I should have told Ull about my dream the minute I woke up, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“God morgen,” Ull greeted me in the kitchen. He stood at the stove wearing a thick sweater and wielding a spatula. “Have a seat.” He kissed me softly and gestured to the stool at the island.

“Pancakes today? Yum.” I was famished.

“You will need your energy. We are taking a hike.”

“Where to today?”

“I want to show you my favorite plants in Bibury. And the willows off the Coln are a good couple of miles from here.” He was so relaxed. It didn’t seem right to kill the mood by telling him we were all going to die within months. That kind of news could wait until lunchtime.

Of course, I didn’t manage to tell him then, either. This wasn’t the sort of thing that should be shared over food. I could tell him right before tea time. And I wouldn’t think about it until then.

But three hours later, we sat with steaming mugs, and I still hadn’t shared my dream. Coward.

“I win,” I gloated. I took a sip of tea as I captured Ull’s last checker.

“Again,” Ull muttered. My betrothed was surprisingly bad at board games. Petty as it was, I was pleased to find one thing I could do better than him.

A low buzzing broke his focus, and he eyed the ringing mobile. I was immobilized by sudden terror. “I apologize, darling.” He kissed my clammy forehead. “I will only be a minute.” And he darted into the study speaking hurriedly in Norwegian. It was hot when he did that, but for once I was too horrified to notice. “Ja?” I heard him say. Oh, no, no, no. Criminy, no. I was too late to warn him.

I crept towards the study, not wanting him to know I was eavesdropping. I heard him collapse into the leather chair. “It cannot be so soon,” he whispered. “It cannot happen in Kristia’s lifetime.” I clapped both hands over my mouth. Ull was silent for a long time, and when he finally spoke his voice was filled with dread. “Ragnarok.”

I walked to the kitchen, adrenaline pulsing. Why hadn’t I said something sooner? I should have warned him this call was coming. And what was happening to my normally hapless visions? Where were the toenail painting and the laundry folding? That scene played out exactly the way it had in my dream. Oh my God, Ragnarok was coming. And my visions were giving me a front row seat.

I waited for Ull to come out of his study, but he stayed put. I puttered around the kitchen, appreciating that Olaug left the fridge and pantry well stocked in her absence. Guilt made me hungry. I put the pitcher of waffle batter on the counter, and was looking for Ull’s favorite jam in the pantry when I heard him collapse on the couch. My heart sank. He’d asked me to tell him about my visions, and I’d been too chicken. Would he want to know that I knew? Or should I let him tell me in his own time?

“Who was that?” My voice was so high he should have seen right through me.

“Uh, it was Gunnar.” His eyes darted back and forth, thick worry lines between his brows giving him away. “He wanted to say Happy Christmas.”

“Is that all?”

Ull balled his fists and tried to look calm. “That’s all.” He was trying so hard to protect me. I couldn’t let him suffer anything else on his own.

“Ull, I know. I know it was Olaug and that Balder’s going to die. I know Ragnarok is coming.” I wiped my palms on my pants.

“Were you eavesdropping? Wait, even if you were, how would you know that? Olaug used Norwegian. Do you speak Norwegian now too?”

I grimaced. “No more than yesterday. I just… ugh, I’m a huge coward. I’m sorry, I should have told you this morning. But you were so happy, and we were having such a nice time, I didn’t want to bring you down. I’ll be more honest about what I see, I swear I will. I just couldn’t upset you. I’m so sorry–”

“Kristia, slow down. What are you talking about?”

“I had a dream last night. Or a vision, I guess. It’s hard to tell what’s what anymore. Olaug called, she told you Ragnarok was starting. Real soon.” With all I’d learned in the past few months, I should have known that it would come true in my lifetime – the stories Mormor told me, the nightmares I’d had ever since. The battle that would end our worlds. Oh my God, this was really happening. I rubbed at my temples.

Ull shook his head. “I tried never to speak of Ragnarok – I did not want you to worry.”

“Not worry? Ull, we met in Mythology Class. Professor Carnicke talked about Ragnarok the first day of school. You told me you had a dark future. And you told me you’re a god. Between what I already knew and what I picked up from a quick Google search, I know all about Ragnarok.” I crossed to the couch and knelt beside him. “It’s the digital age – not Viking times.”

