The Phoenix and the Sword

Training as a combat nurse is Aili Fallon's escape from an abusive family and her grey existence. She seizes it with both hands, despite her guilt over leaving her mother behind. And within her class of trainees, she's ironically found a level of peace, as she prepares for war.

But when she rescues a mysterious young woman in an alleyway behind a bar, something in her shifts - nothing as simple as desire. Almost like a homecoming, to a home she's never known. Tairei knows Aili, even if Aili can't recognize herself in Tairei's eyes. And in Tairei's presence, the world routinely upends itself, and the impossible becomes almost ordinary.

When Tairei disappears in a fiery tempest, she saves Aili but also grants her a terrible immortality, and new and undiscovered powers Aili can't control. She will risk all the safety she has won to find Tairei again: crossing into a spiritual realm, wielding a sword she can't remember, and discovering a love doomed a thousand years ago.

And it just might bring her home again.

*****
The Phoenix and the Sword is the first book in the Crane Moon Cycle duology, a queer epic fantasy set in a xianxia-inspired world of spiritual powers, past lives, and beings of myth and legend. Perfect for those looking for stories blending adventure, love, and unexpected conclusions. The story is completed in The Shoreless River.

The Crane Moon Cycle is set in a world that includes war and violence, and themes that may be difficult for some readers. Please see the author's website, jcsnow.com, for details.