Page 58 of Rejected Moons (Rejected Moons 3)

“You do it all the time,” I remind her. “Don’t you put your brain to sleep?”

“I guess. I don’t really knowhowI do that. It just…happens.”

“Okay, well, it’s a similar concept. And you’re going to use the power of the moon to help you.”

I look up at the moon above us. It’s waning, and I’d prefer to be teaching her under a waxing moon because the moon is more powerful as it grows toward full. But this isn’t a complex spell. She should be able to access enough magic to get it done.

Emlyn opens her eyes and stares up at the moon along with me.

“I can’t use the power of the moon,” she says.

“Why can’t you?” I ask.

“Because…well, it’s wrong,” she says. “It’s unnatural.”

“The moon is unnatural?”

“No, of course not. Not the moon itself. But it wasn’t meant to be used like that,” she says. “The moon doesn’t belong to one person. It’s everyone’s. And using it for personal gain is how the Moon Casters caused the Lunar Reversal in the first place.”

I nod. I understand her objection. It’s something every Moon Caster learns at a young age. “I don’t know how the Lunar Reversal came to be,” he says. “But I do know that the moon isn’t affected by small amounts of magic by a single person. It must have been a large spell, or a large group, that caused it to happen.”

“Are you sure?” she asks doubtfully. “What if I try this and it makes things worse?”

Nate, who has been watching us with an expression of extreme skepticism on his face, speaks up. “This isn’t the first time you’ve ever done magic,” he says to her.

“It would be the second time,” she says. “And the first time was an accident. I didn’t even know I was doing it.”

“Really?” he asks. “Just the second time?”“Well, maybe the third time. There was a thing with my alpha. He gave a command, and I…I told you this,” she says. “You know what happened. Magic manifested at my mating ceremony.”

“Let me guess,” I say. “Under the full moon?”

“That’s right,” she says.

I nod. “That’s when children in moon caster covens usually access their magic for the first time. There are celebrations.” I hesitate. “Not that there are very many children left.”

We’re all quiet for a minute.

Then Emlyn lies back. “Okay,” she says, closing her eyes. “Let me try it again.”

“Feel the moon,” I tell her. “Let it wash over you. Let itintoyou—through your skin. Let the light of the moon wrap around your hunger and quiet it, put it to sleep.”

Her eyes open, and she sighs. “Oh.”

“You’re not telling me thatworked?” Nate demands.

“It did,” she says. “I’m not hungry anymore.” She looks at me. “How long can I go without eating by doing this?”

“You shouldn’t try to go for too long,” I tell her. “This magic gives you strength when you might otherwise have been weak, but you still need nourishment. If you starve yourself, your body will eventually weaken, and then it will take more than basic magic to save you.”

“Advanced magic?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “More advanced than anything I know how to do, that’s for sure.”

She hesitates for a moment. “That baby,” she says. “The one who died.”

“What about it?”

“Could it have been saved by advanced healing magic?”

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