HER SHADOW WAS STOLEN. HER SOUL WAS NEXT.
When shadows can be stolen and souls harvested, Jessamine Merrow's fractured essence becomes London's most coveted weapon.
In gaslit Victorian London, glassblower Jessamine has no patience for superstition, secret societies, or the whispered terrors of alchemy. Magic is nonsense—until she wakes to find her shadow gone, her workshop destroyed, and her soul bleeding into the aether.
The only man willing to help her is Augustin Bellamy, a disgraced alchemist with dangerous secrets and a dying sister he would sacrifice anything to save. Jessamine knows better than to trust him. But the moment they touch, an impossible soul-tie binds them together, flooding them with shared memories, forbidden desire, and the terrifying certainty that Augustin knows more about her violation than he should.
As the full moon approaches, Jessamine and Augustin uncover a forty-year conspiracy hidden beneath London's polished manners and gaslit streets. The Royal Alchemical Society has been harvesting the city's creative souls, feeding a machine designed to reshape consciousness itself. And Jessamine's bloodline may be the final ingredient.
Hunted by men who want her essence, haunted by a bond she cannot break, Jessamine must choose whether to become the weapon her parents died creating—or lose everyone she has dared to love to a beautiful, terrible transcendence.
Of Ash and Aether is a gothic gaslamp fantasy romance where Victorian propriety masks dangerous magic, stolen shadows bleed, and love may be the darkest alchemy of all.
Perfect for fans of C.J. Archer's Glass and Steele series who want darker magic, higher romantic stakes, and a heroine whose soul refuses to stay stolen.
