Page 72 of When the Moon Met the Sun

Since we left Cairnyl, any spare moment I had was spent attempting to use the booklet Rayven gifted me to shadow wield. What I didn’t realize when I began, though, was that it was unlike any other zirilium I’d ever used.

I hadn’t even come close yet, and I’d been here for hours.

Taking a deep breath and letting Rayven’s written words flow over me once more, I turned my attention inward.

Shadow wielding isn’t something you force, it has to choose to work with you.

Loosening another breath, I focused on the shadow of a branch that lay before me. I analyzed the shape of it, the small gaps where the leaves parted overhead. The dark color of it, where the shining light of the moon overhead had been blocked out.

You can’t bend it to your will right away—you must bend to it just as much as it bends to you. Meet it in the middle.

I kept my full attention on the shadow, slowly feeling a light buzzing sensation overcome my outstretched arms, closest to the darkness. I summoned a dredge of my own energy with those words in mind, and shoved that surge towards the shadow.

With that, I felt a tether snap into place—like pieces of a puzzle fitting together at last. I gasped at the contact of energy, and flicked a single finger out of place.

The edges of the shadow moved in rhythm with the motion.

I let out a victorious laugh, hopping to my feet once again, making sure to not let go of that tether of energy.

Tobecomeshadow, you have to surrender your entire being to it—nothingcan hold you back.

Taking another steadying breath, I attuned my mind to that connection before me. My fingers were still tingling, and I hoped to the Stars that was a good sign.

I rolled my shoulders back, slowly relaxing each muscle in my body. I let go of my anxieties about the war to come, about Aurora who I’d left in Cairnyl, and the brother I’d likely see during battle in a matter of hours.

Each deep breath I released, I let go of another anxiety. And with each breath, more of my body was overcome with that tingling sensation. First my hands and arms, then from my toes up my legs, and onward.

Another series of breaths, and I stopped worrying about if I’d have to face anybody I knew during this battle, if my friends would survive, if my father would come to lead his people himself.Mypeople.

The sensation spread up my limbs and into my torso, up my spine. I knew if I looked at my hands, I’d likely see the beginnings of my body turning to shadow, but I didn’t dare break my eyes away from the shadow before me and risk losing that focus.

Just as I went to take in another series of breaths, to hopefully succeed in this task, a crushing weight sucked the air right out of my lungs.

Gasping, I felt that tether between me and the surrounding shadows collapse, and I stumbled back a step at the loss of contact.

But the weight on my chest wasn’t coming from me.

Byn.

As fast as my muscles would allow, I spread my wings—taking up the entire width of the small clearing—and used that pain and agony in my chest to guide me to him.

I followed that feeling deeper into the forest, farther away from the South’s campsite. If Byn wasn’t feeling his best, reconnecting with nature and grounding himself with it would have been one ofthe first things he attempted to do. I remembered him mentioning that during one of our late night talks while at the cabin.

I followed those emotions as if they, too, were a tether between us—between our very souls.

Soon, heart racing, I circled over the same small group of trees twice when I finally spotted him below the largest of them.

Drawing my wings in, I fell, only releasing them again when I was close enough to the ground to catch myself and elegantly land just a few feet away from my husband.

The sight before me left me feeling gutted.

Byn was kneeling, hands covering his face, and was violently hyperventilating. Tears streamed down his face, and his entire body shook with the sobs that wrecked his chest.

Flinging myself onto the ground before him, I gently grasped his hands in mine and pulled them free of his face.

“Byn,” I said softly, my voice steady despite my racing heart and panic of my own blooming in my chest.

His eyes shot up to mine, darting around my face before landing on my eyes again. His breath was still coming quicker than I could count, but I could feel his agony ease just slightly at the sight of me before him.

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