The Tentacled

They call him a Cephali—an octopus-headed wizard in a world that fears magic. Cain is the church’s star student in Crab Capital, a coastal city built on fishing, faith, and fear. Every Easter, the church distributes “deep-sea specials” to the faithful. Every Easter, someone goes mad—gushing black water from their mouths, praying until their throats give out. This Easter, Cain is ordered to join the fishing fleet. No magic. No questions. Just a boy and the open sea. But the deep water has other plans. Below the black the Gel Layer  lies something worse than monsters. Gears that grow in human flesh. Worms that burrow into your brain and crawl out through your eyes. And a truth the church has spent thirty years drowning: The dead don’t always stay dead. As Cain descends into a conspiracy of heretics, immortals, and a legendary captain who rules the docks with iron and blood, he learns the hardest lesson of all— The church is not your shepherd. It is the abyss wearing a halo.