshold

Foretold

Rinda Elliott

www.miraink.co.uk

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Robert, Alex, and Mason. You guys have never stopped believing in me. I couldn’t have hoped for a better family.

It’s also dedicated to Haley Burger.

You were my first teen reader, Haley, and your enthusiasm meant everything. Thank you!

Author Note

I’ve always had a fascination with Norse mythology—long before I learned that my real first name came from it. Rind/Rindr/Rinda was a giantess whose marriage to Odin was no storybook union, but she did give birth to a warrior who is supposed to survive the end of the world, Ragnarok. I love nothing more than to thread bits of Norse mythology into stories.

As for the setting in Foretold, some of it is very real and some has been embellished. I used a few real landmarks from this gorgeous area of eastern Oklahoma, but fictionalized some. However, one thing that is very real is the Heavener Runestone. It’s a true Norse mystery, right here in the middle of the United States. We may never know the truth of the runestone’s origin, but it’s so very, very fun to speculate about the possibility of early exploring Vikings.

The Norns

Thence come the maidens

Mighty in wisdom,

Three from the dwelling

Down ’neath the tree;

Urd is one named,

Verthandi the next,

On the wood they scored,

And Skuld the third.

Laws they made there,

And life allotted

To the sons of men,

And set their fates.

—The Norse Poetic Edda

The Prophecy

It is written that the kynkvísl, Norse descendants, will one day house the souls of the gods. True heroes who know their sad fate in the coming battles but fight nonetheless. Their time begins with the portents of Ragnarok. Three years of winter, roaring seas that lash the land and an all-consuming fire. The destruction of the world.

There is another prophecy, one never written and held secretly by the giants of Niflheim, the lowest region of the Norse underworld. The sisters of fate have the power to change the heroes’ destinies. Change the world’s destiny. But only if they survive to their nineteenth birthday.

The odds aren’t good according to this unwritten prophecy:

Born of two magical clans that share life’s spiral. Light of head, dark of eyes, the young warrior will herald the beginning of Ragnarok. His hand to the death of a norn.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Three days after the end of the world began I had two choices—drive into a river or hit a deer. The light of the full moon reflected off the snow; the white stuff falling from the sky came in thick, noisy sheets that slammed the roof of my Honda Civic and coated the windshield.

Snow, in my experience, had always been soft. This version was pissed, spitting at the world with a vengeance. It made clear vision impossible.

Didn’t do much for traction, either.

I had to go so slowly. Exhaustion burned my eyes, dragged at my lungs. I’d lost hope of finding a cheap hotel. The last one had been so full; people had actually been sharing rooms with strangers. I’d had two offers while scurrying back to my car in the parking lot. Hadn’t taken them. If I’d learned one thing on this long trip, it was that people turned into complete freaks when they were scared and a sudden Earth-wide snowstorm made for one wicked fear catalyst. I’d seen fights in grocery stores, fights in snowdrifts on the sides of highways and had even watched one lady jump into a car and drive off while the owner stood holding the gas pump nozzle.

And the directions I’d printed sucked.

It had taken me three days longer than expected to get here from Florida. I’d always wanted to come to this supposed place of great magic nestled on the edge of the Ouachita Mountains in eastern Oklahoma, but Mom freaked every time I brought it up. Too much magic, she said. Plus, the rumors of a real gloaming meadow upset her. As far as the Norse knew, there were only a couple in the United States. My two sisters and I had been conceived in the one up north. Nothing like knowing exactly where your mother had sex with a stranger.

The snow let up slightly and I leaned forward like that would help me see well. I slowed even more, the car going barely faster than a crawl. I’d known what this snow was all about the second it had started.

When my sisters and I were kids, my mother’s idea of a bedtime story had been a creepy Norse rendition of the end of the world. Ragnarok. Three years of winter, a great tidal wave and then fire burning across the land. And during all this, there would be battles between warriors who carried the souls of the old gods. Blood and death—my mother’s idea of a nurturing bedtime story.

Kat, Coral and I hadn’t believed her until the souls of the norns inside us made themselves known. I was nine the first time I felt mine. Triplets like us, the norns had been goddess sisters, similar to the Greek fates, but they hadn’t woven threads of prophecy as some stories told; they’d carved runes into wood. The Norse called them the Wyrd Sisters. Kat, Coral and I preferred to think of them as the sisters of fate because the whole damned situation was weird enough.