Chapter 946
He sat up slowly, his head ringing, muscles stiff and sore. The robe was gone, reduced to a pile of dust at the base of the central stone. Around him, the twelve stones stood unchanged, except for subtle, glowing lines now etched between each, connecting them. A pattern had emerged, something the island had accepted or perhaps feared. Jude touched the nearest line, and it warmed under his fingers, pulsing gently with a rhythm that was not his own.
He didn’t need to ask if the wives were safe. He felt them, some strange, quiet certainty that the island had not touched them in his absence. It had seen him. Heard him. Chose to blink instead of devour.
Footsteps approached. Zoey was the first to reach the circle, her boots squelching in the wet grass. She was soaked through but smiling, her eyes bright with relief. She dropped to her knees beside him and wrapped him in a fierce, shivering hug.
"You’re back," she said into his neck.
He managed a smile. "Didn’t go far."
"You looked dead when we found you," she whispered. "You weren’t breathing for a minute."
"I was somewhere else," he said softly. "Deep inside."
Other footsteps followed, Susan and Natalie next, then the rest, one by one emerging from the woods or the house, surrounding him like gravity. Layla held his face between her hands, checking his pupils. Serena stood behind her with arms folded and tears drying on her cheeks. Even Ashra, usually so composed, looked visibly shaken.
"We thought you wouldn’t come back," Grace said. "That the island finally took you."