River of Shadows (Underworld Gods #1)

“Hanna,” he says, flashing me a triumphant smile. “You knew I was coming back for you, didn’t you?”

I stare at him. This can’t be real. I have to be hallucinating.

“How are you even…?” I begin, and then I realize he’s crouched on a gargoyle of a wolf just below the window. My fear of heights kicks in and I have to grab the window frame to steady me.

“Are you ready?” he asks, then he frowns at my dress. “You look ready for something else. Catch you at a bad time?”

I shake my head, trying to form the right words, the right questions. “I don’t understand. How are you here? How did you get up here? There are wards, aren’t there?”

“And shamans can break through wards,” he says with a cocky smirk. “The right shamans anyway. Like me.”

“So, what, you can fly now?”

He frowns, his blue eyes turning glacial. “For some reason I thought you would be a lot happier to see me. I’m rescuing you. And before you try and tell me that you didn’t need rescuing, you’re wrong. You do, and it looks like just in time. I’m here and I’m getting you out of this castle, out of this land, for good.”

“Are you doing all of this?” I ask, gesturing to the air around. “The attack?”

He gives me a secretive smile. “There will be plenty of time for questions later. If you want to leave, we need to leave now.” He clears his throat. “Come with me if you want to live,” he says in the world’s worst Arnold impersonation.

“But how?” I ask, peering out into the thickening fog. “You got wings?”

“Just trust me,” he says.

But that’s the thing…can I trust him?

I don’t have a lot of time to figure that out, because he turns his head and lets out a piercing whistle.

Suddenly a dark shape comes flying out of the mist, right at us.

I scream again. I can’t help it. My nerves are shot.

It’s a massive unicorn like Sarvi, silver-colored, beating the air with its long wings, my hair flowing back from the draft.

“You have a unicorn too!?” I exclaim.

“Actually it’s your father’s,” he admits. “He’s the one who learned how to master them while he was here.”

I gasp, clutching my chest. “My father! Where is he?”

“He’s waiting for you. Now come on.” Another sharp look. “Don’t tell me you want to stay here with Death. This isn’t your world, Hanna. It never was. You belong with us. With family. Back home where you belong.”

He’s right. Of course he’s right. This is all I ever wanted. This was the whole point of it all, so my father could be free, and so that I could escape. And now Rasmus is giving me the opportunity to do so, right here and now.

So why do I feel guilty? Why do I feel like I’m leaving Death when he needs me? And when did I start caring about his feelings like that?

“Hanna, please,” Rasmus says. “You have a choice. Make the right one. Make the smart one.”

I nod, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Okay,” I whisper. “Yes, of course I’m going. You promise you’re taking me to see my father?”

“I am,” he says, motioning for the unicorn to come closer. “We just have to get out of Tuonela first. He’s just on the other side of that waterfall, waiting for you.”

Rasmus holds out his hand for me.

I put my hand in his.

He helps me through the window, onto the gargoyle, and then we’re slipping down until we’re on the unicorn’s back.

I grab the mane for dear life, and Rasmus holds me from behind.

The unicorn flaps its wings and we take off like a rocket through the fog.

Leaving Death and Shadow’s End behind.

But they aren’t the only things that are being left in the mist.

A part of me is left behind too.



* * *



Not the end…only the beginning.





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Flip the page to read the prologue for

CROWN OF CRIMSON (Underworld Gods #2)—coming May 2022





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Need to vent about that cliffhanger? Bug me about the next book? You can always find me on Instagram (@authorhalle)





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There is also a novella prequel called GOD OF DEATH (Underworld Gods #0.5), which showcases Death’s life in Tuonela far before the events of River of Shadows. It will be releasing February 2022.





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Crown of Crimson (Underworld Gods #2)





A sneak peek at the prologue





Death





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“Have you gotten cold feet?” the deep voice of reckoning booms across the walls of the cave.

“That’s a rather modern phrase for someone so old,” I respond, adjusting the blind mask. I wish I didn’t have to wear this ridiculous thing every time I seek out the giant, but because I can see in the dark, Antero Vipunen takes no chances. They say there’s no way to kill the God of Death, but there is…and he’s in the cave with me. Sometimes I think that Vipunen’s power rivals that of the Creator, and he could destroy this whole world if he wanted to.

As such, I wear the blind mask so I don’t piss him off. Part of me feels badly that both my children had to train in combat with him, wearing this heavy bronze and iron mask the entire time while wielding the sword. But at least they’re the finest warriors now.

I also used to think that there would be no day where their training would be put to use, but I feel that day creeping ever so closer, like the snakes do if you stay too long in the crypt.

“Then what is it that has brought my counsel again?” Vipunen asks, louder now. In the background I can hear stalactites fall from the ceiling and crash onto the cave floor, splash into the underground lake. As it always happens when I’m in the caves, I’m brought back in my mind, eons past, to when I was just a young little shit, thrown here on my first day on the job as God of Death. I felt so vulnerable, naked and helpless then, and I despise the fact that today I feel the same.

It’s a most unbecoming feeling.

“It’s the girl,” I tell him.

“The mortal Hanna,” Vipunen muses. “Is there a problem?”

I let out a breath. Fuck. I hate how uneasy I feel. “I have some…fears about the marriage.”

Vipunen lets out a low, rumbling laugh. More stalactites fall to the ground, one sounding too close for comfort. “Fears about marriage? Did you not learn your lesson the last time?”

He can’t see the fuck you smile on my face but I hope he hears it in my tone. “Apparently not. I’m concerned that she may not be the one you prophesied about. Any chance you could, you know, clear that up a little bit? Give me something a little more to go on?”

Instead of being so fucking annoyingly vague from day one?

“To give you more information would be to interfere with your life and the natural order of things and that I cannot do,” he says.

“Cannot or will not?” I ask.

A cold blast of air comes rushing at me. I’m not the only one who can influence the weather and temperature with my moods. “You dare have contempt for me?” he bellows.

“No contempt, Antero, only frustration.”

“Is it not your wedding day?” he asks after a moment.

“Yes, in fact she might be at the altar right now.” No doubt looking beautiful beyond words.

“Then you’re cutting things a little close, don’t you think?”

I sigh, adjusting the mask again. “I’m not asking if she’s the one, I just need to know if I’m making a mistake. What if I marry Hanna and the one I’m supposed to be with, the one that is supposed to save my kingdom, comes along?”

Another laugh. “You think that another mortal girl will come strolling along into Tuonela like that?”

“So then Hanna is the one…” I surmise, trying to bait him.

“I will tell you no such thing. This has nothing to do with me. This is your future, Tuoni, laid out in front of you. You either take it or you don’t.” He pauses. “You really do have cold feet, don’t you? You want a way out. An easy way out. Well, no one told you to propose.”

He’s right. That was all my own doing.