Ballad of the Banished - Paperback

Eighteen-year-old Yrsa serves the gods as a Valkyrie, guiding the souls of fallen warriors from Midgard to the golden halls of Valhalla. But when she falls in love with a warrior she's supposed to reap, she breaks the most important law. She lets him live.

When the Goddess of Death discovers Yrsa's defiance, she offers a cruel bargain: retrieve the scattered pieces of Freyja's lost armor before midsummer but be exiled from Valhalla, or lose the warrior to eternal torment in the underworld but return to her Valkyrie sisters. Succeed, and she can save the soul she couldn't bear to reap. Fail, and he's lost forever, along with any chance of making things right.

She sets out on her quest, burdened by guilt and bound by duty. But she doesn't go alone. Gunhild, a fearless shieldmaiden, refuses to let Yrsa face the journey without her. Fierce, defiant, and loyal, Gunhild is everything Yrsa was taught not to long for. And yet, with every battle they fight and every silence they share, Yrsa aches for something she doesn't know how to name.

But Yrsa can't afford to follow the pull of her heart. If she fails to complete her quest, the warrior's soul will remain in torment below, and she will be bound to Midgard-forsaken by the gods and cast out from the sisterhood that once gave her purpose.