Moonspear rock the boat

Alya hadn't forgotten about Nikai, either. There was something about the man that made her feel as though they belonged together, even if he didn't set her soul aflame the way she had always imagined love would.

But she had thought him dead — How could he not be? — and so she had moved on.

Hearing his voice was like feeling someone walk over her own grave. She gave an involuntary shiver and then, swiftly, turned to meet the call before any of her family could. If he was not a spectre, she was not yet sure she wanted her family to hear anything he had to say.

Nikai, she greeted her mouth hardly able to form the word. Her stomach churned with guilt, and her heart was hammering at the back of her tongue. Unbidden, her throat let out a strangled sob, and she realized she was incredibly, ardently, deliriously happy to see him again. I thought you'd died, she wanted to say, but instead, You survived. And he was down one leg, now, but he'd made it back to Moonspear without her help.

Because she had abandoned him to his fate. Do you hate me? she asked softly, and today, her vulnerability was no act.