Page 21 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

She sighs. “If I’m honest,” she says, “I always felt like something wasn’t adding up.”

“You did?”

“Well, it just doesn’t quite make sense, does it?” she says. “Milo and I have been running around using magic for a while now, and nothing terrible has happened. We already knew that the moon magic itself wasn’t the problem.”

“The Moon Drinkers are the problem,” I agree. “It’s their whole philosophy. Anything can be dangerous if you do too much of it.”

“Why do you call them Moon Drinkers?” she asks.

“They call themselves that,” I say. “I think it’s because they view the moon as a resource to be consumed. Whereas we think of it more as a benign partnership. Or even something to be worshiped. We love the moon.”

“Shifters are the same,” she says quietly. “That’s part of why we hate what they did so much.”

“That makes sense.”

“How do you know so much about them?”

“Back before the Reversal, back when Lord Enorio was still recruiting, they mixed with us a lot more than they do today. It wasn’t as clear that they were malicious.”

“How could that not be clear?” she asks. “They sound awful.”

“They sound awful because you’re hearing everything after the fact,” I say. “But you have to realize it was different back then. For one thing, Lord Enorio hadn’t taken on his title yet. He was justHenryback then.”

“Well, that does sound less ominous.”

“Right. And it wasn’t like he was walking around saying, hey, let’s decay the moon’s rotation, cause a bunch of natural disasters, and kill all the humans. His pitch to most people was that it wasn’t natural for Moon Casters to curtail our powers, and that we could be capable of great things if we spread our wings and experimented a little.”

“It doesn’t sound so bad when you say it like that,” Emlyn agrees.

“No, it doesn’t. It’s something I’ve actually thought about myself. Regine is really uptight about how much power we’re allowed to use around here. Caution is the rule. Personally, I think we’re beingoverlycautious. I think we could do more, and I’d like to try.”

“You don’t think that’s dangerous?”

“There’s a whole spectrum between the rules Regine has us follow and the stuff Lord Enorio does,” I say. “I think there’s plenty of room in there to expand on our power without destroying ourselves or harming anybody else. And I think, honestly, that it would be good for us as Moon Casters to try, so that we can have a better understanding of where that line really is. But Regine doesn’t think so, and she’ll never let us experiment. It’s frustrating.”

“I see what you mean,” Emlyn says.

I look at her. “You don’t think I’m crazy for wanting that?”

“No,” she says. “Remember, I just found out I’m part Moon Caster. I want to know more about what I’m capable of too. I totally get where you’re coming from.”

“I appreciate that,” I tell her. “Around here, nobody seems to get it.”

“So, do you think she liked me?” Emlyn asked. “Is she going to let us stay?”

“Do youwantto stay?”

“Well, I don’t know,” she admits. “But I like the idea of having options.”

“Fair enough. I have no idea what’s going to happen next. But she definitely didn’t hate you,” I say. “I don’t think she’s ever really internalized the fact that most shifters have no idea about the Moon Drinkers.”

“We don’t,” Emlyn said. “Or at least…I never did. I thought all Moon Casters were the same. I thought the Reversal was something all of you had caused together.”

“I know,” I say. “I figured it out.”

“How?”

“The things shifters have said to me during fights. Yelling at me for destroying the world. They really think I had something to do with it. And I’ve tried taking shifters aside before, letting them know the truth, but they don’t want to listen.” I sigh. “I can’t necessarily blame them.”

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