Part of Shifters Unbound
First published 2011
Alanna has no good options. Sister to a Fae prince, she has been handed a mission she cannot refuse: travel back to medieval Ireland and convince a Shifter to make a sword of extraordinary power. The Shifter she needs is Niall O'Connell, master swordsmith of the old Kingdom of Ciarrai, and he wants nothing to do with her. Shifters remember what it meant to live under Fae rule, and Niall carries that resentment close. He sees Alanna and sees the enemy. But Alanna is not what Niall expects. Her situation is desperate in ways she cannot hide, and the more she tells him, the harder it becomes for him to turn her away. They work together at the forge, shaping metal into something that has never existed before. The sword they produce will matter far beyond their lifetimes. So will what grows between them. This standalone novella is the origin story of the Sword of the Guardian from Jennifer Ashley's Shifters Unbound series. It runs approximately ten thousand words and also appears in the print anthology The Mammoth Book of Irish Romance.
Genres: romance, fantasy, fantasy-romance, paranormal-romance, historical-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, magical, romantic, slow-burn
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, magical-artifact
Setting: Medieval Ireland, Kingdom of Ciarrai
Period: Medieval
38 pages · ebook · JA / AG Publishing