Free Foxheart by Claire Legrand

Lands long ago, in that dark age of war. They were seeking the bones of their monsters, and once they found them, they would return to the world, powerful and terrible.
    And so Ari Tarkalia became the Wolf King, and began the hunt, so that when the First Ones returned, there would be no other witches left to challenge them.

    â€œSo the Wolf King . . . is a boy?” managed Quicksilver, her voice hushed. She glared at Sly Boots, whose wide eyes peeked out over the edge of his pillow.
    He reeled back from her. “What’s that look for? What, because I’m a boy too? I can’t help being a boy, you know!”
    Fox lowered his head to the bed and put his front paws over his snout. “Someone make him stop shrieking, please .”
    â€œOnce, the Wolf King was a boy,” said Anastazia. “But now he is something else. Something darker. I’m not sure there’s anything left of the boy Ari inside the creature he has become.”
    â€œBut what about us?” Quicksilver leaned forward. “You, and me? And our Foxes?” She waved her hand back and forth between them. “How are you me, and how am I you?”
    Anastazia’s irritated gaze softened—with fondness or sadness, Quicksilver couldn’t tell.
    â€œThis last bit,” said Anastazia with a tiny grin, “is my favorite part. I always like talking about myself, you know.”
    Quicksilver sat up a bit straighter. “I do too!”
    â€œI know, little thief.” Anastazia cleared her throat, folded her hands in her lap, and began the last part of her story.
    Once there was a witch who didn’t know she was a witch.
    She lived in the kingdom of Lalunet. Magic had long faded from the world, thanks to the Wolf King. He had hunted the witches until hardly any remained, and those that did lived in hiding, praying to the stars that the Wolf King would never find them. The colors of the world faded, and the stars dimmed.
    Worst of all, the Wolf King had sowed in the hearts of humans distrust and fear of witches. Humans came to revere him, the witch slayer, and erect churches in his name. He taught them false truths about witches, but no one still lived who knew the real truth and would speak it.
    This witch—the witch of our story, who called herself Quicksilver—
    â€œDo you mean . . . you?” Sly Boots asked Anastazia. “Not this Quicksilver,” he said, pointing at Quicksilver, “but you, Anastazia, when you were young?”
    Quicksilver and Anastazia both glared at him.
    â€œI’m talking about us ,” said Anastazia, pointing at herself and then at Quicksilver. “Not either of us sitting here right now, but the first version of us to travel back in time. Just let me tell my story, won’t you? I’ve almost finished.”
    â€œSorry,” muttered Sly Boots. He glanced over at Quicksilver. “It’s just a pretty good story, actually, you know? I’m getting overly excited.”
    Quicksilver threw him such a fierce look that he immediately fell silent.
    The witch of our story , who called herself Quicksilver (though that wasn’t her true name), didn’t come into her magic until the age of twenty, which is much later than she would have, had the Star Lands still been full of witches and bright with magic, as they had once been.
    When she was twenty, magic settled in her companion, an old dog named Fox, who then became her monster. There now existed a mighty bond between them, connecting their hearts.
    Quicksilver didn’t know much about magic—other than what she had learned at the convent when she was young—but she knew it was forbidden, and that the Wolf King hunted those who possessed it. Quicksilver lived nowhere and everywhere, stealing to survive. She was good at stealing, so though it was a lonely life, it was not a hard one.
    Then one day Quicksilver was imprisoned in a town for thievery. Another prisoner there had been