Title
Alive Again, Book III of The Road to Ragnarök
Author
Rochelle L. Wilcox
Genre
Romantic Fantasy
Book Blurb
As he threatened to do, Loki drags Lia to Helheim, hiding her with his daughter Hel — he thinks out of Freyr’s reach. But Loki doesn’t know that Lia carries the key to her escape. She’s befriended by Baldr and Nanna, gods trapped in Helheim since the worlds were young, who join her in finding a way out for all of them. As they search for Freyr, Freyja and Will, traveling through worlds long believed to be figments of imagination, Lia finds a connection to the dragons, dwarfs and elves who make those worlds their home. Finally, she begins to see her place in the pantheon of the Norse gods. And she starts to believe that if they can find Freyr — and survive Ragnarök — she will be worthy of her place in his world and by his side.
Excerpt
“How can you be here?” Lia asked, reaching up to touch his face. “You saved me, again.”
“I would move Asgard and Midgard — all of the nine worlds — to save you, Ailia,” he said as he pulled her into his arms. They stood there, barely breathing, just holding each other. “We should not stay here,” he said after a few moments. “Other witches wander these grounds. Another may attack us.” He pulled back and took Lia’s hand to draw her away from Hekla.
“Wait!” she said, holding onto his hand but not yet moving. “I don’t understand how you could have gotten here at the very moment that I needed you the most.”
“Let’s find someplace safe, Lia,” he said in a voice growing more urgent. “We have much to talk about,” he added, looking up at Baldr, Nanna and Sifa, “including why all of you are in Midgard together.” Turning again to Lia, he gave her a quick kiss, the most delicious touch she’d ever experienced. “First we must leave this place.”
“But, is Skíðblaðnir here?” Lia asked, still holding her ground. “We search for it.”
“She is not here,” Freyr told them, looking up at the others and then back at Lia. “I moved her many months ago, to a different place in this land. We will go there. Skíðblaðnir will take us to Freyja and Will, who search another part of Midgard for you, and then to Asgard.”
Lia gave in to his tug, which had become more insistent, and let herself be drawn toward the others. Freyr hugged each of them quickly before turning toward the road and leading them away from the volcano. He set a brisk pace but held Lia’s hand the entire time, prompting her to nearly run to keep up with him. They reached a nearby hill in less than an hour and found a place to set up camp for the night.
Finally, nearly two hours after Freyr stopped Lia’s fall into Helheim — and too many weeks since Loki had stolen her away from him — Lia sat down next to Freyr and felt his arm wrap around her. The others stayed away while they stared into the fire, savoring the moment.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he whispered into her ear. “We have searched every part of this world twice. We believed you gone forever. Yet, here you are.”
“It feels surreal to finally be in your arms,” Lia told him. “Every night since Loki took me from you, I’ve dreamt of this. I thought I’d never feel this way again.” She pulled away so she could look into his eyes, finally accepting the reality that he’d found her and they were together. Reaching out to touch his chest, Lia let the comfort of feeling Freyr’s beating heart wash over her. “I don’t ever want to be away from you again,” she said. “Whatever life I have to live in this world, I want to share it with you.”
“And I with you, my love,” he told her, pulling her back into his embrace and kissing the top of her head. “I cannot suffer what I have these past weeks without you, fear for your life as I have. You are part of me, forever. I will do all in my power to keep you safe.” He paused for a moment to hold her in silence. “We must start with my family,” he said at last. “They will accept you. Freyja will help us convince them.”
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Freebie for readers:
The prequel, Fickle Fate, is available to anyone who signs up for my newsletter at https://rochellewilcox.com. Fifty years before Freyr met Lia, launching The Road to Ragnarök, the Norse Goddess of love Freyja met Will. Before him, she had fallen in love only once in the millennia she has walked the earth. But if she tells her family’s secret to Will, the man who somehow captured her heart, her family will never forgive her. It will start a war she may not win.
Author Biography:
Rochelle Wilcox was born and raised in Las Vegas, where she learned at an early age the value of fantasy and escape. Raised by a single mom — one of the first women trained to deal poker in the early 70's — Rochelle spent more time in casinos than most adults. She and her husband decided to leave the desert behind and raise their sons in Northern California, where they spend as much time on the water as they can.
Despite her lifelong passion for story-telling, Rochelle's path took her to law school and then to a practice focused on media law and appeals. But her love of writing wasn't sated with briefs bound by legal principles and a fealty to facts. And so she set to paper the story that had been playing in her mind for years, based on the Norse mythology she loved as a child and built around her favorite character — the Norse God of Love, Freyr.
Rochelle has been working for 13 years on her four-part series, The Road to Ragnarök. Book I (Lost Long) relaunched on August 26, 2022, followed by the launch of Book II (Enemies Eternal) on September 20 and Book III (Alive Again) on October 18. Book IV (Heavy Heart), the final book in the series, will be released on November 15. As this epic tale unfolds, Freyr will learn that Lia’s love and her unexpected powers will be the key to the fate of the Norse gods in the battles they’ll face in Ragnarök, and that his very survival will depend on her.
Rochelle plans to retire from practicing law at the end of the year and focus full time on writing. The next series, tentatively titled Tales of the Vanir, will pick up where The Road to Ragnarök leaves off.
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