“Did I?” He was standing, cradling me against his bare chest and controlling my movements with his hands. “Calm down. You hit your head rather spectacularly.”

“We’re alive?” I squinted against the brightness of the sun, trying to see where we were and who was with us. The light tortured my eyes, igniting agony in my skull. “Are we safe?”

“For now.” He glanced around, his expression tired and perplexed. “I believe we washed ashore on the southern coast of Eleuthera.”

We escaped the battle? And Madwulf? And the murder of the admiral? How did we not drown or get blown apart by gunfire?

My vision blurred with tears. Through the wet sheen, a pink sandy coastline took shape, stretching left and right.

This was real. He was alive. We were on land.

My heart took flight, bursting from my chest and soaring over the sea. I threw my arms about his neck, inhaling his clean scent. He was breathing, standing, sweating, alive!

“I thought I lost you.” I kissed his throat, his hard jaw, his beautiful mouth. “I watched you get ripped away from me. I couldn’t find you. I looked everywhere. The ship, the bodies, so much blood and—”

“Shh.” He kissed me back, his lips soft and chaste. “You’ve been in and out of consciousness all morning. I’m concerned about your head.”

I touched the back of my skull where it throbbed and found a swollen bump amid the salt-encrusted tangles. “No broken skin? Are you hurt?”

“Not one open wound between us. Do you have any pain?”

“Just a megrim. I’ll be fine.” I hugged him tighter, afraid to let go, terrified this wasn’t real.

He seemed reluctant to release me, too. How long had he been standing here on this beach, cradling me in his arms?

Behind him, nothing but dense wilderness was exposed to my view. I didn’t know what inhabited this island other than a few farmers. Were there wild beasts within those woods? Other extremities likewise? If there were a weapon left between us, I would be shocked.

I shifted in his tight embrace, following his gaze to the sea. Floating wreckage and cargo scattered the rolling waves. A great many bodies and busted barrels bobbed amongst the flotsam.

I looked up and down the shoreline, scanning for signs of life. “Are there survivors?”

“Just us.”

The admiral’s flagship was gone. I’d watched it burn and sink and take hundreds of men with it. But what about HMS Blitz?

“Where’s your ship, Ashley?”

“Besieged.” His jaw clenched. “She’s an unthinkable prize for a pirate like Madwulf. I imagine he’s on his way this very second to plunder every treasure ship on the high seas. With one-hundred guns at his disposal, it’ll take an entire fleet to stop him.”