Page 126 of Moon Chosen

“You should hope so,” she said.

He put it on the ledge beside him. “Can we talk a little first?”

She lifted her shoulders. “It’s your pain—so it’s your decision.”

“Mari, where am I?”

“You’re in my burrow—my home.”

“Where’s the other girl who was here before? There was a girl with you, wasn’t there?”

“You mean Sora. Yes, she was here. She’s outside right now, but she’ll be back soon.”

“She wanted to kill me?” Nik said.

The smile in Mari’s gray eyes briefly reached her lips. “Yes, she did. Well, she probably still does, but she won’t.”

“Why not?”

“She’d say because I won’t let her, but the truth is because it would be inhumane to kill you, and we aren’t inhumane,” she said, meeting his gaze steadily, almost as if her words were meant to challenge him.

“But she’s a Scratcher!”

“Don’t call her that. Don’t ever use that word around me,” Mari snapped at him, her gray eyes flashing with anger. “We’re Earth Walkers. If you’re going to call us something, even after you get back to your people, call us that.”

“But the pup chose you, which means you are definitely not a—”

“I am!” Mari interrupted. “I’m an Earth Walker, just like my mother before me was an Earth Walker, and her mother before her.”

Reacting to her agitation, Rigel padded over to the girl. She had returned to her place by the hearth, and the young Shepherd leaned against her, gazing up at her with adoration. And all the puzzle pieces fell into place.

It was her! She’s the girl on fire. And she has bonded with the pup, just as Father and I guessed.Nik studied Mari while she murmured softly to the canine and began brewing tea for herself.

Was he remembering wrong what she’d looked like that day she’d set the fire, or had she changed drastically? No, he hadn’t been wrong. He hadn’t needed to see her up close to know that she’d looked like any other Scratcher female. Her hair had been long and dark, and her features had been unrefined.

What had happened to change that, or was he truly stuck in a nightmare and going mad because of it? Nik decided there was only one way to know for sure. He blurted, “Did you set that fire in the forest the day that old woman fell and broke her neck?”

“She wasn’t old.” Mari’s voice had lost all emotion.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insulting,” Nik said, choosing his words carefully. “That was you, though, wasn’t it?”

“It was me,” she said. “The woman’s name was Leda. She was my mother.”

The truth of it settled through Nik’s blood. That was what had been familiar to Nik—the girl’s eyes! They were the same color as the woman’s who had died. Mari was truly a half-breed—the child of a Companion and a Scratcher—or rather an Earth Walker, Nik corrected himself silently. He met her gaze. “I’m sorry about your mother.”

“So am I,” she said.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen. It was an accident.”

“I know. I was there.” She paused and then added, “I saw you go to her. Did she say anything to you before she died?”

“She called me Galen. She—she thought he’d come back for her,” Nik said.

Mari looked away, blinking rapidly. Before she spoke she cleared her throat, though her voice was still rough with emotion. “Galen was my father’s name.”

“He was one of the Tribe—a Companion,” Nik said.

Mari met his eyes again. “Yes, he was. And you killed him for loving my mother.”