Semua Bab The Current Between Us : Bab 31 - Bab 40

*Chapter 31: The Comb.It was 6:47 PM. The sun was bleeding orange through the curtains.Beatrice hadn’t moved from the couch. The blanket was still around her shoulders, but her hands weren’t shaking anymore. Not much. Hector sat on the floor in front of her, back against the coffee table.Simy was at the window again, baseball bat leaning against the wall beside him. He kept glancing back at them, then at the street, like he didn’t know which one to watch. “You should eat,” Hector said again. His voice was rough from not sleeping. “Just something. Toast. Anything.” Beatrice shook her head. “I’m not hungry.” “You have to be. You didn’t eat breakfast. Or lunch.” “I can’t.” She looked down at the cold blue mug on the table. “Every time I close my eyes I see them. Walking. And I can feel him. Like a weight. Like he’s pulling.” Hector’s jaw tightened. “You’re not going through this alone. You said it yourself. We run together.” She looked at him then. Dark circles under his

*Chapter 33: The Aquaman._KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK._The third knock didn’t wait for an answer.The door exploded inward.Wood splintered. The chain snapped like thread. The deadbolt tore out of the frame and skidded across the floor. Hector and Simy barely had time to turn before four men were already inside.The first one through was tall. Too tall. Seven feet, at least. His shoulders filled the doorway. His skin was pale and smooth, like polished shell, and it caught the light from the hallway in a way that didn’t look human. His hair was black and wet, cut short. He wore armor made of bone and dark metal, fitted to his body. A spear was strapped to his back.He looked like something carved out of a dream. Like a celestial being that had walked out of the sea and forgotten how to be soft.Behind him came three more. Same height. Same armor. Same dead eyes. Beatrice made a sound in her throat. It wasn’t a scream. It was a name.“Dove,” she whispered.The man in front smiled. His teet

*Chapter 35: The Sea Remembers*The moment Beatrice went under, the world changed.The surface closed over her head with a soft _shhh_. The light from above fractured into gold lines, then bent and scattered. Sound dulled. The pull of the tide eased. And then there was shimmer.It started at her ankles. Silver light that ran up her legs like liquid. It didn’t hurt. It felt like coming home. The glow that had been in her skin sank down, down, and pooled at her hips. Her legs fused. Skin became scale. Bone shifted and lengthened. In three heartbeats, Beatrice had a tail.It was long and powerful, the color of deep water and moonlight. Blue, but not one blue. Dozens. Cobalt and sapphire and teal and ice, all glittering as if someone had crushed diamonds into the scales. When she flicked it, the water lit up behind her.Across her chest appeared something else. Not cloth. Not skin. A bra made of shell and pearl, fitted perfectly, the same deep blue as her tail, catching the light with e

*Chapter 37: Trial.The water did not take them gently. It took them like a fist. One second Beatrice was in the cave, her fingers locked around Hector’s wrist and Simy’s shirt. The next, the stone floor vanished and something cold and invisible wrapped around her ribs and _pulled_. “BEA!” Hector shouted. His voice was cut off by water. Then there was only dark. The pull dragged them down. Fast. Pressure hit Beatrice first. It squeezed her chest, her ears, her skull. It felt like the ocean was trying to fold her in half. She opened her mouth to scream and water rushed in. She didn’t choke. The magic was still in her. She could breathe. But it didn’t feel like air. It felt like breathing through silk. Hector wasn’t so lucky. “Can’t—” he tried. Bubbles exploded from his mouth. He clawed at his throat. His face went red, then pale. “Hold on!” Beatrice reached for him. The invisible rope yanked. Her hand was ripped from his. “No!” She lunged again. Caught his finge

*Chapter 39: The Royal Tail*The court didn’t breathe.In the center of the Court, Beatrice was crying. Her shoulders shook. Her tears drifted up in silver pearls and burst against the water. She held Hector’s face between her hands like if she let go, the sea would take him again.“Please don’t leave me,” she whispered. “Please don’t join my mom. Please—”She didn’t notice it at first. Not the stillness. Not the gasps. Not the way two hundred merfolk had dropped to their knees without a sound.She didn’t notice that Hector had a tail.Not just a tail. A *Royal Tail*.It curled in her lap, long and silver, scales catching the light from the Coral Throne like moonlight on wet stone. The fins were edged in white, and faint runes glowed beneath the surface of each scale, old Tide-Magic, the kind sung about in lullabies and forbidden in law.By the law of the Court, any Prince without a silver tail was an *abomination*. He could not inherit. He could not rule. He could not carry the