"Where is Zoah?" the Water God asked.
I frowned, forcing myself to remain calm.
"He must have escaped by now," I replied, trying to sound more confident than I felt.
A mocking laugh escaped his lips.
"You think Zoah would leave you here at our mercy?"
"I think a cold-hearted being would do whatever it takes to escape, gather the remaining herbs, and complete his mission before it's too late."
He studied me for a long moment before a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Was that speech meant to convince me... or yourself?"
"I'm not trying to convince anyone," I answered steadily.
"I'm simply stating a fact."
"A fact?" he echoed. "You barely know him, yet you keep protecting him instead of giving him away. I can't help but wonder why."
Oh no.
If I had powers, I would rip that brain out of his head and replace it with a dull one.
The man was dangerously intelligent.
How did he keep arriving at the right conclusions without even trying? What annoyed me most wasn't that he questioned me, it was that every assumption he made was terrifyingly accurate.
Not even slightly wrong.
If he had chosen the path of a scholar instead of living among a tribe of cannibals, he would have been extraordinary.
What a waste of brilliance.
"I don't know you either," I shot back. "Do you honestly think I'd betray someone to a stranger I can't trust?
Besides, you'll probably kill me anyway, so what's the point?"
He remained silent for a heartbeat before asking,
"Don't you think the man who dragged you away from your normal life deserves to fall with you?"
I shook my head.
"I'm not buying your idea.
Besides, his reason was just. And if you don't mind..."
I met his gaze without flinching. "...I'd like to spend what may be the last moments of my life in peace."
One of his brows rose.
"Are you dismissing me?"
"I'm asking for peace," I corrected quietly.
Without another word, he turned and walked toward the exit.
Halfway there, he suddenly stopped.
His eyes locked onto my neck.
My heart skipped.
Damn...
Why hadn't I hidden it?
The necklace was glowing.
Not faintly.
Brightly.
When I looked back at him, the amusement had vanished from his face.
For the first time since we'd met, genuine surprise flickered across his features.
Then something else followed.
Recognition.
Disbelief.
His expression hardened.
"Who are you?" he asked coldly.
I blinked in confusion.
What kind of question was that?
Seeing my puzzled expression, he rephrased it.
"Where did you get that necklace?"
"My late grandmother gave it to me when I was born," I answered cautiously. "Why?"
His jaw tightened.
"...Never mind."
Without another glance, he hurried out of the room.
The silence he left behind was even stranger than his questions.
What was wrong with him?
Why react so strongly to an ordinary necklace?
No one had ever paid any attention to it before.
Well...
Except Lydia.
Ever since we obtained Herb C, she'd stayed close to me.
Before I realized it, I'd begun trusting her.
I'd told her almost everything.
About Zoah.
About my growing feelings for him.
About him being the Dragon God.
About our search for the five herbs.
About how he'd saved my life.
I had even shared my own past.
Everything...
Except the visions.
Every time I came close to telling her, something deep inside me stopped me.
An instinct.
A warning.
Don't.
Not yet.
It always won.
And afterward, guilt would settle heavily in my chest.
One day, Lydia noticed my necklace.
She reached toward it, but instinctively, I stepped back.
I quickly explained that it had belonged to my late grandmother, who wanted me to have it from the day I was born.
Lydia simply nodded.
Then she smiled.
"Can I hold it?"
I almost laughed.
If only she knew.
The necklace had never come off.
Not once.
Since the day I was born, every attempt to remove it had failed, as though an invisible force refused to let it leave my neck.
It was almost...
Alive.
And that wasn't even the strangest part.
The visions were.
I kept seeing the same mysterious girl.
A lonely princess bound to the ocean.
A royal exile forced to abandon her home.
Around her neck hung...
The exact same necklace.
In the vision, it had been given to her by her mother before she left.
The visions hadn't started until Zoah entered my life.
I wanted to tell Lydia everything.
I wanted to confess my fears.
To ask if she thought I was losing my mind.
To hear someone reassure me that I wasn't crazy.
But those words never left my lips.
They existed only in my imagination.
Instead, I found myself saying,
"I'm sorry. My grandmother's last request was that I should never remove it from my neck. She said it was very fragile and could easily break."
I offered her an apologetic smile.
Lydia simply nodded.
"I understand," she said softly before apologizing for being overly curious.
At that moment, I wanted to tell her the truth.
I really did.
But once again, I resisted the temptation.
I caught a glimpse of disappointment in her eyes, as though she had expected me to finally open up and pour my heart out.
Yet beneath that disappointment was something else.
Curiosity.
It didn't make sense.
Why would anyone be so curious about an ordinary necklace?
Ordinary?
Was this necklace really ordinary?
What was wrong with me?
Of course it was.
...Wasn't it?
Now I wasn't so sure anymore.
Lydia had been curious.
And now the Water God had reacted even more strangely after seeing it.
Was it because it had started glowing?
After all, what ordinary necklace shimmered with a radiant blue light?
And why now?
Since the day I was born, it had never glowed.
Not once.
Not until we entered this temple.
My thoughts were interrupted as I watched the Water God disappear through the exit of the underground tunnel.
Then realization struck me.
I wanted answers.
I wanted to know why the Water God had reacted that way.
I wanted to uncover the mysteries surrounding my life...
...and the mysterious
necklace resting around my neck.
But none of that would matter if the cannibal tribe killed me first.
No.
I couldn't let that happen.
I wouldn't.
The problem was...
How?
I was bound by enchanted chains that no ordinary person could escape from without help.
And in my case...
There was no one left to help me.
By now, Zoah had probably escaped.
Even if he hadn't, would he reach me before it was too late?
Besides, Uncle Charles had once told us that only one person had ever escaped from the cannibal tribe.
Maybe...
Just maybe...
I could become the second.
Then again, Zoah and Natasha had already escaped.
That would make them the second and third.
Perhaps...
I could become the fourth.
A faint smile tugged at my lips before fading just as quickly.
Wishful thinking alone wasn't going to save me.
It was time to act.
At that moment, I made up my mind.
I would escape.
No matter what it took.
But one question remained.
How could I neutralize the power flowing through these enchanted chains?
And even if I somehow managed to suppress their magic...
How was I supposed to break free?