“Just shattered our gunwale, Captain!”Alden called.“No casualties!”
Desi’s hand pressed to Caleb’s chest.“Go,” she urged, her voice breaking.“Command your ship.”
He rose, his gaze devouring her one last time—the curve of her cheek, the courage shining through her tears.“Come back to me, Desiree Starr,” he said softly.“Come back to me.”
She nodded, wiping her cheeks with trembling fingers.“I love you, Caleb Hyde,” she cried—and…flung down the Ring.
It struck the deck with a metallic clang that echoed through his bones.
Caleb turned away, unwilling to watch her fade.For one suspended heartbeat, the air stilled—the ship, the sea, the very world held its breath.
Then silence.
He bent, fingers closing around the Ring’s cold metal.When he lifted his gaze, the spot where she’d stood was empty.Like his heart.
Chapter 33: Time Bends to No Man
Desi burst through the surface of the raging sea, gasping for breath as a wave crashed over her, flooding her mouth with salt.The world above was chaos.Angry clouds boiled like a witch’s brew, their jagged lightning illuminating the blackened sky in ghastly flashes.Wind howled across the open water, shredding the waves into spindrift that lashed her face.
Kicking hard against the heaving swells, she spun in every direction, panic clawing at her chest until she spotted the faint outline of theSea Starrbouncing in the distance.Relief surged, and then it hit her like a cannonball.
She was home.
And Caleb was long since dead.
The truth hollowed her out from the inside.A pain so raw it nearly drowned her more than the sea itself.He’d given up everything—his vow to his father, his happiness, his future—for her.For Daria.And now she had to do the same.
Another surge of water slammed into her, and she shoved the regulator back into her mouth, tightened her mask, and dove beneath the waves.She swallowed back fear, flicked on her dive light, and let the storm swallow her whole as she descended into the deep.
A single thought struck terror through her—what if theSentinelwas gone?What if she’d altered time itself and erased the wreck she’d come to find?
Her heart thudded in her ears as she finned downward through the churning gloom.The water grew darker, colder, quieter.At last, the familiar ledge of coral loomed from the shadows, its edges gleaming faintly beneath her light.She angled her beam along its spine.And there it was.
The shattered bones of the ship she’d come to love.The ship on whose sturdy decks she’d stood upon just seconds before.
Her breath steadied, but her heart cracked anew.The outline of the once proud brigantine lay strewn across the seabed, a ghost bleached by time.Yet as she drew closer, a strange peace settled over her.This wreck, this grave, felt more like home than the world above.It was where her heart had lived and died.
Forcing herself to focus, she guided her beam toward the familiar crevice in the reef.There, the Ring.Encrusted with algae and coral, almost swallowed by time.Anyone else would have missed it entirely.But she would know it anywhere.
In the silt below glimmered her old collection tube and tweezers—relics from another dive, another life.She scooped them up, and with trembling hands, pried the Ring free from its stony cradle.
No shimmer of light.No shift in the water.The world held its breath, unchanged.
A pang of despair clawed at her throat.She wanted to squeeze the Ring, to beg it to take her back—to him.But she didn’t.With a small, defeated exhale, she slipped it into the tube, sealed it tight, and pressed it to her chest.
Then against everything within her, she kicked for the surface.
This is what you wanted, she told herself.Then why did it feel like an agonizing loss?
“You nearly got us all killed out there!”Camila’s voice chased Desi through the doorway ofOcean’s Echo, sharp as a whip crack against the hum of the air conditioner.
“Yet, here we are, alive and well.”Desi pushed past her, dripping seawater onto the worn teak floor as she headed for the back.The briny scent of the ocean still clung to her hair and skin, mingling with the faint notes of salt, rubber, and machine oil that perfumed the shop.
Behind the counter, Pumpkin-haired Nova didn’t glance up from her phone, her neon nails tapping out a rhythm of disinterest.Typical.Out on the dock, Chad was supposedly hosing down theSea Starrand stowing gear below deck, but knowing him, he’d be halfway to the tiki bar by now.And of course, it hadn’t been Ethan at the helm.The ache of that truth pressed like a weight against her ribs.
Camila followed her into the equipment room, planting her hands on her hips.“The storm got so bad, Chad wanted to leave you there.If not for me, he might’ve.I saved your life, you know.”
Desi dropped her duffel onto the bench with a wet thud and turned.The Puerto Rican’s glossy curls framed her beautiful, defiant face as her dark brows lifted in accusation, but there was something softer beneath the fire, a flicker of need that tempered Desi’s irritation.
