Roots of Darkness by Demi Winters

Here is a summary with spoilers for Roots of Darkness by Demi Winters 

The famed Bloodaxe crew has been pulled apart, with their leader on a different task, and Hekla has been put in charge. Her orders are to take the Bloodaxe crew and go to Istre. There they are supposed to figure out what is happening with the mist, which was their original task. To help the crew, they are to meet up with a man named Eyvind Hokonsson, who will arrive with his people, and the two groups will work together.

The morning she is to meet Eyvind, Hekla wakes up in a stranger’s bed. She decides not to wake him up, but ends up sneaking out instead. She meets back with the rest of the crew, Gunnar and Sigrun, and they prepare to go meet Eyvind. Though when she officially meets him, she is horrified to find out that he is the man she slept with the night before and snuck out of his room.

The book goes back and forth between the present and the night before, when Hekla meets a mysterious man near the fighting ring. She goes out to be by herself, but the man follows her and claims he wants to fight a true warrior. Their conversation continues, and Hekla realizes that the man might not be all that bad.

Back in the present, Eyvind introduces them to his second, Konal, who seems to be very protective of Eyvind. The two groups then begin to discuss what to do with the mist, with Eyvind leading, which makes Hekla a little upset. That evening, Eyvind goes and finds Hekla, wanting to know why she left without saying anything, insinuating that they had a real connection the night before.

With her anger, Hekla decides to go out to the forest and explore the mist on her own. She starts to hear a voice and starts to see a squirrel. She thinks that she is going mad, but the squirrel tells her to follow. His name is Krikta. Hekla follows a little too closely and gets too close to the mist, causing her to get harmed. She wobbles back to camp, where Eyvind grabs her and takes her to a healer. When she wakes, he is furious that she would go out without any backup. He tells her she has one more chance, but that he wants to help her and work together.

Back to the past, the two end up fooling around out in the forest, and Hekla enjoys his company even more now. They even move things to his tent so they can have proper fun.

Hekla goes about the outskirts of the forest. She still hears and sees Krikta, and at this point she has to tell Eyvind about it. He looks at her different but does not say anything about it. Once Eyvind leaves, Hekla follows Krikta, and he takes her to bodies, where once again she puts her life in danger. When Eyvind finds her this time, he gets furious and kicks her off the job. Hekla is furious at him, because this time she was honest, but he did not come with her. Her anger then goes on to talk about Konal, his second in command. She tells Eyvind that Konal is just using him for a ritual and that he has a tight leash on him. Eyvind does not take her anger and tells her to leave.

Back in the past, Hekla realizes she has something with the man, and it scares her. So she starts to talk about her past husband who took her arm and left her for dead. Instead of scaring him, the man responds in anger and protects Hekla. They continue their night together, with the man convincing her to break her rules and spend the night with him.

To keep the Bloodaxe crew together, Gunnar and Sigrun come to talk to Hekla and tell her that Eyvind is leaving to explore the mist. She tells them she is going to sneak into his group. They help her, but when she gets to the camp, Eyvind is waiting for her, knowing that she would come anyway. He apologizes that he got angry with her, but he does believe her, including the info about Konal. This is why he played a part and told her to leave, because Konal was watching. Eyvind agrees with Hekla’s plan, which she learned from Krikta. They are going to bring an offering to the mist. When they do so, all hell breaks loose, and turned monsters arrive and attack them all. To help kill the monsters, a blast of fire erupts. Eyvind is a Galdra, someone who controls fire. Even after his magic, fighting continues. Eyvind protects Hekla and hurts himself in the process, which Hekla tells him was a stupid thing to do. But they realize that what they did worked with the mist.

The two go back to camp and are able to relax a little, knowing a little more about the mist. Hekla spends some time for herself, but then realizes that she actually wants to spend time with Eyvind. She decides to go look for him, but runs right into Gunnar, who is part of the crew, and she and he have been having fun together, though Hekla believed it to be casual. Gunnar though is ready to take it to the next level and proposes marriage to her. Hekla is shocked, says that she needs time to think, and runs away. She finds Eyvind, but he is talking to his friend, and she overhears them talking. His friend mentions that Eyvind needs to talk to Hekla about his betrothed, Liv. Hekla is devastated to know that despite their connection, Eyvind is betrothed, and now she wants nothing to do with him.

She goes to the forest to think, which is when Krikta appears again. The squirrel wants Hekla’s help. The mist is growing, and something dark is coming, and Krikta needs help waking up his mistress, because she can help with the mist. Hekla agrees to help, but realizes she needs to go and get reinforcements. This gives her the perfect opportunity to get away from both Gunnar and Eyvind.