I grimace. “I’m worried there weren’t more objections.”
He looks surprised. “Why would there be? You already proved your claims. If you had come to them a year ago with promises and no proof, then yes, they would have doubted you. But you spent the last year doing exactly what you said you would. They have felt the peace you’ve brought.”
Once more, I have been a careful knife, excising the rot in my empire.
“Ihave felt the peace you’ve brought,” he says. And then he speaks more hesitantly, which makes me narrow my eyes at him because he’s normally forthright. “My sister…”
I wait for him to continue. “Yes?”
He clears his throat. “She hasn’t been happy. I would like to change that. And luckily, what you said today has given her…them… a chance.”
“If you’re asking me if I approve of Riot and Miku’s bond, then the answer’s yes,” I say. “Whatever it takes to keep them together, I’ll make it happen.”
“Even if, for them to be together, he must remain here with her?” Ryuji asks.
There’s an instant pang in my heart, but I force it away. “Yes. Even then. If you will also allow it.”
“I will.”
“Good.”
I fall silent, and so does the dragon master.
After a long moment, he breaks the silence again. “I remember when we stood on nearly this exact spot.”
“On my last day on this island.”
“You stood here and the keeper stood there.” Ryuji points to a spot farther down the beach. “There he was, a being of incredible power, simply waiting for you to return to him.”
I close my eyes against the heat of tears I refuse to shed.
My response is a whisper. “He is waiting no more.”
Ryuji’s hand is warm on my shoulder, a comforting squeeze, before his footfalls crunch softly on the sand, taking him away.
He doesn’t have to walk so loudly, but I appreciate it because it’s a distraction from my feelings.
Even so, it’s a long time before I can open my eyes again.
The ocean spreads out in front of me, crashing waves I once immersed myself in. Hot sand I once lay on.
Heated hands and lips I once kissed.
I shake myself.
No more.
I turn back to the hut, only to freeze.
A man stands on the beach, fewer than seven paces away from me. He’s a towering form, his shoulders impossibly broad. He stands fully in the moonlight, his silhouette shrouded in an ethereal light.
His eyes are a calm gray-green while his hair is the darkest gray like…
Wolf’s fur.
My heart thuds.
I can’t breathe. Can’t move.
