When the Moon Hatched

When the Moon Hatched (2024) is a new adult romantasy by Sarah A. Parker. In the world of the Moonfall series, dragons soar into the sky and become moons when they die, but on rare occasions, these moons fall from the sky, causing great destruction. The first installment follows Raeve, an assassin for a rebel group who is saved from imprisonment by Kaan, the King of The Burn, who appears to know her intimately despite her lacking memory of their shared past. As Raeve spends more time with Kaan, she must confront her fear of emotional connection and heal from both physical and emotional scars to unlock the secrets of her lost past.

This guide refers to the Amazon Kindle edition self-published by Sarah A. Parker in 2024.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss death, murder, violence, torture, animal cruelty/abuse, and implied abduction/trafficking of minors.

Plot Summary

Raeve is an assassin for the Fíur du Ath rebels intent on dismantling the tyranny of The Fade. She lives in a world where deceased dragons rise to the sky to become moons. Rarely, a dragon crashes to the earth, leaving a path of destruction as it shatters. The cause of this phenomenon, called a moonfall, isn’t known. The world was created by five Creators. Caelis, God of the Aether, offered an empty canvas for the other gods—Bulder, God of Ground; Rayne, Goddess of Water; Close, Goddess of Air; and Ignos, God of Fire—to fill. They filled the world with folk—some of whom could hear their songs and wield their elements, others of whom were null of such abilities—and all manner of beasts, including breeds of dragons such as the Sabersythes of The Burn, the Moltenmaws of The Fade, and the Moonplumes of The Shade. When the moonfalls began, the gods suspected Caelis and trapped him within an Aether Stone to be worn upon the brow of a familial line of folk— the Neváns.

The novel offers brief journal entries from Elluin Neván—a Princess of The Shade who secured her own Moonplume at the remarkable age of nine and cared deeply for her gentle brother, Haedon, and her parents until they were murdered by King Ostern. Elluin’s kingdom was taken over by Tyroth Vaegor until her 18th birthday when she would be forcefully betrothed to him. While awaiting her coronation day, Elluin falls in love with Tyroth’s kind brother, Kaan Vaegor, who becomes King of The Burn. Eventually, she becomes pregnant with Kaan’s child. Suspecting this, King Ostern blackmails her—threatening the lives of Kaan; his sister, Veya; and Elluin’s Moonplume, Slátra—into becoming Tyroth’s wife and pretending the child is his. Shortly after the birth of Elluin’s daughter, she is believed to have died and been carried into the sky by Slátra, who became a moon. Years later, Slátra falls from the sky and shatters upon the earth. Elluin emerges alive but without her memories. She assumes the only name she can remember—Raeve, her middle name—and is carted away to become a cage fighter nicknamed Fire Lark for a man called The Scavenger King.

In the present day, Raeve is still without her memories as Elluin. She disguises herself as a null—despite her ability to hear all four elemental songs—and undergoes a mission to dispatch a male predator named Tarik Relaken. She plans to assassinate him and use his hand to open the security to his fighting dens, which house cages full of stolen null children. However, during the initial scouting of Tarik, Raeve also catches the attention of a mysterious male stranger who takes an avid interest in her.

When Raeve’s friend Essi is murdered by a bounty hunter intent on bringing the Fíur du Ath out of hiding, Raeve lets go of a parchment lark named Nee that she had kept for comfort despite it having been sent to her incorrectly. She then goes on a vindictive killing spree but is captured and imprisoned. She is visited in the prison by the same mysterious man from the night she murdered Tarik, who she soon learns is King Kaan of The Fade. Kaan sends his own Sabersythe, Rygun, to rescue Raeve from public execution. While everyone believes her to be dead, Rygun brings Raeve to Kaan, who treats her as if he knows her intimately.

During an escape attempt, Raeve ends up in the clutches of the Johkull Clan, who believe that she is their savior whose offspring will tether the moons to the sky permanently should she marry one of their own. They host a battle for her hand, but since she is unwilling to marry someone, she offers to fight for her own fate. When she is poisoned by a snake thrown by a cheating opponent, she is unable to complete her trial. Found by Kaan just in time, Raeve accepts his proposal to fight the same opponent for her hand and wins. He gifts her his necklace, which depicts a carving of a Sabersythe and Moonplume embracing.

In Dhomm, The Burn’s capital, Raeve meets Veya, of whom she also has no prior memory. Raeve attempts in vain to reject her growing feelings for Kaan and eventually begins to remember bits and pieces of her former life as Elluin. She discovers a dwelling they shared in the nearby forest of Dhomm’s Imperial Stronghold, which brings back more memories, and she is enticed to at least give into her feelings for Kaan for a single night before she erases them forever.

Meanwhile, shocked by Elluin’s reappearance despite the rumors of her century-ago death, Veya ventures to Arithia, the capital of The Shade, to find Elluin’s former diary. Its last journal entries reveal the identity of Kaan and Elluin’s child—Kyzari, the current Princess of The Shade, widely believed to be Tyroth’s biological daughter—and the blackmailing Elluin experienced from Veya and Kaan’s father.

During a great celebration called The Great Flurtt, Kaan convinces Raeve to promise him that she won’t erase her memories. He also reveals that he has something important to speak to her about—that someone needs her help. He doesn’t get to reveal what this information is before Rekk Zharos, the bounty hunter who murdered Essi, appears in Dhomm flying a severely injured Moonplume that he’s mistreated. Rekk is searching for Kyzari, who has recently gone missing, but Kaan has no knowledge of the Princess’s whereabouts.

Rather than trap her in Dhomm by the promises she made to him, Kaan gives Raeve the opportunity to follow Rekk’s return journey and hunt him down on neutral soil to avenge Essi—which she does, successfully.

The ending chapters reveal that Kyzari has been captured by Raeve’s former master, The Scavenger King, who also happens to be the half-brother of the Vaegor siblings. The Scavenger King, Arkyn, admires his latest prize, Kyzari, who resembles his former Fire Lark. He has her sign her name on a piece of parchment that he sends off to Kaan, whom he believes is her uncle. Arkyn plans to soon reclaim the bronze throne of The Burn, which he believes rightfully belongs to him. On its way to Kaan, the parchment lark passes another lark, Nee, who lands in Kyzari’s lap, dutifully returned to its sender.