The Drowned Gods, #1
Curious Tides
by Pascale Lacelle
Contents
Chapter 21: Emory
Overview
Emory attempts to use her Selenic Mark at Dovermere to contact the lost, while Baz urges her to accept Romie’s death. Their fraught confrontation turns to fragile comfort before a shocking return: Lia Azula walks out of the sea alive, then dies violently. Lia’s blackened spiral and mutilated mouth escalate the mystery and danger around Dovermere and the Deep.
Summary
On the beach below Dovermere, Emory wades into the Aldersea and calls Romie through her Selenic Mark, pouring intention into memories and names. The mark does not answer. Desperate, Emory also calls for Lia Azula and Jordyn Briar Burke, but nothing responds as storm clouds gather.
Waves surge and Baz drags Emory back to shore. Shaking and cut, Emory insists her dream of Romie was real; Baz gently argues that trauma and guilt may warp her memories and that Romie is dead. His compassion fractures Emory’s defenses. She breaks down, asks why he doesn’t hate her, and he holds her as the sea roils.
As their closeness deepens, Emory spots a figure rising from the water. Lia Azula steps onto the sand, alive and unchanged, locking eyes with Emory before collapsing. Water trickles from Lia’s mouth as she tries to speak.
Lia suddenly screams and staggers toward the sea, clutching her throat. Emory hurls healing magic but cannot stop it. The screams choke into silence; Lia falls still beneath the moon.
Emory and Baz discover Lia dead with her Selenic spiral blackened, her mouth and throat charred, and her tongue missing. The gruesome death mirrors prior unnatural resurrections and silences, confirming a lethal, inexplicable force tied to Dovermere and the Deep.
Who Appears
- EmoryProtagonist; attempts to summon the lost at Dovermere, confronts guilt with Baz, witnesses Lia’s brief return and horrific death.
- BazEmory’s friend; pulls her from the sea, urges acceptance of Romie’s death, offers comfort, and witnesses Lia’s emergence and demise.
- Lia AzulaPreviously missing student; emerges alive from the sea, screams in agony, then dies with a black spiral, charred throat, and missing tongue.