#excerpt Legacy of the Runes by Christina Courtenay

August 20, 2024 Fee

Inscribed Viking axe head. Good condition. Probably late 9th century. This was it, his passport to the past.

Storm Berger has never forgiven himself for his younger sister Madison’s disappearance. Suspecting she’s travelled back to the ninth century in the footsteps of other family members, Storm can only make sure she’s safe by going after her.

Raised unconventionally as her father’s only child, Freydis has never been content to simply accept her fate. So, when she’s promised in marriage to a tyrant, she’s determined to find a way out of the arrangement. Help comes in the form of a mysterious and attractive stranger stranded on her island’s shores: Storm.

The only way Freydis can truly be free is for Storm to marry her himself. But that would mean entwining lives that, until now, have been separated by centuries …

LEGACY OF THE RUNES
purchase link – https://geni.us/LOTRCC

EXCERPT – LEGACY OF THE RUNES – Christina Courtenay

The hero Storm has been looking for a magical object that can transport him back in time and in desperation he’s searching on the dark net:-

He settled down to scroll through the various items on offer. There appeared to be an awful lot of them, and he wondered if they were stolen goods, looted from museums and archaeological sites, or just stuff found by amateur metal detectorists. Either way, he had his work cut out finding what he was looking for among all this.

Towards early morning, his eyes were beginning to hurt and he was squinting badly, but at last he found a promising item:

Inscribed Viking axe head with modern reconstructed wooden handle/shaft. Iron with silver inlay. Good condition. Probably late ninth century.

Clicking through to the close-up photos, he saw a beautiful axe with intricate patterns picked out in silver. Definitely Viking in style, and hopefully authentic. A tingle of excitement raced through him when he spotted the inscription. He zoomed in and peered at the screen. There were a couple of runes that were too faint to make out, but because he knew what he was expecting it to say, it was possible for him to read the whole sentence. Lately he’d practised both his Old Norse language skills and how to decipher runes.

‘Með blōð skaltu ferðast,’ he whispered, then punched the air with his fist. ‘Yessss!’

This was it, his passport to the past, and hopefully to Maddie.

She must have found something similar and travelled back in time. There was no other explanation for her disappearance and long absence. At least not one he wanted to acknowledge. He simply couldn’t rest until he found her – the guilt was eating him up inside. He should have been looking after her when she’d gone missing. He’d been selfish and left her to her own devices. And then she was gone.

Most people would have assumed she’d been abducted, perhaps by a serial killer, people trafficker or other sick person. That would be the logical conclusion, despite the lack of evidence, and the horror of it had lurked in his mind from time to time. But in the Berger family there was another alternative. One modern authorities would never credit. Well, he wouldn’t rest until he could find out for sure. He knew that she was tough and capable, but anything could have happened. She was his little sister and he couldn’t leave her to fend for herself among Vikings any longer, if that was where she’d gone. He was going to damn well find her.

Clicking on the ‘buy’ button, he entered his credit card details. He hissed at the extortionate price, but he’d been prepared for that. He had planned everything meticulously, exactly the way Ivar would have done, and he was proud of himself for that as it was most unlike him. He had taken leave of absence from the army and had no plans to return any time soon.

It was time to go.

Author Bio:–

Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip/dual time and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a Vice President and former Chair and of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014) and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. LEGACY OF THE RUNES (time travel historical romance published by Headline Review 15^th August 2024) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).