The water changed as we neared the caverns. It thickened, darkened, as if it remembered pain.
Korrin swam beside me in silence, his trident glowing faintly with a pulse that matched my own heartbeat. Neither of us spoke. The silence wasn't awkward—it was reverent. We were diving into sacred bones.
The Marrow Caverns were carved deep beneath the ocean floor, where tectonic plates once cracked open and left behind tunnels lined with fossilized coral and skeletons of ancient leviathans. It was the resting place of the third shard of the Ocean Heart.
My hand brushed the pouch at my hip. Two shards already pulsed in unison, as if they too sensed we were close.
A strange chant echoed through the water:
"Ei naralun ae'kai... selun'ka varessi... ocean'a shai."
I froze. "That chant—did you hear it?"
Korrin nodded. "Old tongue. No one has spoken it aloud in centuries."
The chant came again. This time it wasn't distant—it came from behind us.
We turned.
Toren.
He wasn't alone. Five warriors in armor made from volcanic rock and jellyfish silk flanked him. Their faces were painted with war marks, and Toren's gaze was locked on me.
"You're not the only one with blood rights," he said. "The shard listens to all who carry its memory."
"You'd risk another war just to control it?" I asked.
Toren smirked. "War is already here."
Before we could react, a tremor shook the cavern. The seabed cracked and a black void opened beneath us. The shard was calling.
I dove.
Korrin followed.
We spiraled into darkness, the current twisting us around jagged rocks and phosphorescent tendrils. At the very bottom, nestled in the chest cavity of a long-dead sea beast, the third shard pulsed like a living star.
But something else was there.
A figure in silver robes. His face—half human, half mer.
My breath caught. I knew that face.
"Father...?"
The figure smiled.
"Welcome, Selene. I've been waiting."
End of Chapter 26