Skye stood at the edge of the water, watching the waves roll in.
He had gone quiet.
Not frightened quiet. Not overwhelmed quiet.
Thinking quiet.
His huge ears twitched every so often, catching gull cries, distant laughter, the soft hiss of foam across sand. But his eyes kept drifting past the others, past the bright towels and crooked barbecue, toward the ruins scattered along the coastline.
Old castles clung to the cliffs like broken teeth.
Some had collapsed halfway into the sea. Others stood as hollow towers, their windows empty, their walls eaten by salt and wind. Vines curled through cracked stone. Seabugs nested where banners had once flown. Time had worn the edges down, but not the shape of them.
Skye watched them as if they were speaking.
Every now and then, Bonbon toddled up beside him with a bucket clutched in both paws.
Skye would crouch, pick a shell from the wet sand, inspect it very seriously, then place it inside.
Bonbon giggled every time.
Then she ran off again, bucket thumping against her knee.
After the third shell delivery, Celeste wandered over, brushing sand from her knees.
“Hi,” she said softly.
Skye looked up. “Hi.”
She followed his gaze toward the ruined towers. “How are you doing?”
Skye thought about it.
“It’s quiet here.”
Celeste’s ears perked, and then she immediately looked horrified by her own face. “Oh! Is it because of your huge ears? I mean—not huge in a bad way! They’re lovely ears. Very useful ears. Probably award-winning ears, actually. Not that ears have awards. Unless they do? I’m so sorry, that sounded much better in my head.”
Skye smiled.
A small smile, but real.
“No, no. It’s okay,” he said. “I just think too much. This is nice.”
Celeste relaxed a little, though her cheeks were still pink. “Oh. That makes sense.”
Skye pointed toward the ruins. “Some of those are from the Shattered Thrones era. When everyone was still medieval and Prydain was fractured into old kingdoms.”
Celeste tilted her head. “Prydain is the landmass we live on, and Caerfaen is the country, right?”
Skye’s whole face brightened.
“Yes! That’s right.” His tail flicked happily. “You must like history too.”
Celeste smiled sheepishly. “Only what my teachers told me. Orbal and Noodles were a little weird, although I did like Stella and Buttons. They were fun.”
Skye looked at her curiously. “Do you miss them?”
Celeste’s smile softened.
“Sometimes,” she admitted. “Even Uncle Thorne. He was a dragon, and he could be very funny, but he and my dad were best friends.”
Skye looked back at the ruins. “That must have been nice.”
Celeste nodded. “It was.”
For a moment, they stood together in the quiet.
The waves breathed in and out.
Bonbon’s laughter drifted behind them.
Then—
CRASH!
Something enormous hit the water.
A wall of seawater exploded upward and charged toward the shore.
Celeste had just enough time to squeak.
The wave slammed over both of them.
When it passed, Celeste and Skye stood dripping from head to toe, frozen in identical shock.
Seaweed hung from Celeste’s ears.
A strand of kelp had wrapped itself over Skye’s head like a soggy crown.
For one long second, neither of them moved.
Out in the water, Marzipan rolled onto her back with a tremendous splash, paper-candy wings flapping happily against the waves. Despite being made of folded sugar-paper and candy scales, she was not dissolving at all.
She was having the time of her life.
Celeste slowly peeled a ribbon of seaweed from her face.
“Marzipan!”
The dragon looked over.
Celeste marched to the edge of the surf, arms flapping wildly as she scolded her. “You cannot just throw yourself into the sea like a giant haunted bath toy! Some of us are standing here having important historical conversations!”
Marzipan pointed at Celeste.
Then pointed at the seaweed dangling from her ears.
Then made a deep, rattling laugh.
Skye stared at Celeste.
Then at Marzipan.
Then, very quietly, he started laughing.
Celeste turned to him, still dripping, still covered in seaweed, and tried very hard to look dignified.
She failed.
A laugh burst out of her too.
Soon they were both giggling helplessly on the shore while Marzipan splashed in circles, sending smaller waves racing up the sand.
Finally, with a happy chirp, Marzipan spread her wet paper wings.
Water streamed off her in glittering sheets as she launched into the air, somehow still perfectly intact. She climbed above the beach, circled once over the laughing Knights, then flew toward the old ruins along the coastline.
Celeste wiped water from her eyes and watched her go.
Skye adjusted the kelp crown on his head.
“I think she likes history too,” he said.
Celeste looked down at herself, seaweed dripping from her sleeves.
“She has a very dramatic way of showing it.”
Then Lumina came padding down from the towels, clutching a neon-pink inner tube almost as big as she was. She held it in front of her like a shield, ears lowered but eyes determined.
“Skye?” she asked softly.
Skye turned, water dripping from his ears. “Yeah?”
Lumina shifted the inner tube in her arms. “Can you teach me now?”
His face brightened.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding quickly. “I can.”
Celeste looked over, her expression softening as Skye carefully took the inner tube and helped Lumina step into the shallows. He showed her where to hold on, how to lean her weight, and how to kick without panicking when the water moved beneath her.
Lumina squeaked when the tube bobbed, but Skye steadied it with both hands.
“It’s okay,” he said. “The water moves, but it’s not trying to drop you.”
Lumina nodded, concentrating very hard as she kicked.
Celeste stood at the shore, her toes curling in the wet sand. The ocean lapped playfully, but she didn’t step further. The cool water was fine—safe—but her chest tightened just looking at the deeper waves. She glanced sideways at Lumina, who was drifting in a neon-pink inner tube not far from shore, legs dangling awkwardly as Skye gently demonstrated how to kick.
The inner tube drifted forward a tiny bit.
Her eyes widened.
“I did it!”
