Daughter of Rage and Beauty

Book excerpt: The sagas claim you can't fight fate. I'm determined to prove them wrong. They say your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life. Clearly, they don't know what they're talking about. Because right now, my life is in shambles. As the daughter of one of the most powerful berserkers in the world, I should be taking my place among the noble guild of berserker assassins. By now, I should have mastered my emotions and conquered my rage-all the better to use it as a weapon when called upon to kill. But I'm not just Harald Berregaard's daughter. My mother was a nymph, which makes me a magical mutt. When I was born, my father thought I might possess the best traits from both races. He was wrong. Now he's shipping me off to the Berserker Academy, where the unofficial motto is "graduate or die." Nice, huh? With the stakes this high, I can't afford to get distracted. Too bad the academy's headmaster keeps showing up at the most inconvenient moments, reminding me how much I suck at magic. And fighting. And basic conversation. It doesn't matter that he does it with a smile. Or that his eyes fire silver when he's amused . . . or aroused. Hauk Sigridsson has his own problems. He's not going to be one of mine. On the other hand, he's offered me a way to accelerate my studies and make it out of the academy alive. I just have to help him steal a priceless rock and defeat one of the most powerful immortals to have ever lived. No big deal. I'm in way over my head, but I'm determined to survive. They say you can't fight fate. I'm going to show fate exactly what I'm made of.