Page 87 of Rejected Moons (Rejected Moons 3)

“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.

“No, you couldn’t,” the stranger says. “I knew what I was doing.”

“We should go,” Milo says quietly. “We should definitely go now.”

But I don’t want to go. I’m curious about this new person. I’m curious about this new magic.

I step forward, away from Milo and Nate.

Milo breathes in sharply. I can feel Nate’s tension behind me. They hate what I’m doing. They want me to stop, to go back to them. To let them protect me against what they perceive as a threat.

I’m not used to letting other people protect me, though, and if this is a threat, I’m going to handle it myself.

“Who are you?” I say.

“My name is Wilder,” the man says.

“And you’re a Moon Caster,” I say.

“And so are you,” he says.

That surprises me. “How much of that fight did you see?”

“Enough. Enough to know what you are. And what he is.” He nods toward Milo. “You’re hybrids, right?”

Besides Milo, Wilder is the first person I’ve ever heard refer to hybrids without shock or disgust. He doesn’t sound like he hates me. He sounds like he’sinterestedin me. Scientifically, maybe. He’s curious.

“What about it?” I say.

“I’ve never met a hybrid,” Wilder says. “Your kind are supposed to be really rare.”

I wait.

“Is he a hybrid too?” Wilder asks, glancing at Nate.

“Never you fucking mind what I am,” Nate says.

“Nate,” I say quietly. “He helped us.”

“No, we don’t actually knowwhathe did,” Milo speaks up. “He did elemental magic. Powerful magic. We don’t know why. Just because ithappenedto work out in our favor, Emlyn, that doesn’t mean you can assume that he’s on our side, or that he can be trusted. He’s still a Moon Caster.”

“Why is it a problem that I’m a Moon Caster?” Wilder asks. “You’re Moon Casters yourselves.”

“The fact that you don’t know why someone wouldn’t be happy to see a Moon Caster is exactly why we don’t trust you,” Nate growls. “Maybe we should throw him down his own crack in the earth, Milo. What about that?”

“Oh,” Wilder says. “Were you raised by wolves, then?”

Amazing. He’s not even pissed off. He’s not even getting defensive. He’s just gathering information about us. His level of calm is kind of alarming. For the first time, I’m a little worried about him.

“We’re not going to tell you anything about ourselves,” Milo says.

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