Rowan's eyes slid shut completely.
The moment they did, the temperature in the shed dropped so sharply that Elara could see her breath rise in white wisps. The puddle beneath the door rippled outward, widening, darkening, swallowing the moonlight as though the water itself were turning bottomless.
Then—
A hand emerged.
Thin. Boneless. Shimmering with seawater.
It reached toward Rowan's legs with a tenderness that made Elara's skin crawl.
"Rowan—wake up!" she shouted, shaking him.
He didn't respond.His head sagged forward, mouth parted slightly, breath slow and shallow.
He was slipping under.
Not into sleep—but into the sea's memory.
The hand rose higher, wrist emerging… then forearm… the shape of a shoulder… as though a body was climbing out of the water entirely.
"Elara…" a soft voice whispered.
It was Rowan's mother's voice, shaped perfectly—every note, every warmth, every echo of love from his childhood.
"Elara… don't fight me. He's coming home."
Elara's stomach twisted."I know what you are," she hissed."You're not his mother."
The voice chuckled, and the sound was wet, bubbling, wrong.
"Doesn't matter. He believes it. And belief is a door."
The creature—still half-liquid—wrapped its hand around Rowan's ankle.
Rowan's body twitched.
Elara lunged forward and grabbed him under the arms."No! You can't have him!"
The creature paused.
Then its face rose out of the water—smoothtoo smoothas if carved from drifting fogexcept for its mouth, which stretched too wide to be human.
"Elara…" it said, mimicking Rowan's voice now, perfectly."You don't understand. He belongs to me."
Elara's rage surged up like fire.
"Then you'll have to take him through me."
The creature tilted its head."Gladly."
The water beneath it exploded upward as tentacle-like limbs shot out, lashing toward her. Elara dodged one—barely—then slammed her shoulder into Rowan's limp body, dragging him backward toward the wall.
But the creature's grip tightened.
Rowan's body began to slide across the dirt floor, drawn toward the expanding pool.
He breathed out a trembling whisper:
"M-mom…?"
Elara's heart nearly broke.
"Rowan! That's not her! Fight it!"
He didn't hear her.
He was too deep.
"Elara…" the creature crooned,"It's easier this way. He stopped struggling the moment he slept. Why don't you?"
Elara grabbed a rusted ship-hook from the wall, swinging it like a weapon.
"Let him GO!"
She swung at the creature's arm—and the hook sliced through water as though it were cutting into flesh.
The creature SCREAMED—a howl that shook the shed's wooden boards.The puddle surged backward, retreating, dragging the creature with it.
Rowan's body lurched free.
Elara pulled him to her chest.
Rows of whispering voices rose from the water, dozens at once—men, women, children—each calling Rowan's name in tones of love, grief, betrayal, longing.
"Come back…""We miss you…""You never left us…""We saved a place for you…"
Elara pressed her palms against Rowan's face, tears mixing with the cold rain dripping from her hair.
"Rowan. Listen to me. You are NOT going with them."
His eyelids fluttered.
"El…ara…?"
"Yes!" she cried. "Stay with me! You're here—right here—with me!"
The mark on his skin pulsed violently, glowing blue beneath the surface.
His breathing hitched—
And for the first time since he fell asleep—
His eyes opened.
Barely.
"Elara… I'm scared…"
She wrapped her arms around him.
"I know. But I've got you."
Behind them, the creature rose again—now furious, its shape unstable, dripping like molten night.
"You can't keep him," it hissed."He was mine the moment he drowned."
Elara stood.
Holding Rowan behind her.
Her voice shook—but it did not break.
"Then you should've kept him."
Lightning tore open the sky outside, illuminating the shed as the creature lunged forward—
And the ocean roared like it was opening a door.