Chapter 8
Amira couldn't sleep. The word "Truth" echoed in her mind like a bell tolling from deep beneath the waves. She kept the obsidian pendant close, but even its weight couldn't anchor her spiraling thoughts.
The next morning, she found Elias sitting by the fogged window, staring into the endless grey.
"I heard her," she said quietly.
He didn't ask who. He already knew.
Elias finally broke the silence. "She was angry. The night Selene died… it wasn't just a storm. There was an argument. She wanted to leave. To run away from this place."
"And you stopped her?" Amira asked gently.
"No," Elias whispered. "I didn't stop her… I let her go. And I never told anyone that she was trying to escape that night. Everyone believed it was an accident. Even our parents. But I knew. And I kept quiet."
The truth cracked something open between them — not a rift, but a clearing.
Amira placed her hand over his. "Then maybe that's what the sea wants. Not guilt. Not penance. Just truth."
Later that evening, Amira returned to the shore with her journal. She wrote everything: Selene's death, Elias's silence, the whispers, the warning. She folded the pages into a bottle and tossed it into the sea — a confession for the deep.
And as the sun bled gold into the water, the lighthouse — which had flickered uncertainly for nights — glowed steady once more.
But something still lingered beneath.
That night, Elias dreamed of Selene for the first time in years. She stood at the edge of the cliffs, her hair tangled in wind, her voice calling out his name — not in anger, but in sorrow.
And when he awoke, there was seawater on the floor beside his bed.