Kai, the Dragon King of the Abyss, dragged Luna into the deep sea. Not for her—for her voice. It sounded like Stella's, the one he lost.
She was Number Seventeen. The first sixteen were dead.
He carved another woman's mark on her neck. Planted a scale in her spine. Leave and you drown. He wanted her to live as someone else's shadow.
Luna fought back. Smashed his memories. Asked over and over: "Do you love me, or my voice?"
Kai couldn't answer. Five thousand years. Killed his own mother. Tortured sixteen replacements. He never learned what love was.
But he made her soup. Took a blade for her.
Finally he said: "If you love someone, you let them choose."
Luna chose. She turned and held the blood-soaked monster.
"You're not a monster. You're my Leviathan."
Sixteen lives paved the way—just to teach him that when you let go, she comes back.
