A Curse Carved in Bone

A Curse Carved in Bone (2025) is the second book in Danielle L. Jensen’s Saga of the Unfated duology. It follows A Fate Inked in Blood (2024), which earned a Goodreads Choice Award Best Romantasy nomination and a Libby Book Awards Best Fantasy nomination. Jensen is the bestselling author of the Malediction and Dark Shores young adult fantasy series and The Bridge Kingdom romance fantasy series. Marketed toward both adults and new adult readers as a fantasy romance novel, A Curse Carved in Bone continues the story of Freya, mortal daughter of the goddesses Hlin and Hel. Freya is cursed by a prophecy foretelling her destructive future, controlled by a blood oath’s powerful magic, and reeling from the betrayal of the man she loves. With the survival and freedom of two nations at stake and a web of deceit that leaves her unsure who to trust, Freya must decide who she is and where her allegiances lie in order to save her people and weave her own fate. The novel explores themes including The Tension Between Fate and Free Will, The Freeing Power of Truth, and Loyalty as a Mutual Responsibility.

This guide refers to the e-book edition of the text published by Del Rey in 2025.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of animal cruelty and death, child death, cursing, graphic violence, death, sexual content, and sexual violence.

Plot Summary

Having just learned that she’s the daughter of Hel, goddess of the underworld, and that Bjorn, the man she loves, has betrayed her, Freya is sailing across the Northern Strait toward Nordeland as the captive of its ruler, King Harald. She clings to the hope that she can learn the truth of the shield maiden prophecy and of her divine conception from Saga, Bjorn’s mother, and the seer who made the prophecy.

Three years ago, Harald sent Bjorn to Skaland to kill the shield maiden. Instead, Bjorn fell in love with her. Now, both men hope Saga’s visions can show them another way to prevent the prophecy—which depicts Skaland unifying and conquering Nordeland—from coming true. Guthrum, one of the Unfated (a minority of people capable of changing their fates) who serve Harald, relays a message from his animal familiar, the bird Kaja, who has been spying in Skaland. She reports that Snorri, Skaland’s new king, believes Freya and Bjorn are alive and is offering a reward for information on their whereabouts.

On the way to Harald’s fortress at Hrafnheim, they help defend a small village under attack by raiders known as Islunders. Freya refuses to fight for Harald but changes her mind when the Islunders abduct a group of local children. Desperate to save the children, Freya calls on Hel’s magic and sends the Islunders’ souls to Helheim. When Bjorn tells Freya he’s wary of Harald’s intentions toward her, she reveals that she’s bound by Snorri and his wife Ylva’s blood oath, leaving her unable to do anything that serves Snorri’s enemy.

After gathering supplies at Hrafnheim, Freya and Bjorn begin the two-day journey to Saga’s cabin, accompanied by Harald’s wolves, Skoll and Hati. On the way, a smith named Gyda returns Freya’s sword, now mended, and gives her a seax—a large combat knife used by Vikings—and a shield imbued with magic. That night, a huldra—a mythical being who takes the form of a woman and uses sexuality to lure men to their doom—attempts to seduce and kill Bjorn while he’s bathing in the river, but Freya and the wolves help defeat her.

During the visit with Saga, Freya comes to realize she’s been harsh in refusing to forgive Bjorn. Saga has little hope that Freya can change the future until she hears of the blood oath. She says Bjorn can use the oath to free Freya from Snorri’s control, but Bjorn rejects the plan, unwilling to control Freya himself. Back in Hrafnheim, Harald expresses faith in Freya and urges her to lead Nordeland against Snorri’s imminent attack. Bjorn believes Harald is manipulating Freya and giving her a false sense of control. In an effort to assess Harald’s motives, Freya asks the other Unfated about him.

Hrafnheim seems to be under attack that night, but when Freya goes missing, it becomes clear the skirmish was merely a diversion for her abduction. A stranger drugs Freya and flees with her in a boat. Harald and Bjorn track her with the help of the wolves and kill the men who took her, concluding that Snorri will stop at nothing to get Freya back.

