Beneath the coastal city of Lanming, a gate sunk into the ocean floor rings bells that no one can hear — except the creatures that crawl out of the deep at night. When a deaf girl discovers she's immune to the bells' call, she becomes the only person who can close the gate before what's on the other side gets out.
The Sunken Gate has been there longer than the city of Lanming. Built into the ocean floor where the continental shelf drops into abyss, the ancient structure rings with bells that produce no sound above water — or so everyone believes. The fishermen know to stay away from the Gate at night. The priests say it's a seal against demons. The scholars say it's just geological formations creating resonance. None of them are right. Qiao was born deaf in a city that values sound above all else. She's learned to read lips, to feel vibration, to navigate a world built for hearing people. What no one knows is that her deafness makes her immune to the Gate's call — a psychic summons that drags the weak-willed into the deep at night. When people start disappearing and the city's barriers begin to fail, Qiao realizes she can feel the Gate's vibrations without being controlled by them. She's the only one who can descend to the Sunken Gate and close it. But what she finds at the bottom challenges everything Lanming believes about the structure — and about what's been held behind it all along.
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