Tree of Life — Elita Faith Daniels

"The Darkening of Deacon" (Book I)  precedes "Before the Dawn" (Book II)

Wrath, vengeance, hatred, cannot breathe the same atmosphere as love. And so it was that love began to wither and withdraw... Among the ageless quietude of the elves, Deacon, a mortal, suffers the inescapable awareness of mortality. He lived in what many deemed perfection, but a dark uncertainty plagued him that there lay treachery in it all. When secrets of his mysterious heritage are revealed, the young mage is thrown into a revolt of confusion, and in an unwholesome vent of misery, travels a path of unforgivable deeds. One of the few left of his kind - a race whose magical energies are vigorously interwoven with their life force - Deacon is drawn into a world that turns into an involution of evil and death. The fate that awaits him will have immeasurable consequences far beyond his control.