Here is a summary with spoilers of Bane of Asgard
Days after the events of the first book, Eiric is trapped in his own mind. Each day, Reggin comes to heal him, but each night, Modir Tyra arrives with her staff and magic, doing something to his head. Meanwhile, Sigrid—now known as Heidin—is torn. She fears for Eiric but is happy to be home with her mother, Modir Tyra. Reggin, despite her growing suspicions from her visit to the tomb in the last book—where she communicated with Brenna, one of the founders of New Jothunheim—takes her new role as Elder seriously. However, her duties take her away from New Jothunheim, as do Sigrid’s, leaving Eiric vulnerable. To protect him, Reggin sends her friend Sibba to move him from the catacombs to her workshop, hoping the change will help. It does. He fully wakes, and his memories slowly return.
The next day, another prisoner arrives—Naima, who killed a councilor in the last book and now awaits execution. Eiric and Naima bond, and he confesses everything about Modir Tyra—that it was all her plan, that he had been set up.
Meanwhile, Reggin visits the towns where Sigrid/Heidin and Eiric first arrived, searching for cracks in the wards and preparing for battle. Modir Tyra has decided: it is time to wage war against the Asgardians. When Reggin returns, she finds Eiric himself again. Overcome with relief, she kisses him but urges him to leave. If he stays, he will be killed; if he leaves, he will one day be forced to fight his sister. Eiric refuses to abandon New Jothunheim to such a fate.
Sigrid/Heidin visits Eiric as well, trying to convince him to fight for her and her people. But something about her is off—she isn’t the sister he remembers. She has an agenda. As Eiric and Sigrid talk, Reggin meets with Modir Tyra, who hands her a vial of poison to use on Eiric. Playing the role of the dutiful councilor, she takes it.
At a council meeting that night, Heidin publicly thanks Reggin for bringing her brother back to life and offers her a favor in return. Reggin seizes the opportunity: she demands safety and a pardon for Naima. To her surprise, many support Naima, believing her actions were justified. Heidin agrees.
Later, Heidin, Reggin, and Modir Tyra go to the house where Naima and Eiric are being held to deliver the news. But inside, Eiric is in a fit of rage, destroying his room. Reggin convinces them to let her enter alone, keeping them safe. Inside, she finds Sibba dead. Eiric, wild-eyed, lunges at her, but she stops him with a runestone. Studying Sibba’s body, she realizes the wounds aren’t Eiric’s doing. A plan forms—she will stage Eiric’s death using Modir Tyra’s poison. When Modir Tyra arrives, it will look like she poisoned him, but when Heidin arrives, there will be no poison traces. If the deception works, she can sneak Eiric out of New Jothunheim.
The plan succeeds. Modir Tyra is pleased, Heidin mourns, and Reggin offers to watch over Eiric’s body. During preparations, she demands Eiric’s belongings back—his runestones, his weapons. Talking with Naima, she pieces together more truths: it was the witches, not Eiric, who killed Sibba. She secures replacement weapons and crafts a fake body. When the time is right, she wakes Eiric and tells him the plan. He escapes.
Eiric reaches a coastal town where a fleet is being prepared to sail to Asgard. He finds the Firebird, the queen’s future flagship, and convinces the untrained crew to follow his lead. Meanwhile, Reggin and Heidin arrive in the same town. Reggin spots Eiric aboard the ship—but thankfully, Heidin does not.
While in town, Reggin reunites with Frodi and the library mouse, Trude. Frodi reveals that he once served as a double agent against Modir Tyra. The moment his allegiance turned? When she deliberately became pregnant and, when the child was young, burned her alive. Trude confesses that Modir Tyra once ordered her to kill Frodi, which ultimately led to her own death. Frodi doesn’t remember any of it.
A ceremony follows—one that changes everything. Modir Tyra burns Heidin alive. But she emerges, reborn as the queen who has been thrice burned—the Firebird. Heidin has been waiting for this moment, and now she has fully reawakened.
Back on the ship, Eiric bonds with his crew but keeps parts of his past hidden. He learns they volunteered for the navy with a secret mission: to one day capture the queen and use her as a pawn. They strike a deal—Eiric will help them, and they will keep his secrets.
