All Chapters of The Current Between Us : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

---*Chapter 2: The BeggingThe silence after the king’s question felt heavier than the ocean itself. It pressed down on all of them, making even the currents stop.Bale dropped lower, tail curling tight against the sand. His voice cracked as he spoke. “Your Majesty, mercy! I’ve served you since I was a boy. I’d never betray you—”He started rambling, words spilling out faster and faster as fear took over. His red curls floated around his face, wild and matted. “I was only meeting King Dave to negotiate better trade for your kingdom! Better kelp prices! Stronger nets! I swear on my father’s grave—”Then it happened. His gills flared and his whole body spasmed. A dark cloud bloomed from his cloaca, staining the water around him in ugly black swirls. He’d lost control. Shame and terror all at once.For a second, the king froze. His trident dipped.Then he burst out laughing. The sound rolled through the water, deep and brutal. It bounced off the coral walls and came back doubled

---*Chapter 4: A Few Hours Earlier*Bale was with the king when they inspected the boundary. Malnourished and shaking, he forced himself to hold the trident straight and keep his eyes down. Three days in the cells hadn’t broken him, but they’d left him gaunt — skin stretched tight over bone, ribs visible under his thin tunic. Every breath was shallow. Every movement hurt.They reached the edge of the king’s territory. The water changed there. Colder. Heavier. Like the sea itself was drawing a line.And there he was: King Dave. Standing at the other end, calm, arms crossed, watching. No guards behind him. No weapons drawn. Just that infuriating stillness he always had.When Dave’s eyes landed on Bale, he smirked. Just a small tilt of the mouth. Barely there. Like he knew something no one else did. Like he’d been waiting for Bale to look up.The king saw it too. Bale felt the shift instantly. The king’s gaze hardened, sliding from Dave to him, slow and calculating. Suspicion se

*Chapter 6: Undercurrent*Beatrice didn’t breathe until the guard moved past her trunk.Her hands shook. Not from the search. Not from the cold. From Bale’s eyes.When they met hers, it felt like he’d reached into her head and pulled out the one thing she’d never said aloud. The one thing she’d buried deep and told no one, not even Mom.She knew what he was. Mom told her at twelve, voice low like a warning: _“Bale hears thoughts. That’s why we left the reef guard post. That’s why we don’t speak certain things at home. Some thoughts are doors, and he walks through them.”_Beatrice had learned to keep her mind quiet since then. No names. No images. No pictures of the silver comb. Just surface thoughts, dull and boring: _Check the net. Watch the tide. Breathe. Don’t think._Bale wasn’t listening to the surface. He was looking at the cracks underneath.Mom’s voice came low and fast at her ear, meant only for her. “Don’t look at him. Don’t answer. If they ask, you were at the outer reef

---*Chapter 8: The Glow*The blade hovered. A sliver of steel catching torchlight. Lily bowed her tail to the stone, neck bared, eyes closed. Sadness washed through her first — cold and heavy, like deep water closing over her head. Then fear. Not for herself. For the daughter she’d failed to keep hidden. Vulnerability stripped her bare, scales dulling to nothing. All the lies, all the years of silence, and it ended here. Because of a feeling. Because of love for Raft. Because of a hope she wasn’t even sure he’d return the way he had before._I kept her secret,_ she thought, guilt tightening around her ribs. _I kept her close. I taught her to hide. And it still wasn’t enough. Not enough to outrun a king’s blade._The executioner’s muscles flexed.In that same heartbeat, something built inside Beatrice. It started low in her belly, nauseous and twisting, like she’d swallowed a storm. Goosebumps rose along her cheeks and down the curve of her neck, even under her scales. Her face flush

---*Chapter 10: First Steps - Beatrice’s POV*Pain. That was the first thing. Not grief. Not fear. Pain, sharp and bright, shooting up from where her new weight pressed into the sand. Beatrice tried to shift Lily’s body closer, but her body didn’t move the way it should. She pushed down with what used to be her tail, but there was no muscle, no sweep, no fin to anchor her. Only two stiff, strange shapes that sank into the grit and buckled. Legs. The word tasted wrong in her mind. Her black hair fell forward, wet strands clinging to her cheeks and the curve of her neck. Even tangled with salt and tears, it caught the harsh light above and shimmered like oil on deep water. She was tall — taller than most fledglings in the court — her height stretched out now in a way that felt too much, too exposed. Her face, sharp and fairy-like even while broken with crying, was flushed red. Eyes still glowing faintly at the edges, the last of the moonlight refusing to leave her. Her body, that p