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Darkness wasn't silent. It pulsed.
It throbbed like a heartbeat inside my skull, like the ocean itself had wrapped around me and dragged me into its chest. I opened my eyes slowly, but it wasn't the lab I saw. I was floating—no, hovering—in a vast blue chamber.
Blue light shimmered around me, and in the distance, voices rose like a wave.
"Eyah mora, vahi loren..."
The chant started as a whisper, carried on currents I couldn't feel but heard in my bones. Then it grew louder—layered, harmonic, inhumanly beautiful.
"Tides of time, awaken again..."
I turned.
Around me were merfolk. Dozens of them. Their tails shimmered like moonlight on water, scales glinting with colors no surface artist could dream of. Their eyes glowed faintly, some silver, some sea-green, and their lips moved in perfect unison.
"Selora nai, deluin mar..."
In the center of their circle was Korrin.
Korrin, the prince of a broken kingdom. Korrin, who had once hated me.
He stood still, eyes closed, arms outstretched, and around his chest floated the Ocean's Heart Shard—the one my father shattered, now pulsing with soft blue light.
He was calling it back.
Calling me back.
I reached out, drawn to him.
The chant rose higher.
"Guide the soul to where dreams are..."
When I blinked again, I was standing on the coral steps of a great undersea temple. I didn't remember swimming there. It felt like I had simply arrived. And behind me, Isaac gasped as he appeared beside me.
"Lila—what—what is this place?"
"The Heart's temple," I whispered. "The oldest place in the ocean. Korrin brought us here."
The waters glowed in shades of twilight, bioluminescent fish darting like stars around pillars carved with old runes.
The chant shifted.
"Waters rise and secrets call..."
Merfolk circled the platform. I noticed now—some were older, some bore scars, and one wore a crown made of dark coral and glowing pearls.
The queen.
Korrin stepped forward and knelt.
"Mother," he said. "I have brought her."
The queen's eyes fell on me, and I felt as though I was being unraveled and woven again.
"You are not only her daughter," she said softly. "You are the echo of the Heart."
I didn't understand. "What does that mean?"
"It means," she said, voice like flowing water, "you are the one who can bind the realms. The Heart fractured because of what was taken. Only you can return its will."
"And what if I fail?"
"Then the seas drown the land. And time forgets mercy."
Isaac stepped beside me. "She's not alone. I'm with her."
Korrin's jaw tensed. "Your father is the one who shattered the bond. He stole what was sacred. She is still half human—"
"She's also half one of you," Isaac snapped. "And she's stronger than both sides combined."
Korrin didn't respond. But something in his eyes shifted.
He extended his hand.
"The shard must choose," he said. "Come."
I took a deep breath and stepped forward.
The moment I touched the floating shard, everything stilled.
A pulse of blue light erupted from the temple floor. The chant returned—not sung by the merfolk now, but echoed from the walls, the waters, from inside me.
"Eyah mora, vahi loren... Ocean's heart, be whole again."
And it was.
The shard merged into my chest, warmth blooming under my skin. I saw flashes—my mother's laughter, my father's betrayal, Korrin weeping alone in a throne of coral.
I saw everything.
And when the light faded...
I wasn't the same.
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End of Chapter 13