Page 8 of When the Moon Met the Sun

“Thank you,” I said to Eden, scratching under her chin. “I couldn’t have made it without you.”

Eden softly head-butted my upper arm, then shot straight up into the clouds, where she would stay until I called for her to return. She knew this routine as well as I did.

I held out my hands in front of me, watching how much they had begun to shake as I felt sweat forming on my brow, despite the frigid temperature. The storm around me continued on, seemingto only grow more relentless, as if it could sense how restless my own emotions were. The moon stones tucked into my top were now glowing brighter, as if they, too, could feel all of the energy I was holding in.

Suspended in the same spot Eden left me, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Pushing away the pain I felt physically and emotionally, I called to the pent up energy I felt flowing through my very veins. Focusing on the sensation crawling beneath my skin, I slowly lifted my hands above my head. Suddenly, I sliced my hands through the air as if striking down an opponent. In the same moment, two lightning bolts shot out of the black clouds above, roughly following where my hands had directed them, then branching out on their own accord, striking the water down below. Never perfect, even now.

The moment the lightning faded, my skin ceased its burning and the energy I had felt pent up in my veins before seemed to ease. Just to be safe, I adjusted my wings and took a nosedive toward the ocean below, which had also become much more restless since my arrival.

While jerking to a stop just before I hit the surface, I called to the water below, causing it to spray up all around me without having been physically touched. I stretched my arms out before the water had a chance to fall and in a swift motion, froze the circle around me into jagged icicles.

Only Northerners who wielded both water and ice could manipulate its form, whether fluid or frozen, and I was thankful for my abilities in that moment.

My breath came out in a gasp when I realized I had indeed called water to me and managed to freeze the full circle around me, not just a portion of it like I had done during the few times I allowed myself to practice my zirilium in the past. A sudden swell of pride surged up in my chest, pushing aside the swirl of negative emotions I had felt there before.

Not being able to hold the ice for more than a few wing beats, I quickly let them drop back into the ocean, where some of them splintered upon impact. It was like all my energy left my body the moment the icicles hit the water, and suddenly exhaustion took over my being. All at once, the storm became loud in my ears and goosebumps erupted over my skin. My teeth began chattering as the cold set in, freezing the sweat on my skin, making my clothes feel heavy.

After a final look at where my icicles had been swallowed up by the bay below, I pumped my wings upwards while I brought a hand to my mouth and whistled a single note, long and loud. A moment later, Eden broke through the clouds in a swift motion, coming straight for me. She leveled out just below me, and I gently positioned myself on her back, slumping forward against her.

“Back to the castle, please. I can’t fly alongside you this time, girl,” I said to her, exhaustion beginning to tug on my bones.At least I will be able to think clearly now, I thought as my heavy lids slid shut and the darkness captured my senses.

Chapter Four

After the long, tiring walk back to my rooms, all I wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep the remainder of the evening away.Maybe I’ll wake up from this nightmare, I thought, almost hopefully.

Yet the moment I carefully slid the bookshelf back into place behind me, Dimitri stormed in looking as frustrated as ever. His hair was disheveled, as if he’d been running his hands through it often—a nervous tell of his since we were kids—and his clothes were wrinkled, which Father never allowed.

“You look as rough as I feel, twin,” I said to him, trying to lighten the dark mood I could feel looming over him like a shadow as I began crossing the room toward him.

“You have to go along with it, Viva,” he blurted out abruptly.

I stopped dead in my tracks the instant his words hit my ears. I met his stare from where I now stood, my breathing starting to quicken as I asked, “What did you just say?”

“I’m so sorry, but I’ve spent this whole time trying to think of a way out of this, and I can’t find one. Even if you were to run away, Father would hunt you to the ends of the continent and even beyond it. Youknowthis to be true. I even tried talking to him again, but he’s dead set on this. I don’t know what he’s planning,but whatever it is depends on this,” Dimitri explained, taking a step forward.

Dimitri had spent years unofficially assisting Father with war plans—if he couldn’t come up with a way out of this, nobody could.

I took a step backwards in response, making Dimitri pause in shock. Even though my body was betraying me, my voice didn’t waver as I said, “Dimi, I don’tcarewhat Father wants anymore. I’ve always done what he’s wanted of me, and where did it get me? In an arranged marriage to ourenemy!”

Dimitri’s emotions were plainly painted on his face—pain, frustration, guilt, sadness. He was always an open book with me, which I generally appreciated, but not this time as his voice softened and he spoke gently, “Viva, this is bigger than just you now. If this works and Father’s intentions are true, our people could finally knowpeace. Our males would no longer have to die in a nonsense war, our females would no longer have to learn how to provide for their families as widows, and so many of our children would no longer have to be raised as orphans. Aviva, if this works, it would changehistory.” As he spoke, he slowly walked towards me, hands raised and palms facing me—as if I were a wild animal. Maybe a part of me was, the part I kept locked away, deep inside my chest, hidden away from him. The part that wanted to run free, the part that wanted to take what was mine, the part that wantedpower—but that also simply wanted justice for all the wrong that had been done to me and what had been taken from me.

This time I didn’t back up, feeling myself slowly giving in as I retorted, “What about whatIwant?” I tried, and failed, to ignore the way my voice cracked as I spoke.

His face fell, and for just a moment, it was like he was already grieving me.

He quickly covered it up, looking remorseful instead as he said softly, “I’m sorry, Viva.”

My bottom lip quivered as I realized what this meant. I truly didn’t have a choice in the matter. Father would make me go by force even if I tried to refuse, and if I attempted to run away, he’d just drag me back by the wings. Either way, the end result was the same.

Yet, in the back of my mind, a small sliver of me held onto the hope that maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to get away from the South and escape back to the North after the marriage. I’d have to be thoughtful and play it safe, but justmaybe.

That small hope was the only thing that kept me from breaking completely as I slowly dropped to the floor, the physical and emotional exhaustion hitting me all at once. Dimitri was there in a wing-beat, sliding his arm under my legs and behind my back. He carried me to my bed where I curled up and quietly sobbed, grieving the life I thought I’d have. The one where I got to be with Dimitri and Aurora every day, where I got to spend dawn to dusk helping my people, and where I got to eventually master my own zirilium in public. Now, I might never see my brother and best friend again, nor my people. Not to mention, nobody in the South is to have information on Northern zirilium or how to control it. All of the elementary pleasures I had envisioned for my life were gone, just like that.

Simply so I could fulfill my purpose as a pawn in Father’s game.

I don’t know when, but at some point Dimitri departed. In his place I found Aurora stroking my hair and murmuring comforting, yet empty, words until my tears ran dry and exhaustion overcame me.

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