The storm's fury gave way to a heavy, unnatural silence.
Selene guided the battered boat into a hidden inlet known only to locals too old and
too frightened to speak of it. The land rose jaggedly from the water — black stone
slick with mist, tangled trees leaning like skeletal watchers.
Luka lay unconscious at her feet, blood seeping through the makeshift bandage
she'd tied around his shoulder. The relic sat wrapped in canvas, but she could feel its
hum in the air, warping the world around it.
This was no ordinary storm.
This was a reckoning.
Selene had one name left.
A ghost, really. A man who was said to have escaped Nyumbara's curse over half a
century ago. They called him Jorah Kain — though few dared to speak it aloud.
She found his camp deep in the mangroves. Tattered charms of bone and rope hung
from the trees, rattling in the wind. A fire burned low in a pit, thick with herbs and
salt. And there, hunched by the flame, sat the man himself.
Or what was left of him.
Jorah Kain was ancient. His skin weathered like old driftwood, his beard a mat of
white and gray. One eye was gone, replaced by a milky scar. But his other eye — that
gleamed like dark glass, sharp and furious.He spoke without turning.
"I felt it. The Heart is awake."
Selene stiffened.
"How do you know?"
He laughed, a low, cracked sound. "Because I buried it with my own hands. Thought I
could trap it. Thought the sea would keep it. But you… you brought it back."
She dropped the canvas bundle onto the ground between them. It pulsed once, an
oily glow seeping through the fabric.
"Tell me what it is," she demanded.
Jorah's face twisted. "A god? No. Worse. The thing we called Kharun Kai — The
Drowned King. It ruled before language, before names. Fed on blood and storms.
When Nyumbara rose, its people made a bargain. Riches, power, immortality. In
exchange, they gave him sacrifices. When they refused, the ocean swallowed them."
"And now?" Selene asked, her voice low.
"Now it wants you."
Lightning flashed. The relic's pulse quickened. Luka groaned behind her.
Jorah stood, bones cracking. "There's only one way. Take it to the grave. Where the
dead walk and the sea does not reach. Bury it beneath salt and stone, and pray the
earth forgets."
"Where?"
His ruined mouth curled into a bitter smile. "You'll know it when you see it. The
place where nothing grows. The place where even the dead won't go."
A howl split the night.
Close. Too close.
Selene snatched up the relic.
Jorah's one good eye gleamed. "They come, girl. The drowned and the forgotten.
The tide is not finished with you."
Selene's jaw set.
"Then let it come."
And as the first of the pale figures stepped into the firelight, Selene Kai did not run.Chapter Six: The Place Where the Dead Won't Go
The night bled into dawn, though no sun broke through the dense, storm-choked
clouds.
Selene guided the boat through a maze of jagged rocks and dead trees, Luka
groaning softly behind her. Every mile deeper into the inlet, the air grew colder, the
mist thicker. Even the gulls had abandoned this place.
Jorah's words haunted her.
"You'll know it when you see it. The place where nothing grows. The place where
even the dead won't go."
And then — she saw it.
A narrow strip of black sand rising between jagged cliffs. No trees. No grass. Not
even the clinging seaweed dared touch this place. The air was heavy, wrong, tasting
of old salt and iron. At its center stood a stone altar, cracked and ancient, marked by
unfamiliar symbols. Bones littered the ground like discarded promises.
The relic pulsed harder in her grip.
They had reached the heart of the curse.
Selene hauled Luka onto the shore, his skin pale, feverish. She couldn't waste time.
The relic had to go.
Lightning streaked overhead as she approached the altar. The air vibrated with
unseen voices, cold fingers brushing her skin. The relic grew heavier, like it wanted to
root itself to her bones.
A low, guttural voice whispered behind her.
"It's too late."
She spun, heart hammering.
No one there.
Then the ocean itself rose.
A figure emerged from the water, impossibly tall, its flesh blackened and rotted,
crowned with coral and bone. Its eyes burned like drowned embers, and when it
spoke, the voice came from the depths of a thousand drowned throats."Selene Kai… blood of the breaker… return what was stolen."
The wave behind it curled like a serpent poised to strike.
Selene's hand gripped the relic, but she didn't move. Her pulse thundered in her ears.
"I will bury it here," she said. "You'll never touch it again."
The creature's grin split its ruined face.
"You think a stone and sand can hold the tide?"
It surged forward.
Selene dove aside as the wave crashed against the altar, the ground trembling. The
relic slipped from her grasp, landing atop the cracked stone. The sea recoiled with a
howl, the figure staggering back.
The earth itself groaned.
And then — the relic split.
A blinding, searing light exploded from its core.
Selene shielded her eyes as the dead screamed. The wave collapsed, the creature
vanishing with it. The relic's pieces fell silent, nothing more than dead stone.
The mist lifted.
Selene's breath came ragged.
It was over.
Or so she thought.
A faint pulse throbbed beneath the altar, a heartbeat buried in the earth. Selene
knew then — it wasn't over.
Not yet.
But for now, she had survived.
And somewhere beyond the cliffs, dawn finally broke.