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

by Elise Kova

It is the oldest tree in the woods and was said to have been planted by the hands of a long-ago human queen who married the king of the elves in exchange for all our lives and safety. No one alive is quite sure any longer if it was meant to be a gift to the lykin, or a boon to the dwindling bloodline of witches.

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.

“That depends on whose stories you are listening to. The siren sing that the city sank far below the earth—that its people became the first spirits their old gods shepherded to the Beyond, and, perhaps, monsters of the deep. The fae’s stories say that their kind destroyed the ancient city, for its kings couldn’t be trusted as they dabbled in forbidden rituals.”

“The lykin’s stories say that we lived in harmony with this kingdom. That we taught them about how to commune with the spirits and the sirens to their west taught them how to revere the old gods. The tales say forgotten kingdoms were the greatest among us and, for their splendor, they were rewarded. They were carried with the old gods as they left this world, ascending beyond this mortal coil to eternal glory.”

“The fae’s account I suspect to be the most true. A kingdom—or kingdoms—that refused to follow the rules of the King’s Council as it assembled. I find the fact that the lake extends from Evalon to be supporting evidence of this theory.