Chapter 205 Salt On The Vow

• Morning came soft over the island—no sirens, no city growl, just the sea breathing like something alive beyond the palms.
• Ellerei woke to the familiar ceiling in their house—the pale plaster, the slice of horizon framed in the window like a private painting. For a second she didn’t move. She just lay there and let the quiet climb inside her chest and steady it.
• Decker and Bishop had been obnoxious about “tradition” the night before. No sharing a room, no “preview” in the hall, no “oops we ran into each other at the fridge at midnight” excuses. Decker had even posted himself at the bottom of the stairs with a glass of rum and the look of a bouncer who didn’t get paid enough, pointing between bedrooms like air-traffic control. Bishop—very solemn, very official with his new license—had given a mini lecture about “anticipation bonding” while Knox glared at them both like a man contemplating homicide.