Dark Devotion: Dark Series 3 (24 page)

Aesir (n) –
The sky gods. It is their belief they are superior to all other races in the Nine Worlds.

Affinity (n) –
The weapon that a Shadow Walker uses as their preferred weapon. It is said that the weapon will choose the Mare while they are training for the Final Test.

Asgard (n) –
The former home of the Aesir.

Fade (v) –
To dematerialize and rematerialize in another location with a thought.

Fall, the (n) –
The time when the Norse gods were no longer worshipped and therefore lost their power. The Fall was the tipping point that destroyed the Nine Worlds, breaking down the highly organized and coveted hierarchy built by the Aesir. Factions split and different species within the Nine Worlds were strewn across the human world. Some prospered while some merely survived. The gods favored the cities created by humans while others, like the dwarves, preferred the farthest outposts of human civilization.

Fenrir –
A monstrous wolf that was imprisoned by Odin. He is also one of Loki’s children.

Freki –
One of the wolves who once served Odin loyally.

Freyja
–
The goddess of sexuality, beauty, war and death.

Frigg –
Odin’s wife; the goddess of fertility, love and marriage.

Geri –
One of the wolves who once served Odin loyally.

Glasir
–
the giant, golden tree that grows outside Valhalla.

Gleipnir
(n) –
The silken ribbon created by the dwarves in order to bind the giant wolf,
Fenrir
.

Hel –
The goddess of the underworld.

Hreidmar –
The king of the dwarves.

Huginn –
 One of the ravens that serves Odin.

Loki –
The god of trickery.

Mare (n) –
A dark elf. Pure-blooded Mares are widely believed to be extinct, after a campaign by Odin over a thousand years ago to eradicate their species. To escape persecution, dark elves bred with light elves, creating half-breed children whose features helped them to pass as light elves. Mares are usually no shorter than six feet tall. Their appearance is humanoid; however, they have fangs. They are not for the taking of blood for sustenance; rather they are used for sexual gratification.

Midgard (n) –
The home of the humans.

Mimir’s Well –
The well where Odin sacrificed his eye to drink the wisdom from the water.

Mjolnir
(n) –
Odin’s hammer.

Muninn –
One of the ravens that serves Odin.

Muspelheim (n) –
 “The Land of Fire” is home to the fire giants and fire demons. It is ruled by the giant
Surt.

Nidavellir (n) –
The land of the dwarves.

Nidhogg
–
“The Corpse Eater” is a dragon that gnaws at the roots of
Yggdrasil
.

Odin –
The father of all gods and men. Sometimes referred to as the All-Father.

Old language (n) –
The language spoken by human and gods alike at the height of the Aesir’s power.

Ragnarok (n) –
The prophesized and feared end of the world for many gods including Odin and Loki.

Shadow Walker (n) –
Shadow Walker
is the ancient name for any Mare trained to be an assassin because of their ability to “wrap” shadows around them to conceal themselves. However, due to the extensive inter-breeding with the light elves, many dark elves lost the ability to shadow walk, but the name remains the same. Shadow Walkers were feared for their ability to enter a person’s dreams and manipulate them.

Sleipnir –
An eight-legged horse owned by Odin. Sleipnir is also one of Loki’s children.

Surt –
The giant who is a major figure in the events of
Ragnarok
.

Thor –
The god of thunder. He is also Odin’s son. Thor gets his power and strength from the hammer
Mjolnir
. In order to have that power, Thor must be touching his hammer.

Tyr
–
The god of war.

Valhalla (n) –
An enormous hall within Asgard that housed fallen battle heroes.

Valkyrie (n) –
A beautiful warrior female created by Odin to take the bodies of men slain in battle to Valhalla. They are immortal only while their swan feather cloak is in their possession. If this cloak is stolen, the thief is entitled to seven years of service from the Valkyrie. If the feathers are plucked from the cloak, the Valkyrie can be killed by a mortal wound.

Yggdrasil
–
The holy ash tree that connects all the Nine Worlds together.

First and foremost I would like to thank my husband Phil, without whom any of the Dark Series books could not have been written. Thank you for being so understanding of my long hours in the study, working late at night and picking up the slack around the house when I couldn’t drag myself away from my characters and their demands. He is my rock; he keeps me steady and makes sure I don’t lose perspective.

To my parents, I’d like to thank them for coming over and babysitting (on more than one occasion) when I had to push through horrible bouts of writer’s block to finish the book. Their unconditional support means the world to me, and I love them even more for it.

To my brother, who helped me with choreographing some of the fight scenes, and for encouraging me to ‘dig a little deeper’ into my characters psyches. As with Dark Deceit and Dark Desire, he kept me on track and convinced me to push my creative limits.

To Brendan “The Badger” O’Reilly, the best UFC fighter I know, who helped me out with the MMA fight scene. It couldn’t have turned out better. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it.

To the team at Momentum – my editors Tara and Ashley for whipping Dark Devotion into literary shape, and to Shelly and Joel for bouncing ideas back and forth in the early days when I hit the creative wall. The Dark Series would not be what it is without this great group of people.  

And finally I’d like to thank you, the reader. If you’ve followed Bryn, Odin and Loki on their journeys, I hope you’ve enjoyed all the highs and lows. I also hope that you were left thoroughly satisfied with how the series finished. I’m not one for happy endings, so fingers crossed I did all right with this one. 

Born in South Africa and raised in Sydney, Lauren Dawes is an urban fantasy/paranormal romance writer and the author of the Dark Series.

In 2009, she quit her full-time job teaching English as a Second Language to finally begin writing "that book", letting her over-active imagination pour out onto the digital pages, much to everyone's horror. The catch phrase "I didn't know you had such a dark imagination" only fueled her to write more, where her love for Norse mythology and gods finally got the spotlight.

She currently lives with her husband and daughter in whatever city they happen to be posted to, and her cat, Oscar, who has inspired more than one character quirk or scene in her books.

To find out more, visit
www.authorlaurendawes.com

Dark Deceit: Dark Series 1
Dark Desire: Dark Series 2