To say Drew was livid did not adequately describe the emotions coursing through his body. Kelia was not with them. His entire body went slack as though his bones had turned to dust, and he collapsed to his knees. Drew Knight, once one of the greatest and most feared pirates of all time, was now nothing more than a broken Sea Shadow, unable to fathom what had happened to the woman he plainly adored.

Wendy was just off to the side of the ship, still silently crying and looking down at her hand. The water was still. The sky was clear—so quickly, as though it had just forgotten what happened.

Daniella came up to Drew’s side and answered the unspoken question he didn’t really care to have a response to.

“It’s Christopher’s ashes,” she said. “She’s been holding onto them like some kind of life line. The last connection to her beloved.”

“But where is Kelia?” he asked. He couldn’t bring Christopher back, but Kelia was still out there, hopefully alive.

“She went willingly.”

The sun was now nearly high in the sky, the beauty coating them in a warmth that nobody seemed to want.

“But why? How did this happen?” Emptiness wrapped around his entire being, and he could not even summon a demanding tone. “Only an hour has past, and yet everything has changed.”

Emma placed a hand on his shoulder, as if to comfort him, and he shrugged away from her.

"An hour to you is but a second,” she said. “To mere mortals, an hour could be a lifetime."

Wendy was still in a heap on the floor of his ship, still clutching that ash. It was good for her there was no breeze yet because that breeze would no doubt blow everything away. However, it was bad for Drew and the Wraith, because without favorable winds, they would not reach Sangre. They would be too late.

“We must leave,” he said anyway. “They can't be far ahead of us, perhaps two hours at the most. They had favorable winds. We have... stillness.”

His vision glazed over with determination, and he stalked to the helm, shouting orders at his crew.

Emma followed him, Daniella behind her, leaving Wendy to mourn her loss alone.

“You forget, Captain,” Emma said, “that the Sea Shadow has the advantage, unfortunately.”

“Oh?” Drew asked, furrowing his brow. “And why is that?”

“They have the Sirens working with them,” Emma said. “Just because the winds have not picked up yet does not mean that the sea cannot further them along—and it will. The Sirens will help push the boat to Sangre faster than we can get there. Kelia will probably be there in two, maybe three days.”

“Then we go as fast as we can,” Drew snapped, clutching the rudders. “We do what we must. I knew I should not have listened to you. I knew it.”

“She did it to save me.” Wendy's voice sliced between them.

Drew turned around. Daniella also stood staring at Wendy, one closed fist at her side.

“She went willingly—to save me,” Wendy said. “The Shadow would have killed me—”

“Don't you understand?” Drew snapped. His fangs extracted from his mouth, and he let out an angry growl. “The only reason your life was in danger in the first place is because you were too consumed with your loss that you could not see to use your powers and stop them! You control air—it’s everywhere. It is not as though you need to conjure fire or water. You pluck air from the wherever you are and tame it, bend it to your will. I do not understand how you could—”

“Christopher is gone, Drew.” Wendy's voice cracked, her eyes filling with tears. “As a witch, I am destined to live forever, yet I still chose to settle down and spend a portion of that time with him. Don’t you understand? You must. I’m certain that is how you feel about Kelia.”

“Do not begin to compare your feelings with Christopher to mine with her,” Drew said, flaring his nostrils. He stared at his hands to stop himself from glaring at her, but he clenched the rudder until his knuckles turned white. “You did not protect Christopher. I tried to protect Kelia. I tried. I should never have let her leave this ship. I knew this would happen. You all think you know what’s best, but you know nothing of the Queen. You haven’t any idea what she will do to Kelia. You think you are in pain because you have lost the great love of your life? Death would be a kindness by comparison. And the Queen will break her, rip her soul into tiny shreds, until she rues the day she ever met me.”

A powerful silence descended the ship. Even the sea seemed to quiet its roar. Though Drew knew his heartache caused him to be cruel and callous to his sister in that moment, a fury greater than he had ever known drowned out any sense of reason, or shred of kindness.

“Leave me.” He dismissed them with a flick of his wrist. “I do not want to see you any longer. Get out of my sight. All of you.”

“You don’t give Kelia enough credit,” Daniella said, and Drew's gaze snapped to hers, a raging fire consuming him. But Daniella didn’t flinch. “Kelia is stronger than you realize, and you do a great disservice to her by assuming the worst. Perhaps her body will break, but her mind will not. Or do you forget how annoyingly stubborn she is?”

Drew let his fiery gaze linger, but he couldn’t speak. He was already preparing himself for the worst. The Queen had Kelia, and he had to get her back.

He just hoped he wouldn’t be too late.