Skye smiled proudly. “You did.”
Celeste stood nearby, wet up to her knees, watching them with a warm ache in her chest.
The ocean still made her nervous.
But Lumina laughing in the shallows made it feel a little less frightening.
“See? Easy!” she called. “I can’t swim either, but I’m learning! You should try!”
Celeste shook her head with a soft smile. “I’ll just paddle, thanks.”
She waded in up to her knees, watching the glimmer of sunlight over the waves. But just as she was adjusting to the coolness of the water, a shadow loomed—then came the splash.
“Gotcha!” Mezzo grinned like a soaked devil, both hands flinging water directly at her chest.
Celeste shrieked, more in shock than anger, her arms flailing to block the water. “Mezzo!”
He laughed harder, backing away just out of arm’s reach. “Come on, princess. Live a little!”
She sputtered and charged forward, launching a half-hearted splash in return. Skye and Pitch joined in, and soon it was a full-on water fight. Celeste played along, smiling, even laughing—though her movements were cautious, careful. Every splash, every step closer to the deeper water, made her pulse skip.
She spotted a massive floatie drifting nearby—shaped like a giant cloud. Ray noticed at once.
She was already floating nearby in her own black-and-red inner tube, arms folded behind her head like she hadn’t spent the last several weeks flattening zombies with a hammer.
Ray raised an eyebrow. “Go on, Blondie.”
Celeste hugged her towel tighter. “I don’t know.”
“It’s an inner tube,” Ray said. “Not a sea monster.”
“That’s exactly what a sea monster would want me to think.”
Ray snorted. “Get in the water before I tell everyone you surrendered to a donut.”
Celeste gasped softly. “That would be slander.”
“That would be accurate.”
With great care and far too much dignity for someone approaching inflatable pastry, Celeste waded deeper and grabbed the inner tube. She tried to climb on.
The tube tipped.
She squeaked.
Ray immediately reached over, steadying it with one paw. “Easy. Centre your weight.”
“I am trying to centre my weight. My weight is being very rude.”
Celeste tried again. This time she got halfway on before almost rolling straight off the other side.
“Ah—!”
Ray caught the edge of the tube and shoved it back level. “Stars, you’re like watching a kitten fight furniture.”
Celeste clung to the donut, eyes wide. “I think it’s winning.”
But after a few awkward wiggles and one tiny splash, she settled onto it properly.
The tube rocked beneath her.
Then steadied.
Celeste blinked.
“Oh,” she said softly. “This is… nice.”
Ray floated beside her, smirking. “Told you.”
Celeste slowly relaxed back into the tube, arms resting over the sides. The sun warmed her face. The water lifted her gently, rocking her in place. Little waves lapped against her legs, cool and soft.
For a while, neither of them moved.
They just floated.
Ray closed her eyes. “See? Not everything has to be a fight.”
Celeste smiled faintly. “That sounds very wise.”
“It happens once a month. Don’t get used to it.”
Celeste giggled and let her head tip back, curls spilling over the edge of the tube.
For one precious stretch of time, there was no Council, no zombies, no glowing wells, no ancient voice in her chest.
Just the sea.
The sun.
Ray drifting beside her.
Then Ray opened one eye.
Her expression changed.
“Oh no.”
Celeste lifted her head. “What?”
Ray scanned the water, suddenly suspicious. “Where’s Mezzo?”
Celeste froze.
The water beside her tube gave the tiniest ripple.
“Ray?”
Ray sat up. “Brace.”
“What does brace mean—?”
Until she felt it tilt.
“Wait—”
Too late.
With a shout, Mezzo flipped the floatie.
Celeste hit the water with a splash and immediately sank, disoriented. The world became soundless, cold, slow. Bubbles streamed past her face as she flailed, her breath stolen by shock.
She didn’t know which way was up.
That’s when she saw it.
Something massive. Deep. Watching.
A shadow in the distance, barely lit by fractured rays of light. Scaled. Moving.
A golden eye—huge, alien, ancient—opened beneath her.
The Zombie Kraken.
Terror surged through her chest. Her lungs screamed. Her limbs kicked, searching for surface, for safety, for anything—
Blue light erupted from her skin.
It glowed from her eyes, her fingertips—a trembling aura of primal, desperate magic, like a pulse of starlight. The water around her rippled violently.
“CEL!” Ray’s voice tore through the surf as she dove, breaking the water’s skin like a bullet. “I’ve got her—Mezzo, move!”
Mezzo, face twisted with guilt, was already there. Together, they hauled Celeste to the surface, dragging her to shore—coughing, blinking, soaked and shaking.
“Are you insane?!” Ray snapped, rounding on Mezzo the second Celeste was safely upright.
“It was just a joke! I didn’t know she—!”
“You never think—!”
“All right, all right!” Mezzo raised his hands defensively, his Irish accent thickening under stress. “I made a mistake, okay? She’s all right now!”
Celeste pushed herself up, breath ragged. “Stop.”
They turned to her.
“I saw something. In the water.” Her voice was low, shaking. “Something huge. It was watching me. It wasn’t just panic.”
The group fell silent. Even the sound of waves felt further away.
Pitch’s expression darkened. “What did it look like?”
“I don’t know… just… a shadow. And a golden eye. It—” She looked down at her hands, still faintly glowing, the light fading. “It felt… old.”
Arcade stepped closer. “You’re sure?”
Celeste nodded.
No one spoke for a long time.
Then Bonbon broke the silence by gently placing a seashell crown on Celeste’s head.
“Amddiffyn eich pen,” she said with a wobbling smile.
Celeste didn’t smile, but she reached up and touched the crown with trembling fingers.
Whatever was in that water, it wasn’t done with her yet.
And it had seen her.