“I apologize Kristia. I only wanted to protect you.”

“You’re going to have to start trusting me sometime.”

“I know.” Ull rubbed his forehead.

“And Ull.” I lifted his chin until he met my eyes. “You don’t have to die. You know that, right?” Granted, the Internet was more than clear on what was going to happen to most of the gods and the earth come Ragnarok, but Inga swore that was all hearsay – fabrications by Asgardians to protect insecure humans. I was choosing to believe Inga. “You don’t have to let some silly prophecy run your life. You can do that for yourself.”

“Even gods cannot escape the fates.” Ull shook his head sadly. “In theory the future can change. But the Norns have prophesied our fall at Ragnarok for as long as I have been alive. Nothing has ever altered it. And I doubt anything can.”

He looked so hopeless. I sat next to my morose idol on the couch, wishing more than anything that there was something I could do. “Ull,” I laid my head on his shoulder, “you do have some control here. You can fight. You don’t have to resign yourself to this awful future because some Norns said so. I don’t understand how you can just accept their word as law.”

“You wouldn’t.” His eyes filled with a hundred lifetimes of sorrow. “Because it is so different for mortals. But for us, their predictions become truths. I wish it were otherwise.”

He really believed all this prophecy stuff. “Oh Ull.” There was nothing else to say. Ull rested his head on mine.

“I thought we had more time. I thought we could live out our human lives, grow old, pass on, long before any of this came to be.” He was despondent. “I cannot protect you after all. I am so sorry, Kristia.” Oh, crumbs on a cracker. Ull was crying. His silent tears fell onto my cheek, and I pressed my hand to the chest of the deity whose greatest fear was coming true. I couldn’t let him face this. There was one thing I could do. Ull would not lose one more person he loved.

“Listen, I know something else too. I know you aren’t going to become a human. Not for me.” His body was crumpled in defeat. Shaking my head, I voiced my decision. The decision I’d made weeks ago, that same night Inga had told me it was an option. “Listen to me. I want to be like you. I want to be Goddess of Winter. I want to fight for your family – and for you.”

Ull’s sharp breath was equaled in severity only by the anger in his eyes. I shouldn’t have known about this option. “Absolutely not. Ragnarok is not a joke, Kristia, and it is coming. I will not let you die for me.”

“I won’t die.” I wasn’t being stubborn; I really believed my words. “None of us will. Ull, I know I can do this. If I’m with you, then Ragnarok will end without the loss of a single Asgardian life.”

Ull’s patronizing look made it clear he was unconvinced. “Darling. You do not know what you are talking about. The Three Sisters have predicted our fall at Ragnarok since the beginning of time. Very little escapes their visions.”

“Maybe. But they never saw me coming. Elsker never got to tell them about me, remember? So maybe their prophecy would have changed if they’d known what I can do.”

“I do not follow.”

“You said yourself, my visions are a gift. That I’d qualify to be a Norn if I’d been born like you. So if I can see things, predict what your enemies are going to do… and if they don’t even know I exist because of this prophecy…” He still wasn’t following. “Ull. Use me! Make me a goddess and let me use my visions to help. I’ll be like an undercover agent. Your enemies won’t be expecting me since no human has ever become a god. Nobody but Jens and Odin even knew it was an option.” The fury in Ull’s eyes blazed as he realized it was Inga who had told me too much about his world.

The choices he’d never wanted me to have lay in front of him, and he had no control over my decision. The path to joining his realm was clear. And immediate. Under Odin’s test to become a god, only Balder could judge my worthiness, and he would have to do that before someone killed him. Surely Ull knew all of this, and he was beyond angry that I did too.

“You do not know what you are saying. Kristia, if you become a goddess then at Ragnarok, our fates are entwined. You will meet the same end that I will, whatever it may be.” I couldn’t comprehend the lifetime of sorrow that this prophecy had caused him. No wonder, in his eons of existence, he’d never gotten married. He believed it would be a death sentence for his bride.

“Maybe. But I know a few things you don’t.”