Back in New Jothunheim, Reggin meets with Heidin—except it’s no longer Liv inside that body. It is purely the queen. She orders Reggin to raise an army of the dead, or she will have to use the children and elderly. Instead, Reggin seeks alliances with the monsters of Jothunheim.
Back on the boat, Eiric reaches one of the islands outside New Jothunheim. As he recovers, he starts hearing tales of King Rikhard—who he assumes is the same Rikhard who originally sent him to investigate the missing children. But then, he’s hit with a shocking realization: those events happened years ago. Eiric has been missing for nearly a decade.
Panic sets in. His infant brother, Ivar—what happened to him? His farm, his promise to return in a year with answers—everything is surely gone. Worse, he has likely lost Rikhard’s trust. Determined to learn more, Eiric seeks out a witch rumored to work for both sides. She warns him that Rikhard has plans to use Ivar as bait—either to lure Eiric back or even to capture Liv. She urges him to rescue his brother and run.
With no other choice, Eiric heads home, hoping to find Hilda still living there. He discovers that Hilda does still own the farm, now caring for two young girls she adopted. But Ivar? He is gone. Taken by Rikhard years ago and raised under his command. Hilda assures Eiric that, despite his nine-year delay, Rikhard would welcome him back.
Reluctantly, Eiric goes to Rikhard—and she is right. The king receives him warmly, introducing him to Ivar, now a sharp, well-trained ten-year-old warrior. When Eiric places the runestone in Ivar’s hand, it glows purple. Shocked but with no choice, Eiric swears loyalty to Rikhard—not for the king’s sake, but to protect his little brother.
Eiric also warns Rikhard of the witches—they are against him, and war is coming.
Back with Reggin, she and her crew launch their first battle when they encounter a fleet of Rikhard’s men. Reggin emerges victorious, and soon after, Heidin arrives to congratulate her. But during their meeting, a startling revelation comes to light—time moves differently. It has been ten years since Reggin and Sigrid left.
Then, even more shocking news: Eiric is alive—and sailing for Rikhard. Something about this revelation shakesHeidin to her core. Her eyes change, her demeanor shifts, and for a fleeting moment, she seems more like Sigrid than Heidin, as if she is battling between two identities. While still under Sigrid’s influence, she warns Reggin: run. If she stays, she will die for helping Eiric.
Reggin doesn’t hesitate—she grabs Naima and flees. But as they run, Sigrid is gone. The ruthless Heidin takes control once more. Before they can escape, Reggin and Naima are captured. The last thing they remember before blacking out is being taken.
Meanwhile, Eiric has been fighting in Rikhard’s battles while trying to support his younger brother, Ivar. In a moment of trust, he tells Ivar everything about their sister, Sigrid—something he has never shared with anyone else.
But their focus quickly shifts when word reaches them that the farm was attacked. Eiric rushes back to his childhood home, only to find it burned to the ground. There are no survivors. Among the dead, he finds Hilda and her two foster daughters.
When Rikhard arrives and sees the bodies, his grief deepens—Hilda had been pregnant with his son and heir. Overcome with rage, Rikhard turns on Eiric, accusing him of hiding the truth about Sigrid. Ivar had told him everything. It all falls into place—this was the work of the Spinners, and Heidin was likely the one behind the attack.
Later, in a chilling conversation, Rikhard confesses to Eiric that, with no legitimate heir left, he intends to name Ivar as his successor.
Reggin wakes up to find a collar around her neck, suppressing her magic. She is taken to one of the spinners, Grima—someone she had believed to be loyal to Heidin. However, Grima has been playing both sides and now seeks to carve out her own path. She offers Reggin a choice: join her and her army of the dead or be used as bait to lure Eiric into sailing under her command.
Reggin, wary of Grima’s true intentions, plays along while quietly gathering information from those around her. When Grima leaves for a week, taking Naima with her, Reggin seizes the opportunity. She begins rallying the captives, earning their trust, and finds an ally who knows how to remove the collars. One by one, they unshackle themselves, gaining access to their magic once more. With that, Reggin now has an army.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of his home’s destruction, Eiric stumbles upon a body—Naima. A note is attached to her, but upon closer inspection, he realizes she’s still alive. He rushes her to a healer, claiming she was found at the farm. As Naima is tended to, Eiric has someone read the note to him, as he cannot read himself. It appears to be from Reggin, yet something feels off. She knows he cannot read, meaning she wouldn’t have sent him a written message.
