Page 59 of When the Moon Met the Sun

“Yes?”

“I think… no, I know it. I love you. I’minlove with you,” I said, and I felt my entire face flush pink the second the words left my mouth. I held my breath as I waited for his response.

As he listened to me speak, I felt his joy—which I didn’t think could grow anymore—expand in my chest, as though there wasn't enough room in his own. He was practically overflowing with it.

“I’ve loved you since the moment you put that dagger to my throat, Aviva,” he said, and my surprise must have shown on my face, because he let out a hearty laugh.

“Sorry it took me so long,” I said sheepishly, looking up at him through my eyelashes, blinking rain from my eyes.

“For you, my love, I’d wait an eternity.”

Chapter Nineteen

Aseries of unfamiliar knocks on the door stirred me from sleep. I turned my head to look out of the window and noticed that it was barely past dawn.

I stifled a groan.

It’d been two days since the rest of the Valwain and I got back to The Haven. We arrived at nearly dawn, as we had traveled through the night to make it back in a timely manner, straight through the heart of Yarpeck Woods. The moment the officials saw Byn had returned, they practically ambushed him, wanting him and various members of the Valwain to jump into meetings right away.

To my surprise, Byn made them wait even longer. He asked them to give him two days to settle in before he attended any meetings. He said he had something of the utmost importance to take care of right away, but that in two days’ time he was all theirs for any and all meetings. Giles, his head advisor and assistant in pretty much all things, from what I understood, was not happy with him, but begrudgingly agreed to push all his meetings off until he was ready.

When I asked him what he needed to handle so urgently, he looked dumbfounded that I had asked. “You,” he had said. Then went on to explain how he needed to teach me fire wielding before Quinn got ahold of me again and decided to teach me herself.

I couldn’t really argue with that reasoning.

Today, we had to deal with all of the meetings. But for the past couple of days, Byn had been teaching me how to control and use my fire zirilium. We went far outside the city limits, close to a nearby river, so if anything went wrong we had a backup option.

We also weren’t ready at the time for anybody outside of the Valwain to know about my abilities.

In my training with Byn, I realized fire zirilium acted a lot like air zirilium. They both had a desire to run free, and they were difficult to give shape to. They practically had a mind of their own. Other zirilium, such as crystal and ice, were easily moldable, but fire just wanted to spread and take over everything in its path. I realized quickly that the hardest part of learning to control it was trying to only set fire to certain things, or only parts of an object. It took a good amount of concentration, but I was successfully able to burn our props appropriately, after some practice.

Byn had brought multiple objects from around The Haven that nobody would miss—a random stool that didn’t have a place, an unused comb, an empty leather notebook, and a very unpleasant looking hat.

I was able to set fire to them according to Byn’s instructionsalmostcompletely successfully. Though, when he asked me to set fire to only the rim of the hat, I ended up burning the entire thing to ashes. But his way of instructing was calm, patient, and thorough—since he could feel what I was feeling, he was able to help talk me through guiding my energy past my emotions. The next three objects, thanks to his help, I set fire to perfectly.

Beyond learning to control the fire, he showed me how to bend the flames into different shapes and arcs, and how to create dagger and sword like shapes. He showed me how to make fireballs, and how to control how largethey were.

I figured that already knowing how to wield air helped a lot in my ability to pick up so easily on fire, and I’d never been more grateful for all the times I snuck out of Gatlyn Castle as a child to practice my abilities.

Byn was still stunned that my fire burned so hot it was almost completely blue, but I could feel that he was proud, too.

The knocks came against the bedroom door again, and this time Byn rolled out of bed, stumbling blurry eyed to the door.

I hadn’t slept in my own room since we got back. I’d grown too accustomed to falling asleep in my husband’s arms.

“Giles. It’s barely dawn,” Byn said, his shirtless form filling the crack in the door, not opening it all the way.

I couldn’t hear the stuttering reply Giles gave, but I could tell by the set in Byn’s shoulders that he was already annoyed.

And today’s meetings hadn’t even started yet.

“Alright, alright, I understand,” he said in reply to something else Giles said, then shut the door and rested against it before he leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling.

“It’s going to be an extremely long day, isn’t it?” he asked, not breaking eye contact with the ceiling.

I climbed out of bed and padded across the room toward him. I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my chin on his chest, staring up at him as I replied.

“I fear so. But at least we’ll be together, no?” I asked.

---