The Fire Stallion

The Fire Stallion
Stacy Gregg

An enchanting and empowering standalone story from the author of The Princess and the Foal.Twelve-year-old Hilly has landed her dream job, riding on the set of Brunhilda, an epic film based on the fearless warrior of Icelandic legend. Norse fire ritual tells that on mid-summer’s day, animals and humans can shape-shift and one night Hilly finds herself connected to the young warrior and her fire stallion. As the two girls’ lives intertwine, Hilly soon realises that they’ll both have to risk everything for the love of their horses…Inspired by real-life historical events, The Fire Stallion is an epic tale…

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2018

Published in this ebook edition in 2018

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

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The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Text copyright © Stacy Gregg 2018

Cover design © HarperCollins Children’s Books 2018

Cover images and decorative illustrations © Shutterstock

Stacy Gregg asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008261412

Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008261436

Version: 2018-07-24

For Nicky Pellegrino and the Sea Breeze Café

Contents

Cover (#ud2dd05cd-f34a-5ef6-be3c-0cc080a0b43d)

Title Page (#u73bd0d27-3368-5ee6-8ae2-a422602aac38)

Copyright (#u4675883e-7867-5ec2-9a93-54c82ea1507a)

Dedication (#u54c3f443-34b0-58c3-aa80-dbe1a70fee69)

Chapter 1: Eternal Dawn

Chapter 2: Horses in the Woods

Chapter 3: Transmogrification

Chapter 4: The All-Thing

Chapter 5: Bru and Me

Chapter 6: The Hammer of Thor

Chapter 7: The Island

Chapter 8: True Love’s Kiss

Chapter 9: Prince Sigard

Chapter 10: The Fire Ring

Chapter 11: Loki’s Trick

Chapter 12: The Bidding

Chapter 13: Fire Stallion

Chapter 14: Long Shadows

Chapter 15: Casting the Runes

Chapter 16: Valkyrie

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Other books by Stacy Gregg

About the Publisher

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When I was little, I was terrified of the dark. I was totally convinced that night-time brought the monsters to life.

I never thought that one day I would miss it. That I would be here now, lying in bed wide awake at midnight, longing for the peaceful inky blackness of a true night sky.

When I push apart the blackout curtains in our log cabin it’s as bright as day outside. Lilac clouds sweep in drifts across the sky, their edges rimmed with fiery shades of pink. At the horizon the sky deepens into blood red until the point where it strikes the sea and becomes molten gold.

Nobody mentioned the constant daylight to me before we arrived in Iceland. Mum had told me it was going to be freezing here, even though it’s the middle of summer, but she never said that in summer there’s virtually no night. It’s because we’re so close to the North Pole. The sun pretty much never sets.

You would think that continual daytime would be cool – like staying up as late as you want. But it’s not like that. Eventually, you want to sleep whatever, and then you find that you can’t because, even with the blackout curtains, those rays find a way of creeping in. Just knowing that the sun is blazing outside while you’re in bed trying to sleep is enough to keep you wide awake.