When the Moon Hatched

Elluin sneaks onto Haedeon’s sleigh before he leaves to steal his Moonplume egg. When Haedeon discovers Elluin, he doesn’t turn back. Instead, they continue their journey. He tells Elluin that they’ll arrive at the hatching hut on the outskirts of Netheryn in three nights, where she will wait while he collects his Moonplume egg. However, Elluin plans to get her own egg.

Kaan visits a local pub, his mind still on the mystery woman from the Hungry Hollow (Raeve), who seems incredibly familiar to him. He’s met by his niece—Princess of The Shade, Kyzari Vaegor—who wears the black Aether Stone on a diadem across her forehead. She’s smuggled herself out of the capital, Arithia, to meet with him without her father’s notice. Kaan dislikes her father and does not intend to divulge this stunt to him. When Kyzari asks about Kaan’s presence in The Fade, he admits that he’s hunting for something and that the Queen owes him a favor.

Kyzari admits that she needs help; she can hear Caelis from within the Aether Stone. When she isn’t wearing iron to drown out the sound, she hears Caelis’s cries of fear and sadness. Eventually, she came to understand and communicate with him. She has since fallen in love with Caelis. She requests Kaan’s help in setting Caelis free. Kaan is staunchly against this because the diadem can only be removed from a pulseless host, but Kyzari intends to find a way.

When Kaan attempts to convince her otherwise by claiming that her family line was blessed with the power to contain him in the Aether Stone for eternity for a reason, Kyzari’s strange reaction reveals that she knows something he doesn’t. However, she refuses to share it and instead claims that the meeting was a mistake. She leaves Kaan alone with his drink and a hollow heart.

Raeve sleeps the day away and wakes to discover Essi whimpering on the couch in the living area of their apartment. She’s nursing a fatal stab wound that she received from a hooded man when sneaking into the Undercity alone for the final ingredient of the diamond crown she’s making for Raeve. Though Raeve is devastated at losing another friend, she can only hold Essi tightly as she passes. Before death, Essi asks Reave to burn her because she doesn’t want to be buried in the cold earth. Raeve admits for the first time that she loves Essi and regrets not saying it sooner.

Raeve falls apart after Essi passes. She unfolds Nee and replies to the “I need you” message inscribed on her, writing, “No you don’t,” before activating Nee’s “return to sender” fold and sending her away. She then leaves their apartment for the last time, taking only her weapons with her, and sets the apartment on fire with Essi’s body inside. The knife she pulled from Essi’s abdomen is inscribed with Rekk Zharos’s name, and Raeve knows for certain that he targeted Essi intentionally in an attempt to draw Raeve out of hiding. In her desire for vengeance, Raeve fears that she may lose control of the “savage entity that exists within [her]” (152).

The Other—the entity taking over Raeve’s consciousness—stalks the Undercity with Essi’s knife in hand. They slaughter their way through dozens of soldiers using not only Clode’s air magic but also Bulder’s earth magic. Though Raeve is led into a trap—a fight ring encircled with soldiers—she continues slaughtering them until she is shot with an iron dart that renders her elemental abilities null. Rekk Zharos reveals himself and brags about killing Essi. He restrains her, and when he arrogantly traces a finger across her cheek, she bites it off. Rekk only laughs in response and punches her in the face with his disfigured hand, knocking her unconscious.

Elluin and Haedeon camp on the outskirts of Netheryn with a stolen Moonplume egg, waiting for it to hatch. Haedeon has lost function in his legs after falling to the bottom of a crevice during the mission. Though Elluin promises to drag Haedeon outside the hatching hut when it’s time for his dragon egg to hatch so that they may bond to one another, she is worried that he won’t survive that long. He sleeps deeply and rarely wakes. Elluin decides that if Haedeon doesn’t wake, she will not be returning home.

Raeve wakes with no memory of what The Other did while possessing her consciousness. Rekk reveals that he knows Raeve is a dual-bead disguising as a null. He also reveals that Levvi—the musician from the Hungry Hollow—betrayed Raeve. When Levvi acted concerned about her safety and gave Raeve a note with her contact details, she was really slipping her a note covered in tracking runes that Rekk used to find Raeve’s apartment. Rekk dedicates himself to whipping Raeve until she gives up her Fíur du Ath accomplices or the location of The Flourish.

A massive, screeching Moonplume sweeps through the sky. Elluin assumes that it’s the mother looking for her stolen egg. Haedeon is not getting better, and Elluin is becoming increasingly worried over their safety. She is prepared to defend herself, Haedeon, and the Moonplume egg but despises killing and hopes it won’t come to that.

Raeve wakes in a cell. A male woetoe—furry, verbal creatures prized for their ability to steal things from tricky places—named Wrook is confined to the neighboring cell. He reveals that he overheard the guards speaking about Raeve; she will soon go to trial with the Guild of Nobles. Only those accused of severe crimes face trial with the Guild of Nobles, which often ends in death by torture. With this in mind, Raeve gives her gruel to Wrook instead of eating it herself. He seems to be digging a tunnel downward in his cell and needs the energy more than Raeve will.

Elluin has returned home after claiming a mature Moonplume. When their camp was attacked by doomquill beasts, Elluin was forced to defend herself and Haedeon. The Moonplume mother aided by blazing them in fire, and Elluin climbed on her back and held on until the Moonplume relented to her presence. Though it is a remarkable achievement, Elluin is saddened by her brother’s condition. He will never walk again because his broken bones fused back together wrongly and no one has the skills to rebreak them and fix the delicate damage without risking more harm to him. Haedeon’s own Moonplume has a damaged wing and may never fly.

The mysterious man from Hungry Hollow visits Wrook in his cell disguised as a Runi—a wielder of the runes found in Caelis’s ancient silver tomb. He accuses Wrook of stealing the wrong ring from the wrong fae. He also mentions that someone saw Wrook with a moonshard in his hands. In exchange for the moonshard, the stranger offers to free Wrook from imprisonment and gift him a Sabersythe tusk.

He recognizes Raeve’s scent and confronts her, admitting that her voice reminds him of someone he used to know. He rips the lock from her cell door with his bare hands and steps inside to look at her face clearly for the first time. He’s shocked at what he finds and speaks to her like he knows her. He notes the long-healed scar on her forehead from a wound that she has no memory of getting.

When an accomplice of his calls him “sire” and warns him that guards are coming, Raeve realizes that the mysterious man is a king in disguise. The three parts of the world—The Shade, The Fade, and The Burn—are ruled by different Vaegor brothers, “each cut from the same vile cloth” (196). Raeve isn’t pleased to associate with any of them. When the guards come to collect Raeve for her audience with the Guild of Nobles, she tells the King to leave her be and collect the moonshards he so desires. However, the King instead says that there is no point, for he has found the most important piece. He is implying that Raeve is that piece, but she misses his meaning.

Raeve is escorted to the amphitheater where the Guild of Nobles wait. They accuse her of presenting herself as a null when the law dictates that all who hear the Creators’ songs must wear elemental beads. She is also found guilty of killing several esteemed members of society and carving their various misdeeds into their flesh. Kaan is in the audience and participates in the vote regarding Raeve’s fate; his vote skews the decision toward death by dragon in the coliseum. She will be led there first thing tomorrow morning.