Page 88 of Wolf Hunted (Rejected Moons 1)

It feels like a miracle. I never believed that I would have this again.

Chapter 56

EMLYN

“Ithinkweshouldleave,” Milo says, glancing around nervously. “If someone did elemental magic here, they’re going to be really powerful. I don’t want to meet whoever it is.”

I think about the Moon Casters we met before, the ones with the strange sigils on their faces, and shudder. “I agree. We should get out of here.”

“Are you sure?” Nate asks. He’s still looking down the chasm as if he’s waiting for something to happen. “What if they’re not really dead?”

“Nobody could have survived that fall,” I say. “You heard how long it took my rock to hit anything when I dropped it.”

“But Milo said that was magic down there.” Nate looks deeply mistrustful. “Magic can beanything, right? Maybe they’re just floating down there in that fog, waiting for their chance to climb back out.”

“And you think we should stay here and wait for them?” I ask.

“Absolutely,” Nate says. “If they’re alive, I want to know it. I want to put an end to them.”

“You said you didn’t feel your mate bond break,” Milo says.

“I don’t think Iwouldfeel that, right in the moment,” I say. “It does feel weaker. I don’t feel like hurling myself down that chasm.” I look at Nate. “You remember how I was when we were underground, when he was yelling at me. I was half out of my mind with needing to get to him.”

“That would be hard to forget,” he agrees. “But you haven’t been like that recently. During the fight, you weren’t like that.”

“But I stillfeltlike that,” I say. “It wasn’t as overpowering because you and Milo were with me.”

“What do you mean?” Milo asks.

“Something about the two of you makes it easier to resist the alpha bond,” I say. “But now…I can still feel it, but it’s like it's coming from really far away. It feels like it’s fading.”

“Maybe she’s right,” Milo says. “It probably just takes time. I don’t see how anybody could be alive after elemental magic of that magnitude.

“No,” a quiet voice says. “Nobody could.”

We all turn.

The voice belongs to a very tall, very slender man with sleek black hair. He’s leaning up against the trunk of a tree and watching us.

“Who the hell are you?” Nate demands, starting forward.

Milo catches his arm. “Don’t, Nate.”

Nate glances at him. “Is this a friend of yours?”

“Of course not,” Milo says.

“Then why—”

“He’s the one who did it,” I say. I’ve figured out what Milo’s thinking. I look at the stranger. “You did the elemental magic, didn’t you?”

He nods. He doesn’t speak.

“Why would you do something like that?” Nate demands. “Opening up a crack in the ground like that—”

“I would have thought you’d be thanking me,” the stranger says. “I got rid of your enemies for you.”

“We could have fallen down there ourselves!” Nate says.

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