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The water surrounding her tinged with red, reminiscent of a blush. She glanced away. “I fell in love with a human.”

“A human who lived in the Isles?” Like any sprite, Vanessa withered south of the Rift.

She nodded. “She’d left Valterra on a teenage whim, seeking more magic than the human world had to offer. That was before the Collapse, back when travel was safe.”

“It still couldn’t have been easy for a human to live amongst the fae.”

Vanessa shrugged. “She was clever and brave and, most importantly, a very good cook. No fae would hurt her for fear of missing out on her food.”

I chuckled. “How’d you two meet?”

“I was working on a fishing vessel, and one day, she came along to better understand how the fishermen preserved their wares, and as the day dragged on, we got to bantering, and well… before I knew it, I had found myself a permanent table at her establishment.”

“I didn’t know sprites ate food.”

“We don’t, but it’s the sentiment that counts.”

My brow furrowed. “So if things were going so well, what happened?”

Vanessa turned to the sea. “One day, she received a letter from her brother saying that her mother was ill, likely to die. Since her family couldn’t afford the few fae healing elixirs that made it to Valterra, she took the risk of transporting them herself.”

I clenched the railing. Everything Vanessa said was a reminder of how much damage Inarus and his shades had caused. “Traveling south was an even bigger risk for you, a sprite.”

“Remember my penchant for mischief?”

I chuckled.

“Zayne, I took that risk because I loved her. Iwantedto meet her family. She’d told me so much about them, and I had to meet the people who had shaped the love of my life.”

The water around her bounced on the railing, cheerful if only for a moment before stilling as her expression darkened.

“The shades attacked on your journey south?” I asked, putting the pieces together.

She didn’t answer. “Necromancers can’t make shades from sprites, can they? Whenever they attack, my kind always survive.”

I nodded. “Since you’re made from the elements themselves, without a corporeal body, the magic can’t hold.”

She nodded slowly and was silent for some time. When she did speak, it was a recitation without emotion. “The shades ignored me during the attack. I tried to fight, but there was only so much I could do. I watched as they branded everyone on the ship. They rushed them all away, and after, I was so tired… I collapsed, and the boat drifted south of the Rift.”

My heart ached. “Someone found you?”

“A merchant’s vessel. They thought they were doing me a favor, but they were headed to Valterra. The only good that came of it was that I still had the healing elixirs.”

“After all that, you delivered them?”

“Of course—they were her family.” Vanessa shrugged. “And for the record, it worked. Her mother was healed. Only they couldn’t cover the cost of my ticket back to the Isles. I had no real way to get home, nothing at all, so I returned to the port in the hope someone would need a sprite badly enough to pay for my passage. I thought I was going to die there until you arrived.”

When we’d first met, her watery skin was so sickly that she was now barely recognizable from then. It made me angry—someone should have taken pity on her long before I’d come along. “What was her name, your love?”

Vanessa swallowed. “Jasmine.”

“That’s a beautiful name.”

“I thought so too. I even made her a scarf with little white flowers on a field of emerald. She was wearing it when she died.” She glanced up at me hopefully.

Heart wrenching, I shook my head. “I haven’t seen a shade wearing a scarf like that.” And now all the shades had been put to rest.

Water settled around her, dripping down the banister. “I don’t know why I hoped. Just to be sure she’s not still out there, being animated by someone else.”