Power. Revenge. Forbidden love in the heart of a dying empire.When Viking warlord Hasting arrives at the gates of Constantinople, he knows he can't conquer it. Not with deeds of arms alone. But fate has other plans.His failed raid turns into an opportunity: serve Empress Theodora as her sword-for-hire. Hasting quickly proves himself more capable than the generals she no longer trusts. But the empire is a viper's nest of betrayal, and when a...

"This was a man accursed: fierce, mightily cruel, and savage . . . " —Gesta Normannorum Ducum.He lost his glory. He lost his son. Now, he'll risk everything to etch his name into legend.Two years after the sack of Paris in 845 A.D., Viking warlord Hasting is drowning in drink and disgrace. Ragnar's name lives on in the Skalds' songs—but his? Forgotten. Abandoned by his wife, robbed of his riches, and stripped of his son, Hasting is a broken man. Un...

From bestselling and award-winning author C. J. Adrien comes a tale of hardship, friendship, and love on the American Frontier.In the bustling frontier town of St. Louis, New Yorker Christian dreams of wealth in the fur trade, only to find himself perilously ill-equipped for its harsh realities. A rowdy tavern brawl thrusts him against the formidable trapper, Fergus MacBride. To his shock, the very next day, he discovers MacBride is also his new company leader....

"For indeed the Frankish nation, which was crushed by the avenger Hasting, was full of filthy uncleanness. Treasonous and oath-breaking, they were deservedly condemned; unbelievers and faithless, they were justly punished." —Dudo of St. Quentin, Gesta NormannorumOrphaned as a child by a blood-feud, and sold as a slave to an exiled chieftain in Ireland, the boy Hasting had little hope of surviving to adulthood. The gods had other plans. A ship arrived at his master's longph...

"Pagan ships have done much harm to the islands of Aquitaine. Some of them were entirely lost . . . a great chastening is upon them unlike any the ancient Christian world has ever seen."—Alcuin of York, Letter to ArnoKing Horic is dead. The oaths that once bonded the Danes and Northmen in the islands of Aquitaine have broken. Hasting's new land is imperiled by fearsome challengers and old foes alike. A rumor from the continent will shatter the brittle veneer of his...

843 ADThe city of Nantes Burns.An unexpected betrayal forces Hasting to abandon his closest ally. With his heart turned black, he rekindles the savagery of his race. In sacking Nantes, his bravery and luck earn him a place in the skalds' songs. Word of his deeds reach his kin in the North, and more and more sea captains sail to Francia to join him, hoping his luck might help theirs.Thor of Dublin, Hasting's old rival, will seek him out and bid him join his new allia...