A Fate Inked in Blood

A Fate Inked in Blood (2024) is the first book in Danielle L. Jensen’s Saga of the Unfated series, with the second installment expected in spring of 2025. Jensen is the bestselling author of the Malediction and Dark Shores young adult fantasy series and the Bridge Kingdom romance fantasy series. Marketed for both adults and new adult readers, A Fate Inked in Blood features Freya, the mortal daughter of the goddess Hlin. Torn between duty and desire as she fights to protect her family and her people from power-hungry rulers, Freya undergoes a journey of exploration that exposes the burdens and blessings of free will and condemns exploitation as a means to power.

This guide refers to the e-book edition published by Del Rey in 2024.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide feature descriptions of violence, marital coercion and abuse, and attempted suicide.

Plot Summary

In a Norse-inspired fantasy world, 20-year-old Freya spends her days gutting fish caught by her husband, Vragi, whom she abhors. Freya’s parents arranged the marriage because of Vragi’s wealth and his revered status as a child of the gods. He is one of a rare few who were given a drop of a god’s blood at conception, and he now has magical abilities as a result. On the beach of the fjord, Freya meets a handsome stranger named Bjorn and learns that he is a revered warrior and the son of Snorri, the local jarl (Skaland’s term for a chieftain). Bjorn is a child of the god of war, Tyr, and wields a magic fire axe in battle. Bjorn goes on his way, and Freya runs into her older brother, Geir, who is a warrior in Jarl Snorri’s raiding bands. Freya secretly yearns for the life of warrior, but she is barred from this life because she must hide the fact that she is a child of the goddess Hlin and can wield a magic shield that protects her from any harm. In order to prevent power-hungry men from exploiting her, Freya’s parents have forbidden her from using her powers.

However, Vragi discovers Freya’s secret and betrays her to Jarl Snorri, who has been searching for the prophesied shield maiden for 20 years. Snorri compels Vragi and Freya to divorce Vragi so that he can marry Freya himself. Snorri dreams of being a king, and the prophecy says that the shield maiden will unite Skaland under the rule of the one who controls her fate. Freya agrees to marry Snorri after he threatens her brother’s life. When Vragi makes a threat of his own, Freya grabs Bjorn’s fire axe and kills him, severely burning her hand in the process.

Snorri returns with Freya to his stronghold at Halsar. There, Freya meets Ylva, Snorri’s first wife and Bjorn’s stepmother. Snorri marries Freya in a hurried ceremony the next day. Ylva is a volva, a witch who can use runic magic. She performs a ceremony in which the goddess Hlin claims Freya as her child by marking her with a blood tattoo. Afterward, Snorri orders Bjorn to train and protect Freya. That night, Ylva prevents Snorri from consummating the marriage to Freya. To substitute for this part of the ritual, they bind Freya to Snorri with a blood oath.

A jarl from a nearby territory attacks Halsar with his warriors, planning to kill Freya so that Snorri cannot use her power to become king. Freya defies orders to stay hidden and joins the battle, helping to drive Gnut’s army to retreat. Fighting with Bjorn during the raid triggers dangerous feelings of lust; Freya cannot afford to reveal that she is attracted to her husband’s son. During the funeral for the fallen the next morning, Freya sees a spectral figure walk along the beach and then disappear. Freya begins her training with Bjorn and learns that he was abducted as a child by King Harald and held captive in Nordeland until three years ago. His mother, Saga, was killed during the abduction. Bjorn’s time away from Snorri’s group makes Ylva feel that her own son, Leif, should be Snorri’s heir, even though he is Snorri’s second-born son. Now expecting an attack from King Harald any day, Snorri decides to go to the temple in Fjalltindr to seek an alliance against Harald with other jarls.

During the journey to Fjalltindr, Freya encounters extreme challenges, including an attack by Jarl Torvin’s army and a battle against the cursed, undead draug that guard the tunnels below the mountaintop. During the fight with the draug, Freya invokes an unknown power and curses them to Helheim, the underworld. Later, the spectral figure appears again and warns her that she must make a sacrifice at Fjalltindr or the prophecy will be undone and her life cut short. When she makes the sacrifice, the gods appear to acknowledge her. Freya discovers that King Harald is also in Fjalltindr, but temple laws forbid any fighting there. Freya attempts to spy on him and hears someone plotting with Harald; she believes the person to be Ylva. When she reports this, Bjorn urges her not to accuse Ylva without proof. A seer’s vision suggests that Snorri’s stronghold, Halsar, will be attacked if he lingers in Fjalltindr. Snorri’s party races back to protect their home, but they find Halsar already destroyed by Jarl Gnut. Eager for revenge, they begin the journey to attack Gnut’s fortress in Grindill.

Freya nearly freezes to death on the journey, and she and Bjorn finally act on their desire for each other. Bjorn urges Freya to let her frostbitten feet heal before they attack Grindill, but Freya insists on fighting. They engage in a fierce siege of Grindill’s walls. Freya’s magic shield protects them until she trips and drops the magical shield. While it is down, a bolt of lightning—thrown by a child of Thor on Gnut’s side—strikes and kills Freya’s friend Bodil, the only female jarl. Rage overwhelms Freya. She destroys the gate, enters the fortress, and kills as many of Gnut’s soldiers as she can. After Gnut is killed and the battle is over, Freya is horrified by her own brutality. Several days later, she learns that her brother and his wife have come to Grindill and fears that Snorri will use her family as leverage to ensure her continued compliance. Bjorn urges Freya to run away with him. Freya longs to go but cannot abandon her family. She decides to learn more about Hlin, the goddess who seems to be the source of the rage and brutality inside her.

Freya’s mother, Kelda, reveals that when Freya was conceived, another goddess was involved before Hlin claimed Freya as her vessel. Kelda assumed it was Loki in disguise. After telling her story, Kelda chastises Freya for her affair with Bjorn and insists that she end it. Freya realizes that her mother has always put her own needs ahead of Freya’s, and they argue. Soon after, one of Harald’s warriors questions Kelda about Freya’s location, then kills Kelda. Freya blames Ylva for telling Harald where to find her. She races back to Grindill to kill Ylva, but Bjorn stops her just in time. As Freya attempts to convince Snorri that Ylva is a traitor, Harald’s army arrives outside the fortress. Freya refuses to surrender herself to Harald, so he attacks. Freya protects the fortress with her shield but cannot save the civilians outside the walls. Realizing that rulers will never stop fighting over her, Freya attempts to throw herself over the cliff’s edge, but Bjorn again stops her. Together, they stage their own deaths, making it seem as though they have both gone over the waterfall and died.

With renewed plans to flee Skaland, Freya and Bjorn spend a night inside a cave, declaring their love and envisioning their future together. Harald finds them the next morning and reveals that Bjorn has always been in league with him. Bjorn admits that his loyalty is to Nordeland but says the rest is too complicated to explain. Freya curses Bjorn, Harald, and all his warriors to Helheim. All but Bjorn and Harald are magically killed, their souls dragged to the underworld by giant black tree roots, proving that Freya is also a daughter of the goddess Hel. Freya tries to flee but is overtaken and knocked unconscious. She awakens on a ship sailing to Nordeland. Bjorn tells her that his mother is actually alive; Snorri tried to kill her, so she fled with Bjorn to Nordeland, where King Harald protected them. Now, Bjorn begs Freya to meet his mother before judging him. Freya realizes that it is time for her to start controlling her own fate.