Chapter 872 - 874
Jude rubbed his eyes and stood slowly, careful not to wake the others. The wooden floor creaked under his weight as he crossed to the open window and looked out over the camp. The early mist had settled like a blanket across the treetops, veiling the world in softness that belied the fear coiling in his gut. What had happened last night wasn’t a shared dream or hallucination. Something had *spoken* through them. It had used their bodies, their voices. And it had known things only he should know.
His palms still itched where he had touched Stella’s shoulders, remembering how her skin had felt colder than it should have, like she had been underwater for hours before emerging. And then all of them, simultaneously, looking at him with that unnatural stillness. The voice, no, voices, fused together like strands braided from separate minds. He couldn’t shake the last thing they’d said, whispered directly into his bones.
"You will remember."
But remember what?
The door creaked behind him and Jude turned quickly, tension springing into his spine, but it was just Lucy, blinking groggily as she scratched the side of her neck. Her hair was a mess of tangles and her voice still thick with sleep. "Jude? What time is it?"
"Early," he said. "Go back to sleep if you want."
She walked over to him instead and leaned on his shoulder, peering out of the window beside him. "It’s so quiet."
"I know."
She didn’t speak for a moment, then said, "I had a weird dream. All of us were... saying the same thing. Like chanting. But I couldn’t understand what it meant."
He turned to look at her, watching the way her brow furrowed. "Do you remember what you said?"
"No. Just that I was speaking. I could feel the words coming out but it wasn’t me talking. Then I blinked, and I was awake again."