Book excerpt: Ingrid Tirsdatter is no stranger to difficult missions. As a first-year shieldmaiden, she’s fought off Viking warriors, defeated the not-quite-dead, and ridden into battle atop a fire-breathing dragon. But nothing in her training prepared her for her current assignment. In order to stop a madman from destroying her home, Ingrid’s jumped one thousand years into the future, moved into an elite Southern California sorority, and done everything in her power to not get distracted by Axel Andersson—her absurdly attractive, and extraordinarily egotistical, battle partner. So far, she’s managed to keep her mission reasonably on track. But when a mysterious stranger shows up with an offer to lead Ingrid to her target, her well-orchestrated plan begins to unravel. It turns out that Ingrid isn’t the only one engaged in subterfuge. If she fails to hunt down the elements that have set her enemy on his dark path, there’s no telling what will become of the future . . . or the past. Ingrid and her team are in a race against time. And if they can’t outrun their target, both of the worlds she’s come to love will be nothing more than a memory.