Page 52 of When the Moon Met the Sun

At first, I felt him tense up at the sudden contact, but after a heartbeat, he relaxed against my touch. I looked up into hisface, and found that there was a slight pink tint spreading across his cheeks.

I couldn’t help but smile to myself.

The King of the South,blushing.

We lay like this, silently, for a while, until he saw me looking out of the window to the side of the bed.

“What are you looking for when you look out of the window at night?” he asked, his voice soft and gentle. It seemed he’d calmed down compared to earlier.

A sad smile crossed my lips. “Et lyrm,” I responded in Nolvym. “The moon. Before I left, my twin brother said as long as we were both looking to the moon at night, we’d be connected. It helps me feel like he’s not so far away sometimes,” I explained quietly, my voice full of sorrow.

Robyn sighed lightly, then placed his chin atop my head. “Ve thyrem, Avi,”I’m sorry, love,he responded in the old Northern tongue, surprising me. “I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to miss somebody.”

“You speak Nolvym?” I asked, my eyes searching his.

He nodded. “I learned it as a child and continued to study it as a teenager. Inphis adopted the common language shortly before the war, so I thought maybe the North would revert back to what they knew best. I always knew I wanted to be the one to bring peace to my people, my family. So I taught it to myself, just in case it was necessary to communicate with the North,” he explained, staring back into my eyes as he spoke.

I nodded in understanding, and tried to push the embarrassment I felt rising back down. I’d spoken Nolvym in his presence more than once.

I could feel sleep creeping up on me, so I broke our eye contact, resting my head against his chest once again.

Without lifting my head, I spoke without thinking, simply voicing the thoughts thatpopped into my tired mind.

“You know, you’re the first person to call me that. Avi. People usually shorten my name to Viva as a nickname,” I said to him after a moment, slowly closing my eyes. “I like it.”

He didn’t respond, but I could feel his emotions—warm, and overjoyed, and excited, and relaxed, and content. He was obviously very happy with our current arrangement, and I found that I was, too.

I leaned into his touch as his hand reached behind my head and gently twirled my hair around his fingers.

I was half aware that the idle circles I was drawing on his back with my fingertips became slower, but I felt so at peace in this moment, I couldn’t be bothered to care anymore about ignoring how I feel.

“Sweet dreams, Avi,” Robyn whispered into the darkness. I distantly felt his lips touch my forehead before I allowed sleep to conquer me.

Chapter Seventeen

It’d been four long, exhausting days since my first dinner with the Valwain, and I finally felt confident enough in my earth and plant wielding to say I had it under control.

I’d been training with Teagan and Chess from dawn to dusk every day, taking advantage of every moment we could since we had to start heading back to Cairnyl in a few days.

Apparently the officials back at The Haven were not very happy with the Valwain at that point in our stay. Robyn let it slip that we were all supposed to be back by now, but he extended our time here for over an extra week in order to let me have time to train in peace. At first I'd felt guilty, knowing that I messed up their plans. But Robyn reassured me that my training was of the utmost importance—not only so I could defend myself if need be, but so that I didn’t accidentally hurt anybody when we did return to Cairnyl.

For the past four days after training, I had attended dinner with the Valwain, then headed to bed, falling asleep soundly in the arms of my husband. Honestly, it’d been the best sleep of my life. I finally felt comfortable and safe with him, and I could tell he felt the same with me. I couldfeelit. I didn’t know if I was worthy of him, but I was trying my best to be.

We decided to take things slow, but I’d been enjoying every spare moment I could get with him.

In terms of progress, I was able to call to the earth and plants at will now—sprouting different plants from the palm of my hand and pulling chunks of earth out of the ground, moving them around as I pleased. Earth and plants came easy to me, as they felt like an extension of the Northern zirilium I already had some control over. I found that it felt extremely satisfying to have this power over my abilities. For so long, my zirilium had ruled over me. It was comforting to be able to rule over them for a change.

It was difficult at first, having to disconnect my emotions from my zirilium. I’d been able to call to air with ease, but even lightning was still tied to my feelings. Teagan worked with me patiently until I could focus solely on the zirilium pumping through my veins, instead of getting distracted by my own emotions.

Once I was able to practice getting past those hurdles, I was able to apply them to my other zirilium. I even made it storm, thunder and lightning included, on command yesterday.

I pulled the front doors of the cabin open and stepped into the early morning light. The sun had just risen, and I couldn’t help but let out a yawn. I was definitely still not used to being awake this early, but Quinn insisted on getting as much out of the day as we could. She was positive that crystal wielding wouldn’t come as easy to me as earth or plants, and I’d be lying if I said that didn’t concern me to a degree.

I pushed away the worries trying to take over my mind, pulling my long hair into a ponytail. I flexed my hands afterwards, still not quite used to this new weight on them.

After this morning, I wasn’t sure anything could rattle my good mood. Even Quinn.

I slide gently out of bed, trying my best not to wake Robyn. He’s usually up with me by this time, but today he seems extra tired, so I try to let him rest.

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