Page 56 of Rejected Moons (Rejected Moons 3)

“It’s dark,” Milo says.

“Paul’s will be open all night,” I say. “We can keep going.”

Emlyn shakes her head. “We need time to rest, Nate,” she says.

I’m majorly conflicted. Part of me wants to give Emlyn everything she wants, so I agreed.What is happening to me?

Once we arrived at a good place to camp, Milo built a fire in about twenty seconds. I didn’t even see how he did it.

But I know. It’s because he’s a Moon Caster. He’s a hybrid, like Emlyn. And they’ve got me outnumbered now.

I don’t want to be impressed with him. I want to hate him. But just as with her, I can’t seem to feel the revulsion I should.

The thing is, he saved a woman’s life. And that’s got me mixed up enough that I’ve allowed myself to be distracted from my desire to get to Paul’s. Turn these Moon Casters in.

That woman would have died if he hadn’t been there.

He and Emlyn are talking quietly now. I can tell how thrilled she is to have met someone who she can think of as just like her.

“So, how much magic do you know?” she asks eagerly.

“Not that much,” he says. “My training stopped when I was ten years old, when I ran away from my coven. Moon Caster children are still learning the basics at that age. We don’t get into advanced stuff until we’re older. Basic combat training starts at fifteen, and you can start to specialize in a discipline when you’re twelve. I would have gone into healing.”

“What are the other disciplines?” Emlyn asked. “What can Moon Casters become?”

He ticks them off on his fingers. “Healing, stealth, advanced combat—everyone learns how to take care of themselves in a fight, but the advanced combat people are the soldiers of the coven—then there’s coven defense, and alchemy.”

“Alchemy?”

“Yeah, like potions and stuff,” Milo says.

“What do the potions do?”

“Oh, all kinds of stuff,” he says. “But I was never very good at that, so I don’t make potions now.”

“Do you still use other magic?” she asks. “I mean, you were using it with Annie, right? You were helping her out magically?”

“Yeah, I was,” he says. “Good catch.”

“Did your coven teach youthat?”

“Not exactly,” he says. “But helping the body relax during an injury is part of basic magic. It’s the first healing magic we all learn. That’s all I was really doing with Annie—keeping her calm so her delivery would go a bit more smoothly.”

“I guess no magic could save the baby,” Emlyn says.

“The baby was already dead when I got there,” Milo says.

They’re quiet for a moment.

Then Milo gets to his feet. “I’m going to go and find some firewood,” he says. “You’ll watch that, make sure it doesn’t go out?”

“Yeah, I will,” Emlyn says. “Don’t worry about it.”

Milo nods and jogs off into the trees.

I wait until he’s gone and then come over to sit beside Emlyn. “He’s something,” I say.

“I want to stick with him,” Emlyn says. “I want him to stay with us. Is that all right with you?”

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