A BOAT COMES.
I heard the warning from my revenants. With the burning of the fishing boat, I’d hoped that others would be deterred from acting out foolish threats. Fortunately, I’d not been so simple as to eliminate a watch. I raced down the stairs, calling my revenants to me, so that when I burst through the mahogany doors moments later, the full force of my undead army stood behind me.
But it was not a Cliffside fishing boat.
It was an Imperial cruiser, the black lacquer shining against gilded highlights carved into the delicate frame. It was a bigger ship than any local one, with at least a dozen or so cabins belowdecks, and three large, rectangular sails beneath a silk Allyrian flag snapping in the wind.
My fist clenched. I had known the Emperor would come for me eventually. It did not matter that I had saved him, had saved this whole island; I had committed treason of the highest order.
I felt my rage pouring into my revenants.
He should have sent more than one ship.
All of us, as one, focused on the black cruiser slipping through the waves, heading straight to us. For a moment, I regretted giving up the warship and the cannons.
And then I saw the man leaning out over the bow, his arm raised in greeting. “Grey?” I whispered breathlessly.
The boat landed, and a gangplank lowered to the steps. Only Grey departed, but the ship remained docked to my island. I went down a few steps to greet him.
My knees trembled, and I stopped, waiting for him to reach me. Why weren’t my legs cooperating? Why was my heart beating so chaotically? I sensed my revenants retreating. With the threat gone, they faded back into the quarantine hospital. I tried to seep some of the dead calm inside of them into my tight chest.
And then he was right in front of me.
He’d been grinning so widely that I could see the flash of white teeth from the boat, but now his expression sobered.
“Nedra,” he said, his voice low.
I couldn’t seem to move. When he had left me before—no, when I had walked away from him—I had believed there was no coming back from that choice.
But he was here now.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted out.
The corners of his lips twitched. “Hi,” he said.
The wind blew my hair into my face, strands of white flickering across my vision. “Well, come in,” I said, turning on my heel and leading the way inside.