“Oh really? What exactly do you know?” I could tell Ull wasn’t taking me very seriously. My thinly stretched nerves threatened to snap.

“Listen, I know you’re going to keep Asgard safe, okay? That you’ll imprison whoever is controlling these giants and elves and whatever else is trying to kill us. That you’re going to use magic to trap the perp in some silvery bubble so he can’t hurt us again.” I’d seen as much last week. At the time, I thought it was another dream, but recent events made it clear I had to start taking my dreams a lot more seriously.

“How could you possibly know about the Asgardian prison cell? Or about my magic?”

“Wait, you can actually do magic?”

“Do not change the subject.”

“Fine. I saw it in another vision. I didn’t tell you because I thought it was a dream. Happy?”

“Not even a little. This is getting too dangerous for you. If our enemies find out everything you know about us… and them...” Ull shook his head. “Kristia, I do not want you to change for me. I cannot allow you to tie your fate to mine.”

“Oh, please. Like my fate could ever not be tied to yours. If you are going to… fall,” I choked on the word, “then I want to be with you. You are my life and nothing – epic battle, death, homicidal giants – nothing could keep me away from you. I love you,” I finished, hoping he understood how true my words were.

“And you would choose…” His eyes studied the floor.

“I would choose to die an Asgardian by your side rather than change a single thing about you. I love you exactly as you are, and I always will.”

“Kristia, I cannot allow this.”

“I’m sorry, Ull. It’s not your choice to make. I’ll go to Odin by myself – you know I will. Inga will take me. And you know he’ll let me into Asgard if it means keeping you in his army.” Ull’s eyes burned. He was furious, whether at Inga or me I wasn’t sure.

“You would go behind my back?” His voice was so cold I almost checked the windows for frost.

“If it’s the only way to save you, then yes.” I defied him.

“How could you do this to me?”

“I’m not doing anything to you. I’m doing this for you.”

“I do not want this.”

“Tough. It’s happening. You made this decision the day you asked to borrow my notes.” We stared eye to eye, glaring at each other. I was not going to back down.

Ull’s shoulders dropped. “Why are you doing this, Kristia? Why do you insist on doing the exact opposite of everything I ask of you?”

My mouth twitched. “Nobody’s ever told you no before, have they?”

“Not in this realm.”

“Well get used to it.”

Ull gave me a shaky look. “Are you certain? Do you have to do this?”

“Absolutely,” I declared without hesitation.

“I do not agree with this.”

“I do not agree with letting you march off to your death. Guess we’re even.” We stared at each other. Ull was the first to blink.

“Then we have work to do.” He stood in resignation, pulling me to him and kissing the top of my head. “I do not agree with this,” he reiterated.

“Do you want me to marry you?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then get used to making decisions that work for both of us – not just you.”

“This decision does not work for me.”

“Fine, then get used to doing things that make your wife happy.”

He looked like he wanted to stomp his foot, but I knew I had gotten my way. He led me to the table and sat me on his knee. Opening his laptop, he began the call he had spent his lifetime hoping he’d never have to make. “God ettermiddag, Olaug,” he said despondently to her image on the screen. “Kristia wants in. Will you arrange for a meeting with Odin and Balder?”

“Veldig bra! Ja. I would be honored.” Olaug knew what this meant. “Kristia, I do hope Odin gives his consent. You would make a fine goddess.” She signed off. I sat for a moment as I processed what I might become.

I smiled bravely. “Do you think he’ll say yes?”

“I should say absolutely not. He has never allowed it before – it goes against everything he stands for. But with my luck,” Ull said wryly, “it is not out of the question.”

“Good. Ull, you have to trust me. Everything is going to work out.” Ull looked unsteady as he faced a reality he’d feared for an eternity. I cupped his perfect face between my hands. Without thinking, I leaned in and kissed him soundly. He started to pull back, but I held his jaw between my palms, forcing our lips to keep contact. He gave in, wrapping both arms tightly around my waist and crushing my torso to his. I lost myself as his arms held me firmly in place and his lips reminded me of how much was at stake. I released my hold on his face and tangled my fingers in his hair, feeling the strands wrap around my engagement ring. His lips were so warm. His breathing grew heavy and he was the first to pull away.

