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Examining the fog, I frowned. I had expected more time than this. Ideally, the Shades wouldn’t have been so close to the Rift. Luck wasn’t running in my favor.

“Quickly,” I urged the crew members assigned to lower the boat. “I want to take sail as soon as I can.”

I boarded theUmbral Star,climbing awkwardly from one ship to the other, wishing I could shadow-step. Soon, I’d have my magic back. With it, the Shades would target me.

Keeping my dread at bay, I examined the ropes lowering us down. Confident that the system was working, I approached the crow’s nest.

“Vanessa?” I asked, looking up. The crow’s nest rose high above the ship. It was small, sprite-sized, giving her both privacy and the vantage point she needed to control the boat.

“About time,” she moaned, looking over the edge.

I still didn’t exactly understand how she’d ended up south of the Rift. Sprites couldn’t thrive away from the Isles.

Usually, a water’s sprite skin bore the texture of living water, churning waves or rolling streams. Vanessa’s skin was a dull blue that had patchy white spots at her elbows and knees, like water gone stagnant.

“I’m fine.” She rolled her eyes and stumbled. “Fine enough. Whatever. I’ll keep my end of our oath. I want the boat.”

I met Vanessa in Vila Port, a sprite seeking fair passage. I’d outlined my plans as she’d vaguely explained her circumstances. Our goals were aligned, at least enough for us to make a bargain.

“The Shades aren’t far from the Rift,” I added. “The attack will be sooner than I hoped.”

“Great. Let’s get this fight over with. I’m ready to move on.”

The ship jerked, the pulleys reaching the end of their rope. TheUmbral Starskimmed the water, pulled along by the larger ship.

The Rift, while invisible, was becoming evident. It was a tidal wall of magic compared to the trickle of power I could access.

“Almost there!” I shouted to the crew members above. Vanessa pouted, bracing herself.

I inhaled, welcoming the return to my world. Power crashed into me. Harsher than I imagined.

My magic, scented with cedar and amber and rain, washed over me. It consumed me, circulating through veins of power. It flooded my body, a shudder convulsing through the spine.

It grew hot, burning.

Flashing. And fading.

Ahh…

This was wholeness.

For weeks, my existence had been incomplete. Now the shadows swayed to my orders, the undercurrents of reality available to me.

It was weighty. Especially with the added pressure of the Shades.

And there were so many Shades.

The horde was uncountable, a disconcerting mass of minds that weren’t minds, bodies that moved without life. They sickened me.

The Shades werewrong.Once, they had been alive,beings driven by individual desires. Now those unique souls were gone, descended to final death, while their bodies remained, bound to Inarus’s will.

Despite my lurching stomach, I sought the mob. They congregated under the sea. Unlike the living, granting space to each individual, they were joined, becoming a dense mass of organic matter.

How many had Inarus killed? How many had he resurrected, forcing movement into soulless bodies? Teyr help me if Inarus had more hordes this large. I steeled myself, preparing my mind to command theirs.

That was the next thing I’d learned about the Shades: I could control them.

I was a necromancer.