Suspicious, yet unable to ignore the lead, Eiric decides to follow the note’s instructions to a meeting point in the marshes—fully aware that he is walking into a trap.
As Eiric departs, Ivar—who now has his own POV chapters—goes to check on Naima. When she wakes, she urgently insists that she must speak to Eiric. She reveals that everything was a trap orchestrated by Grima and that Grima was the one who burned down the farm. Realizing the danger Eiric is walking into, Ivar quickly gathers Eiric’s crew and convinces them to set sail with him and Naima to find and warn Eiric.
As they sail, they encounter a Spinners' ship—with Heidin aboard. The moment she lays eyes on Ivar, recognition flashes across her face. However, she doesn’t acknowledge him as her half-brother, only as a pawn. Coldly, she declares that she will keep him as leverage to get what she wants from Rikhard. Meanwhile, tensions continue to rise between Heidin and Modir Tyra, with Tyra’s influence waning in the growing power struggle.
News of Ivar’s capture soon reaches Rikhard, who, furious and grief-stricken, vows vengeance.
Meanwhile, Eiric continues his trek toward the trap. Along the way, he encounters a group of sailors who join forces with him. They reveal that they once sailed under Reggin and that she now commands an army of monsters and the dead. Instead of fear, Eiric feels immense pride in what she has become.
Back with Ivar, he bides his time as a prisoner, quietly observing and waiting for his chance. As he reflects on his life, he recalls a story Hilda once told him. Since Hilda had been close friends with his mother, she had known the truth—his father wasn’t Sven, but a traveling elven man. The revelation lingers in Ivar’s mind, reshaping everything he thought he knew about himself.
Reggin is managing her growing army when suddenly, she is informed that they’ve captured a man named Eiric—who is now being held as a prisoner and has requested to see her. Suspicious but curious, she heads to the prison, arguing briefly with the guard before stepping inside to confront Eiric.
Just as they begin to speak, the guard suddenly shoves Reggin down a floor and flees. In an instant, the truth becomes clear—it wasn’t a guard at all but Grima, using shapeshifting magic. Chaos erupts as the real guards rush in, restraining Eiric once more while helping Reggin to the healers.
Shortly after, Asgar visits Eiric in his cell, urging him to go see Reggin and protect her.
When Reggin regains consciousness, Eiric is there by her side. He recounts everything that happened, including the fact that Grima stole the keys—her goal being to obtain a god stone. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Reggin gathers her army and gives them a choice: fight or return home. Many of the living choose to leave, but the dead remain, bound to her cause.
Meanwhile, Rikhard is in full preparation for war. As his fleet sails, they encounter another ship—one carrying Reggin, Asgar, and Eiric. In a moment of tense negotiation, they agree to a temporary truce. Eiric declares that he will fight for his brother, which means standing alongside Rikhard in the coming battle.
Back with Ivan, food rations are running low, and he senses that something is about to happen. Then, Eiric arrives, proclaiming himself the new king. He explains that he killed Rikhard and has come to claim Ivan so that he can be crowned. Eiric asks for his sisters to assist in crowning Ivan, but Ivan is torn. He’s furious that Eiric killed his father figure. Modir Tyra warns that this is a trick. As if on cue, Rikhard appears, charging toward Ivan with the intent to kill him.
However, Rikhard dies for real this time. But it’s not Rikhard—it’s Grima in shapeshifter form. In the confusion, Eiric grabs Heidin’s pendant, and in an instant, Liv returns to her body, though she’s disoriented and doesn’t recognize herself. Eiric reassures her, promising to take her back to New Jothunheim.
While trying to figure out how to help Liv, Reggin realizes that Asgar has taken the pendant and disappeared. He soon reappears, telling her that the pendant is safe, but that he himself is dead and has always been. He was the first body Reggin ever raised, but now, it’s time for him to return.
Reggin decides it’s time to leave and find a new place to live, while Eiric departs to take Liv back to her home. Meanwhile, Ivan and Rikhard continue to build their land, bolstered by a new army—the dead.
The final scene shows Eiric finding Reggin on her farm, and they make a promise to see the world together.
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