Dark Romantasy

Gael Ashen

The Unmarked Courts

A 10-book series where mythology is the architecture and romance is the point.

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A Pact of Ash and Thorn — Book Cover

The Unmarked Courts — Book One

A Pact of Ash

and Thorn

The contract reads what you hide. The problem is, so does he.

Bryn has been choosing the dead for a thousand years. She'd very much like to stop making personal choices of any kind.

Cernach has been running from something he wants for two thousand years. The Wild Hunt doesn't stop when you tell it to. Neither, it turns out, does he.

When a stolen Celtic artifact kicks off a mythic black market crisis in contemporary London, they're forced to sign a contract that reads their suppressed thoughts and whispers them to each other.

Ancient, ruthless, and furious about it.

Enemies to Lovers Forced Proximity Dark Romantasy Mythological
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Coming 2026

“Enemies-to-lovers dark romantasy for readers who like their gods ancient, their banter razor-edged, and their tension so thick it could stop a Wild Hunt spear.”

A Multi-Book Series

The Unmarked Courts

A parallel realm called the Pale, where mythological beings retreated when humanity stopped believing. It runs on belief as currency. It is slowly, irreversibly, collapsing. Each book follows a different couple through a different mythology, a different era, a different impossible love story. Read them in any order. Be rewarded for reading them all.

Book 1 · Available for Pre-Order

A Pact of Ash and Thorn

Norse + Celtic · Contemporary London

Book 2 · In Production

A Crown of Hollow Bones

Greek + Slavic · 1880s St. Petersburg

Book 3 · In Production

What the Serpent Remembers

French + Germanic · 1490s Venice

Book 4 · In Production

The Knight Without a Name

Arthurian · Contemporary Wales

Book 5 · In Production

The War Beneath the Skin

Irish · Contemporary Dublin

More Books · In Development

The story continues…

Romanian · Norse · Roman · Alpine · Slavic

Gael Ashen

About the Author

Gael Ashen

Gael Ashen writes dark romantasy rooted in the mythologies humanity forgot to keep believing in. His debut series, The Unmarked Courts, follows ten impossible love stories across a collapsing parallel world where gods, monsters, and ancient beings navigate the space between what they are and what they choose.

He believes romance is a structural element, not a subplot. That banter should cost something. That the reader who picks up the book wanting to fall in love with someone they probably shouldn't deserves exactly that, complicated past bearing and resolved completely.