Page 73 of Rejected Moons (Rejected Moons 3)

“Not necessarily,” she says. “They’ve been splitting themselves into smaller groups to cover more ground, trying to track me down. We might not have to take on all of them.”

“You don’t think we need to wipe them all out?”

“I think if we could get the alpha, Bruce, and also Victor—he was my alpha mate, the one who rejected me—I think the others would probably stop caring about me. They would give up and go home.”

“You don’t think they’d try to get revenge on you for killing their alpha?”

“I don’t think so,” she says. “But if they do, we’ll just take that one thing at a time.”

I nod. “Okay,” I say. “If we’re going to do this, you’re going to need some combat magic.”

“Do you know any?”

“Only the basics. But that’s all you’ll have time to learn anyway. I used it defensively against the Moon Casters.” I hold out a hand, focus my mind, and project a shield. It’s daytime, of course, and a waning moon, so my shield is weak. But it’s strong enough to hold Emlyn off.

“Try to attack me,” I say.

She looks confused. “Why would I attack you?”

“I’m showing you something,” I say. “Come on, take a swing at me.”

She still looks hesitant, but she swings. I can tell it’s not full strength. That’s probably good. I wouldn’t want the rebound to knock her over.

Sure enough, she meets my shield and it halts her swing abruptly. “What are you doing?” she demands, holding out two hands, pressing against the air in front of her and finding it unyielding.

“Combat shield,” I say. “It keeps out physical and magical attacks.”

“Seriously?” She sounds delighted. “It’ll keepanythingout?”

“Not anything. There’s magic that can overcome a shield of this strength, of course. This is a fairly weak one. And a really concentrated physical attack would be able to get through too. If you hurled a rock with a slingshot, that might work.”

“Can you teach me how to do it?”

“Yes,” I say. “It’s the same as before, when we were working on healing spells. The only difference is that this time you’re going to project the moon energy out in front of you,aroundyou, instead of inward. Let’s practice.”

She nods. “But let’s travel as we do,” she says. “Those Moon Casters might still be nearby.”

Chapter Forty-eight: NATE

Beingonmyownfucking sucks.

It’s hard to believe that I could feel this way about it because I’ve always reallylikedbeing alone. But something’s changed now.

Like when I see a bush with raspberries on it. This is a rare thing, and I want to tell Emlyn about it, but she’s not here. I can’t.

I go over to the bush instead and pick handfuls of raspberries, eating as I go. I gorge myself on them.

Ordinarily, this is the kind of thing that would have made me happy. The sugar that’s flooding my system right now should definitely be improving my mood.

No such luck.

Frustrated, I lie on my back under the leaves and stare up through them at the sun overhead. At least it’s cool down here. That’s something. It’s definitely a restful place to spend the day.

Em would like it here.

My stomach churns.

I can’t believe she didn’t even let me explain.

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