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She turned. The sun, bright in her face, made her shield her eyes. She saw a shadow by the water but couldn't make out who it was. The shadow moved, coming toward her.

"Who is it?" She didn't move. The shadow blocked the light from her face, and she saw, instead, twin fires looking back at her. Yes, she must be hallucinating.

"You’re not really here. I'm having a panic attack, and you’re not really here," Elise said as if it were a fact.

Nezka smiled. The skin on his face and arms showed swirls of purple and white, the scars no longer identifiable from one another. It reminded her of galaxies colliding in deep space. "Do you doubt me still?" he said.

Elise shook her head, and a sob escaped her lips. Hallucination or no, she went to him. When her body met with his, she let out a soft cry of shock and joy. He was as solid as the ground under her feet, as the trees swaying nearby. She clung to him and thought she'd never let go. When he gently released her, she shook her head again and smiled. "How? How are you here? How did you find me?"

"I've not been called the best hunter in all the systems for no reason." He lifted his hand, and in it, was her leather sheath with his blade still inside. "I feel its energy." He lowered his hand then lifted his other to brush his knuckles softly against her cheek. "What is a part of me can always be found."

Elise trembled. She wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him to her, touching her lips to his. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back. When he released her again, Elise touched the side of his face where the new scars melded together.

"How did you get out?" she asked. "How did you survive?"

"I barely did. But it's a long story."

"Tell me."

"It would be better to tell you while we are on my ship."

Elise gave him a confused looked. "Your ship?"

"How else do you think I got here?" He grinned.

Elise looked down one coast and then the other. "I see no ship."

"I hid it, obviously."

Elise looked back at him. "You want me to come with you?"

Nezka tilted his head. He drew a hand up to his ear and tapped it. "Obviously."

"Where?"

"I have a few places in mind." He looked over to the ocean before them. "Somewhere even better than here." He turned back to her. "What do you say, Starling? I taught you how to better fight. Care to teach me how to better swim?"

Elise smiled. "I think I can do that." She locked eyes with his and found the fires within to be more brilliant than before. Perhaps they weren't fires. More like twin suns. The color just like the setting sun before them.

And they were beautiful.