Chapter 858 - 860 - Awakening
The world felt heavy and warm.
Jude blinked open his eyes slowly, his gaze adjusting to the soft light slipping in through the leafy canopy above. A few sunbeams filtered through the open window of his treehouse, dancing lazily across the wooden walls, casting green shadows that swayed with the breeze.
For a long moment, he just lay there, unmoving, his arms pinned beneath the two women curled on top of him, Grace to his left, with her cheek nestled into his chest, and Lucy sprawled over his right side, her soft hair tickling his neck. Their breathing was slow and steady, completely at peace.
Jude stared at the ceiling of woven leaves and wooden beams and exhaled.
It was just a dream.
That terrible, long, impossible dream.
He didn’t remember all of it, just pieces. Blurred shapes and panicked feelings. Death. Monsters. Blood. Shadows behind the trees. The heat of the volcano. Screams. Loss. Lyla... Something about Lyla.
And then, nothing.
It all drifted away the moment he opened his eyes and saw Grace and Lucy wrapped around him. Real. Warm. Alive.
He smiled gently, lifting his arms slowly. He shifted Grace first, carefully sliding his hand beneath her shoulders and easing her head down onto the makeshift mattress of dried grass and soft furs. She stirred but didn’t wake, her lips parting just slightly as she let out a quiet sigh.
Lucy was a little heavier, her leg hooked lazily over his waist, but he moved her with the practiced gentleness of someone who had done this a hundred times before. Her face twitched, and for a moment Jude held still, watching her lashes flutter... but then she stilled again.