“Kristia, what are you doing to me?” He groaned. “You cannot kiss me like that to get your way.”

“I just did.” I smiled lazily. “Now listen. I want to be a god. I can do this. I am going to be just fine. Really.”

I wasn’t sure which of us I was trying to convince.

I thought the matter was settled, but as we were cleaning up after dinner, Ull brought it up one final time.

“Kristia, are you absolutely certain you want to tie your fate with mine? I cannot escape Ragnarok, but you may still be able to live a happy life with someone else if we somehow save your realm.” The words had to hurt him.

“Oh, quit trying to get rid of me.” I dried my hands on a dishtowel. “I’m not living in any world that you’re not a part of, so stop trying to save me from a fate I don’t want to be saved from. Whatever happens, we fight together. And if it comes to it, we die together. But you,” I growled, “are not facing anything without me. Ever.”

Ull’s eyes broke my heart, but he pulled me to him, breathing deeply into my hair. I inhaled the invigorating scent of pine that followed him wherever he went and rubbed the knotted muscles of his back beneath my palms. “I don’t know how to convince you, Ull, but I know, deep down, that Ragnarok will not be the end of your family. You have to trust me.” He looked at me questioningly, then kissed my forehead and poured two cups of tea.

“Kristia Tostenson, you are something else.”

I remembered a conversation we’d had in the fall. “Remember when you told me about Elsker? How she told you where to find me?”

“Yes?”

“Well, why did you? Come find me, I mean? According to Inga, you’ve been following the rules your whole life. Why stop now?”

“Ah.” Ull raised his eyebrows. We wandered to the garden with steaming mugs. “That is a good question. I am not entirely sure I know the answer myself. Most likely, I was so lonely I could not take it anymore. I have always done what Asgard asks of me. A warrior lives a terribly isolating existence. Perhaps I just got greedy; felt like I deserved my own happiness.” He shrugged. “Things are different for Asgardians than they are for humans. Our lives are laid out for us on the day we are born. The Norns foretell our futures and, with very few exceptions, things play out exactly as they say, all in accordance with the law. I was born to be a warrior first, titled god second, to serve my realm over myself. Duty above all – it is our way.”

“That sounds stifling.” I couldn’t imagine having my life mapped out for me.

“It is. And like I said, I was terribly lonely. When Elsker told me there was someone out there for me, she threw me a lifeline. It was my chance to have what I had always wanted, to not be alone anymore – even if it did openly defy the law. It took me a while to warm to the idea, but eventually I did. It saved me.”

“I’m glad you came around.”

“I am too.

“Ull?” Knowing this was shaky ground, I trod lightly. “Do you really believe someone else controls your destiny?”

“The Three Sisters – yes. Why?”

“Do you ever get sick of that? Of not feeling in charge of your own life?”

“You have no idea.” His voice was dark. “But that is how things are. We each have our posts – some of us are warriors, some control the elements, and some lay out the future. It is our way.” He kept saying that. The Asgardian way. “You know, that is part of why I seemed so angry when we first met. I was jealous.”

“Jealous?” The God of Winter was jealous of Nehalem’s resident nutso?

“Yes. Your life is yours to live – you picked up and moved from Oregon to Wales just because you wanted to.”

“You moved from Asgard to Bibury.”

“But it is not the same. I must do what is asked of me for the rest of my existence. Even here I am at Odin’s beck and call. And you,” he stroked my cheek softly, “Your destiny is totally in your hands. Of course I was jealous.”

An idea was mulling around in my head, an inkling of why Elsker had sent Ull to me instead of to another Asgardian. Maybe she was sick of these Fate ladies controlling everything and she wanted me to show Ull he had the power to make his own destiny. Being human, I had a totally different perspective than any Asgardian. And maybe Elsker wanted me to do what no Asgardian girl could do – show Ull he could buck the system and take charge of his own life.

“Jeg elsker deg, Kristia,” Ull said, taking hold of my hand.

“I love you too.” I lowered my head to his chest, thinking of all he had shouldered. I wished more than anything that I could put his mind at ease. I knew everything was going to work out – I just had no idea how.