Chapter 879 - 881
She blinked. Her entire expression collapsed, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. She stumbled, nearly falling backward into the water. He caught her.
"Emma, ?"
She looked up at him, face pale and wet. "I, what happened? Why are we, ?"
"You walked into the pool," he said quickly, helping her back onto the bank. "You must’ve gotten dizzy from the sun."
She shook her head. "I don’t remember. I was just... cleaning the fish traps. Then I was here."
"You didn’t feel anything before that?"
"I don’t know. Maybe. I felt... warm. But good. Like, like I was in a safe dream. Then it was gone."
He helped her sit down on a flat stone and watched her for a long moment, searching for any signs of residual possession. Her breathing had evened out. Her gaze no longer lingered too long. Her hands stopped trembling. If the smoke had been inside her, it was gone now. Like all the others, it left no trace.
He said nothing more. Instead, he carried the remaining fish back to camp himself, watching every movement in the trees around him. By the time he arrived, the others had returned, and the sun had begun its slow descent. Shadows lengthened, stretching toward their home like claws. There was something in the air again. A charge. Jude recognized it now. It always came before someone changed.