Chapter 305
It’s quiet in my chambers, or as quiet as it gets this deep in the sea.
Bioluminescent algae flicker across the carved walls, casting dim green and blue light that dances on the currents. Outside the thick coral-glass window, I see only the abyss—cold, black, endless. Somewhere in the palace above, Wake is rallying his generals, giving commands, preparing the army for dawn’s departure.
Me? I’m pacing, a communicator clutched in my hand like a lifeline.
It was Cora’s idea to give me one of the subaquatic comms Ty helped build. Sleek, conch-shaped, laced with low-frequency tech and modified to work with our orb-bonded blood. I press my thumb to the center and speak into the shell.
“Cora. You there?”
There’s a beat.
Then her voice comes through, garbled at first, then clearing. “Phoebe?! Oh, thank gods—are you okay?”
Relief floods me. I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear her voice until I do. “I’m fine. Mostly. A few more claw marks than I’d like, but we made it out.”
“Made it out of what?” she demands. “You dropped off the map after the Keep. Ty was starting to panic.”
“I’ll explain everything. But first, you need to know we figured out what Shoal is planning—what he’s really planning. When the original Conclave defeated Leviathan, they didn’t just pool their power together to seal him away, they had to use his own power to do it. They drained him. Siphoned his power during an astrological event on a day where a solar eclipse and meteor shower coincided—whatever power that generated funneled through a shit-ton of Darklite supercharged them to godhood. And it’s happening again. Soon. Like, days.”
I tell her everything we found. The Darklite mural. The celestial event. Shoal’s obsession.
There’s silence on the other end. Then Cora exhales slowly. “This is… a lot to take in. But I can’t see a reason to doubt it. If we have this little time, we need to move fast. Start pulling in every ally we’ve got.”
“We’re ahead of you. Earlier today Wake’s power manifested. He’s officially been named Dagon’s Heir, just like Shoal predicted.”
“Oh.” She sounds stunned. “That is very welcome news.”
“And he’s already taken command of the Abyssian army. Today we convinced the Grand Council to call for a Conclave.”
“That must have been the missive Khale recieved,” she mutters. “He’s been preoccupied mobilizing his troops for hours.”
“We leave for Estellis at first light.”
There’s a pause.
Then her tone shifts.
“Estellis?” she repeats, sharp now. “You called the Conclave to gather in Estellis? Why would you do that?”
I blink, taken aback. “Because… I believe it’s where Shoal plans to complete the ritual.”
“Phoebe, no,” she says, urgent now. “Leviathan’s prison is in the arctic. If he’s trying to commune with the Elder God, he would go there.”
“That's where Leviathan was contained, not where the ritual to siphon his power took place,” I explain. “The original ritual required an enormous amount of Darklite. They’d need a place rich with it. A city built from it.”
Cora’s eyes narrow. “Estellis isn’t made of Darklite. It’s carved from quartz.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that? Because you and I both know that inert Darklite and quartz look almost identical—until it’s activated. Then you’d have a whole city glowing like the sun beneath the sea. A city so radiant people would call it divine. They’d write stories about it. Myths. They’d say it looked like…” I pause.
Cora’s breath catches.
“…a star,” she whispers. “Look to the the star of the sea.”
I can practically hear her heart drop.
“Exactly,” I say. “Estellis isn’t just a meeting place. It’s the place. Shoal plans to awaken Leviathan—or what’s left of him—there. Within the week. And I plan to be there to stop him.”
There’s a long pause.
Then Cora says quietly, “Phoebe… you don’t understand. Estellis isn’t…”
She trails off.
“What?” I ask.
“I don’t want you to go in alone.”
“I won’t be alone,” I argue. “I’ll have the largest, fiercest army in the sea standing right behind me.”
Cora’s voice hardens. “The army won’t be in the castle with you. Damn it, I’m calling Khale. We’ll leave immediately. We’ll be in Estellis as soon as we can.”
I pause, starting to grow concerned. “What are you not telling me?”
She doesn’t answer at first.
I sit on the edge of the coral-settee, staring at the the communicator, waiting.
“I can’t talk about most of what goes on inside that palace,” she finally says. “Not tied as I am by my oaths. While you’re there—stay close to Wake. Don’t let him out of your sight. And whatever happens, do not go anywhere in the crystal palace without him.”
My pulse kicks up. “Grandma, you have to be able to tell me something.”
She runs both hands through her hair, the glow of the communicator stuttering across her face.
“You know I was born there,” she says quietly. “Raised in Estellis. But my sister and I left for a reason.”
The line goes quiet for a breath. Then another.
“The royal family,” she says. “They’re… complicated.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Cora looks me dead in the eyes. “They’re your family. But that doesn’t mean they can be trusted. Remember that.”
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