Nettle steered the Luminous Wake using only the thrusters for power. Gloriana followed close behind, sure to tack and adjust precisely as Nettle did. They emerged as the sun slashed the Gem’s white sands and dense green forests in bands of gold and fiery orange. For a moment, it shone like its namesake, glittering against the gloaming like a jewel. Fanned out a short distance from its shore was a sight that brought Caledonia’s heart to her throat.

Thirteen ships.

Her ships.

Her crew cheered and lowered their weapons, their relief at discovering they were not alone too enormous to contain. Pisces hugged Caledonia’s arm to her body.

“This is good,” Pisces whispered, pressing a kiss on her sister’s cheek. “Let yourself know this is good.”

“I do,” Caledonia promised. This was so much more than she’d dared to hope for. She turned to look over her shoulder to where Hime had appeared, her dark eyes hard and her elegant chin raised. “But I hope it’s more than good.”

Hime had kept herself busy, constantly running her rounds and tending to the wounded, making sure everyone else had what they needed when the one thing, the one person, she needed most was missing. Caledonia had tried to speak with her once more, but at the mention of Amina’s name, Hime walled her off, unwilling to entertain possibilities and uncertainties until there was a reason to.

That reason had just appeared before them. Hime looked from the island to Caledonia and Pisces, one side of her face gilded in golden light, and for a haunting second, her desperate need to know pulled her expression into one of extreme agony. It was there and gone in a flash. She pushed her chin a little higher and stood her ground, waiting in place when what she so clearly wanted to do was throw herself overboard and swim to each of the ships anchored nearby, searching for her love.

Caledonia wished she could make any of this easier or at least faster for Hime. And a little for herself, too. She wanted Amina to be alive, and even if the feeling twisted differently through her chest than it did through Hime’s, she knew it was just as strong. If she focused on it, it might consume her. It was easier to feel it through the filter of her concerns for Hime. Easier to defray some of her cold panic over having lost another of her command crew by worrying about the woman Amina loved.

I won’t believe she’s gone until I have to, was all Hime would say.

They would know one way or another. Anyone who had survived Cloudbreak would make their way here eventually.