A Dawn with the Wolf Knight (Married to Magic, #5)

by Elise Kova

To enter the woods as a human is death.

Then…there’s me. She who maintains the protective charms that keep one from the other and preserve the fragile peace of both.

It is a bad omen, when even the rocks cannot keep magic in their stony grip.

“Death is not something to fear, or lament. It is a gift, as much as life,”

Her hair is a silver so pure it’s platinum. Her eyes are darker than pitch. And her skin is nearly unnaturally pale… She is human at a glance, but the longer I inspect her, the more unsettling her appearance becomes.

The other man is younger than the first, roughly the same as my twenty-two years, if I had to guess. He is thick with muscles; biceps bulge and dip, angles as sharp as the grooves carved into his stomach that disappear into a pair of tight black trousers. The only other clothing he wears are a pair of worn, black boots and a thick leather band on his right wrist.

Even though he is the younger of the two, something about him feels distinctly more…kingly to me.

Briefly, a shadowy wolf walks alongside me, more solid than the rest. One of his ears is hooked unnaturally, as if a chunk is missing. With a flash of gold eyes, he’s gone.

“Would you like to—uh—ride Evander, instead?” I fight laughter at the absurdity of the question. Must my mind really venture to the most inappropriate of places? Aurora bites her lower lip, holding back a chuckle. She must’ve known where my thoughts wandered. “He wants you on him.” A snort escapes me. Her grin says the phrasing was on purpose.

Finally, after what feels like forever, he offers me a slow nod. “I will always be on your side, Faelyn.”

“But now…now I am grateful for every breath. Every gnarled scar on my flesh and heart is like a map that led me to here, now, with you. I wouldn’t change any second of pain because forsaking it would also mean forsaking the pleasure of your company, your smiles, your body.”

I thought I knew what love was…but now I know it was nothing more than a childhood infatuation. It was real, but as real as it could be for a young woman whose world was small and who knew so little. Real looks different when your perspective on the world changes with time and experience.