Semua Bab The Current Between Us : Bab 21 - Bab 30

Got you 💙 Let’s do this right. No shortcuts. Real, quiet, healing. Here’s *Chapter 21: Come Home*---*Chapter 21: Almost Happy*The wind off the water was sharper now.Hector kept his arms around Beatrice. He wasn’t counting the minutes. He was counting her breathsBehind them, Simy hadn’t moved. He stood a few feet away with his hands in his hoodie pockets, watching the waves like they’d personally offended him. His jaw was tight. He looked sad. Helpless. Like he wanted to fix it and didn’t know how.The sun was fully up now. It turned the wet sand gold and made the cold feel a little less cruel.Hector pressed his cheek to the top of Beatrice’s head. Her hair was damp and gritty with sand. “Hey,” he murmured. “you don't have to feel lonely,I'm here.”She didn’t answer. She just clutched his shirt tighter.He tried again. Softer. “The house is warm. And I’m really proud of the mashed potatoes. I put too much butter in them. On purpose.”A small sound came from her. Not a laug

*Chapter 23: Heated Moment*Around 4AM the house was quiet. Only the hum of the fridge and the last crackle of dying fire from down the hall.Beatrice woke first. She was too warm. Tangled in the duvet with Hector’s arm locked around her waist, like he was afraid she’d vanish if he let go.She turned carefully. He was asleep. His face was finally relaxed. No tension in his jaw. No worry line between his brows.She studied him. The bare curve of his shoulder. The way the sheet had slipped low over his hip. Her heart beat fast for reasons she didn’t understand. It wasn’t hunger. It was something closer. Something that wanted.She reached out and touched his chest. Skin to skin. He was warm. Hector mumbled in his sleep and pulled her nearer.That did it. She bit her lip. She was nervous. She was 22, and this was new. But she wanted him.She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his jaw. Then to the line of his neck. Soft. Testing.Hector’s eyes opened immediately. Dark, sleepy, alert.

*Chapter 25: The King’s Tide*The throne room of the Merrow Court was carved from a single piece of black coral. It drank the light instead of reflecting it. King Dave sat on it. And King Dave was furious.The water around him barely moved. That was how you knew. When the King was calm, the currents sang. When the King was like this, everything went still. Twenty braziers of witch-light burned along the walls in blue-white flames, but they gave no heat. His guard of trident-mermen stood in a line, heads bowed, tails braced against the floor so they wouldn’t drift.Again.“Nothing, my King,” said the lead guard. His voice was steady. His gills were flared too wide. “The patrols swept from the Shelf to the Shallow Reefs. The wrecks. The human harbors. We found no trace. No scent of her. The surface currents took them far.”King Dave’s tail, thick and scarred indigo, slammed down. Coral dust rose. “THREE MOON-CYCLES!” The roar rolled through the chamber and made the witch-light shive

*Chapter 27:The House on the Shore* The sand was warm. King Dave took one step, then another. His new legs trembled under him. Eighteen men followed, all of them barefoot, all of them wearing leather and shell armor that looked wrong on land. Their hair was still wet. Their eyes were too wide.The shore was not empty.Three figures stood by a beached canoe, pulling nets. They stopped the moment the mermen breached. A woman dropped her net. A boy pointed. An old man squinted.For three heartbeats, no one moved.Then the boy burst out laughing. “MOM! Look! Cosplay!”The woman covered her mouth. “Maybe they’re shooting a movie,” she said out loud. “On the beach? At night?”The old man just shook his head. “Weirdos.”King Dave felt it. A small, hot twist in his chest. Uncomfortable. Kings did not get stared at. Kings were not laughed at. He lifted his chin and walked past them like they were driftwood.“Move,” he said to his men.Eighteen pairs of feet left prints behind them. They mov

Chapter 29:Vision Or Nightmare*---The holding room smelled like disinfectant and cold metal. King Dave sat with his wrists cuffed to the table. Dove sat beside him, jaw clenched. Both of them were still damp. The leather on their armor squeaked when they shifted.Across from them sat Detective Mara Ruiz and Officer Jenks. A tape recorder sat between them.“Name,” Ruiz said.“King Dave,” Dave said. “Ruler of the Merrow Court. Lord of the Deep.”Jenks wrote it down. “Date of birth?”Dave frowned. “100 winters?”Ruiz kept her face blank. “ Your address.”Dave tilted his head. “Address? What is address?”“The place you stay,” Jenks said. “House number. Street.”“I stay in the Sea,” Dave said. “In the palace of bone and pearl. Beneath the seventh reef.”Ruiz and Jenks looked at each other. “Next of kin,” Ruiz said.Dave’s brow furrowed. “Next... of kin? What does that mean?”“It means family,” Ruiz said. “Wife. Children. People we contact if something happens to you.”Dave sat up strai