Axel Reed was twelve, and tonight he meant to earn a place among the gods. The trial was simple to say and deadly to do: cross the frozen woods alone, from his father's hall to the grove where the moon goddess judged the brave. No boy his age had ever finished it alive. Axel left the hall anyway. He wore his coat and his pink-streaked black hair under a wool cap, and he carried nothing but his nerve. The cold bit through his boots an hour in. He kept the lights of the Seaside Norse Hall at his back and walked toward the trees. Then he heard the snow break behind him. He turned. A white wolf stood at the edge of the pines. Its coat glowed under the moon. Its blue eyes fixed on him, and it did not blink. Axel knew that look. The thing had his scent. It padded forward, slow and sure, cutting off his path home. Axel ran. He crashed through drifts and stumbled down a slope. The wolf came easy behind him, never rushing, saving its strength. His lungs burned. He knew he could not outrun it. He dropped to his knees and dug. His hands closed on something hard and freezing in the snow. He yanked it free. It was a long icicle, thick as his arm, with cracked edges and a brutal point. He turned and held it out like a spear. The wolf stopped three steps away. It bared its teeth. Axel's arms shook. The ice was slick and heavy, and he had never fought anything in his life. "Stay back," he said. His voice broke. The wolf crouched to spring. Then the woods turned bright. A soft silver light spread across the snow, and the wolf flinched from it. A girl stepped between them. She was small, with long white hair and a glowing moon mark on her brow. Her feet were bare in the snow, yet the cold did not touch her. She raised one hand toward the wolf. "Not this one," she said. "He is mine to test." The wolf whined. It backed away, then bolted into the dark. Axel lowered the ice spear. His legs gave out and he sat hard in the snow. "Who are you?" "Selenae Nightwhisper. I speak for the moon goddess." She looked him over, unimpressed. "You came to pass the trial. You did not even reach the grove." "I would have fought it," Axel said. "With an icicle." Her mouth curved, almost a smile. "The goddess saw you draw a weapon from the snow instead of running home. That is why I came." She turned toward the deep woods. "The true trial starts now. Follow, and do not fall behind. What waits ahead will not fear a sharp word." Axel gripped the ice spear and climbed to his feet. He had wanted the gods to notice him. Now one of them had.