He took a step back, halting beside an object I had mistaken for a boulder but that I now realized was the bundle of stolen clothes, food, and leather bottles from Salt Island. Such a bolt of joy flooded through me that I had to struggle to catch my heart before it crashed right out of my chest. Only Vai would have thought to drag the bundle with him out of the coach. His sword lay sheathed on the ground. I was almost certain my sire could not touch cold steel.

He thought I was my sire.

I shrugged off the pack to ease my shoulders. “You claimed you would always know where I was. So I would think you would know this is me, Vai. Who else can carry my sword?”

“There are many things I am no longer quite so sure of.” His wary gaze made me cautious, and made me bitter, for I could see my sire’s abduction had injured him in an intangible way.

“What was the first thing you said to me, when we first met?”

His lips curled into the scornful sneer I had seen too often in the first days of our acquaintance. “Easy enough to tell. When I saw you that night coming down the stairs, I thought it was the other half of my soul coming to greet me. But I’ve spoken those words aloud more than once. You might have overheard them.”

I raised an eyebrow, trying to mimic his disdain. “Yes, that’s lovely and romantical, Vai, but that isn’t the first thing you actually said to me.”

“Ah. Something about the theater, then.” He ran a finger down the line of his beard. “That you’re not cut out to be an actress.”

“If I’m no actress, then surely you should know I must be me. Yet you stand there with no welcoming embrace! Since you cannot recall your exact words, let me remind you. You said that I might have the looks to be in theater, but not the skill.”

“Did I? A truthful statement, you must admit.”

I had meant to tease him into recognizing me, but his comment chased all thoughts of teasing from my mind as curiosity burned instead. “Why did you praise my looks? With Bee around, it’s a compliment no young man ever threw my way. Bee always dazzled them all.”

His rigid posture relaxed. He closed the distance between us and cupped my face in his hands. His fingers had the roughness of a laborer’s, but his touch was gentle. He examined my windblown hair and dirt-smudged skin.

“All the better for me that they were blind.”

I tried not to look gratified—certainly this was not the place for it—but a blush warmed my cheeks regardless.