title: Hel's Lover
author: MacLeod, Samantha
description: Baldr the Beautiful is dead. Desperate to get back to his privileged role as Óðinn’s favorite son, Baldr strikes a bargain with Hel, the half living and half skeletal queen of the realm of the dead. He offers the only thing he’s got: knowledge from the living world. If he can teach her something new, she can return him to the realms of the living. Hel gives him three days. But the icy Hel seems completely impervious to Baldr’s charms. What’s worse, she already knows everything. By the end of the third day, Baldr realizes he only has one chance left to impress her. Returning to his former life depends on Baldr the Beautiful seducing the most formidable woman in the Nine Realms.