When Kaja returns from Skaland with the message that Snorri’s fleet is gathering to attack, Freya and Harald assemble Nordeland’s forces at the coast. Freya hopes to intercept Snorri at sea and kill him before his army reaches the mainland. Saga joins them unexpectedly, wishing to sail with Freya. When they reach Snorri’s ships, another diversion lets Snorri get close to Freya, and he compels her, through the blood oath, to stand down. Then Bjorn compels her to send every Skaland warrior to Helheim, and she calls on Hel’s magic, instantly killing every Skalander except Snorri.

Bjorn is horrified by what he’s made Freya do, but he blames Snorri. At Saga’s urging, he attacks his father, who refuses to fight back. Saga then traps Freya, Bjorn, and Snorri inside a runic barrier and morphs into Harald. Snorri identifies Harald as a shape-shifting child of Loki. Harald admits he’s been impersonating Saga, who has been dead for twenty years, and that he arranged Freya’s abduction. Then he leaves Freya and Bjorn to die, trapped inside the runes, while he sails to conquer Skaland.

Finding no escape, Freya and Bjorn try to stave off despair. Freya forgives Bjorn, and they make love, then reaffirm their love and loyalty to each other. Ylva, who came searching for her husband Snorri after learning that Skaland’s army was defeated, finds Freya and Bjorn. After they tell her the truth about Harald, she frees Bjorn but ties him up and leaves Freya in the runic prison. The specter appears to Freya and helps her understand that she can get free by cursing herself to Helheim.

Giant roots pull Freya to the underworld, where Saga greets her, no longer in the form of the specter. Freya encounters Hel and realizes she shares Hel’s powers, meaning she can release the souls of the Skaland warriors she sent there. Freya convinces the warriors, her brother Geir among them, to help her fight Harald, defend Skaland, and earn their place in Valhalla. Returning to the mortal realm, Freya and her army of draug—the undead—set sail for Skaland.

Ylva plans to turn Bjorn over to Harald, who is currently in Skaland at the fortress of Grindill, in exchange for her son Leif’s freedom. When they arrive, they see Leif in Snorri’s company. Harald has disguised himself as Snorri and convinced everyone that the two kings are now allies. He threatens to kill Leif if Ylva doesn’t cooperate.

Freya and Geir sneak into Grindill through its drain tunnels and ask Steinnun to help them reveal the truth about Harald to everyone else using her skald magic, but she refuses. Later, when Harald hears that Freya may be alive, he arranges a public execution for Bjorn—who he’s portrayed as a traitor—to lure Freya into a trap. Harald visits Bjorn in his prison cell and boasts about meeting the real Harald of Hrafnheim in his youth, then killing him and taking over his life. Harald isn’t aware Steinnun is hiding nearby and listening in.

On the verge of surrendering to save Bjorn’s life, Freya comes up with an idea. She catapults smoldering wood into Grindill to smoke everyone out, intending Skoll and Hati to recognize Harald’s scent when he tries to slip out in disguise. Her plan goes awry when everyone in Grindill is entranced by Steinnun’s song and doesn’t notice the growing smoke and flames. Steinnun’s song shows the truth of all Harald’s crimes and lies, leading his followers to turn against him. Freya finds Bjorn and unties him, then escapes with him through Grindill’s tunnels. They’re swept down the river and over the waterfall before Freya realizes Bjorn is actually Harald.

The real Bjorn finds Freya and joins the fight, but Harald’s shape-shifting abilities give him the upper hand. Freya grabs onto Harald and curses herself to Helheim, taking him with her. There, Freya finishes Harald off, and Saga pushes his soul through the gates of Helheim. Freya returns to the mortal realm, where she releases the souls of the draug warriors to Valhalla and asks Steinnun to compose a song that will spread the truth about what’s happened across Skaland and Nordeland. Bjorn and Freya decide to start their future together in Saga’s old cabin by the hot springs. Bjorn asks Freya to marry him, and she says yes.

After a year living a quiet life of married bliss, Freya and Bjorn tire of domesticity. They decide to answer the jarl’s call to protect Skaland from foreign raids, taking up adventure and duty on their own terms and weaving their fate together.