The 25%

In a world shaped by Norse gods and ancient magic, Astrid lives hidden in the woods-a fire witch who chose exile over love. Though she appears young, she is over a century old, displaced from modern-day Puerto Rico into a medieval timeline where fate is law and the gods are never wrong. She refuses love magic, not out of cruelty, but because every spell of the heart has a cost-and she's already paid too much.

Her only companion is Rye, her familiar and brother in spirit, a being who can see the future and shift between forms. They are not siblings in the traditional sense; they are survivors of broken timelines where each lost the other. In this world, they chose to remain together, bound by choice rather than blood, protecting one another from destinies that once destroyed them.

When Orion, a knight sworn to the gods, seeks Astrid's help, he becomes something she never wanted-her apprentice. He is water to her fire: steady, devout, and human. As magic awakens within him, so does a forbidden connection between them. But for witches like Astrid, love shortens life itself. To love is to burn faster, and no one knows how much time she truly has left.

As a god-devoted faction known as the Aesir Guard begins hunting those who defy divine order, Astrid, Rye, and Orion are forced into a final reckoning-between fate and free will, devotion and defiance, love and survival.

It's a story about chosen family, clashing worlds, elemental magic, and the terrifying question of whether love is worth the life it costs.