He Left My Daughter With His Ex, So I Left the Sea King novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Dishes

Kyros's POV

I had held a thousand storms in one hand.

I had never held a wet plate.

"Not like that," said Stavros's sister, and took it from me.

The kitchen of the loft was a corner with a basin and a hanging lamp, and the whole of Port Karyos had somehow been through it that evening with a loaf, a jar of olives or a bottle of something strong.

They had all wanted to see the lord of the tides, and the woman in the sea-glass crown, and the girl who had thrown a ring through forty feet of water.

Now it was past midnight and they had gone, and the dishes remained.

"There's a cloth," said Stavros's sister. "You rub in circles. Don't snap the handle, it's the only one."

She went upstairs, and left me with the basin.

I rubbed in circles.

The sea behind my ribs was loud and glad and wholly mine, and I paid it no attention at all.

Melina had put Zoe to bed in the loft an hour ago.

She had not said what she wanted from me.

She had said, "Wash up, and then we'll see."

So I washed up.

I was on the second stack when I heard the small feet on the ladder.

"Papa?"

I turned.

Zoe stood in a nightshirt with her hair standing up on one side.

She had said Papa in the water to save her life, and at the quay in the sun, and about four times since.

Every time, something in my chest turned over.

"You should be asleep."

"I can't. It's too loud."

"The sea?"

"The sea. It's so happy, it won't stop talking." She sat down on an upturned crate beside the basin and swung her feet. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Is it a hard one?"

"Probably."

"Good. I saved it."

I dried my hands slowly.

"Why didn't you come back for me?" said Zoe.

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