Chapter 1122
The bone tree rose like a monument carved from ancient nightmares. Its bark was pale and cracked, veins of black running up through the twisted trunk like lightning scars frozen in wood. No leaves. No fruit. Only long, antler-like branches that reached to the sky and curled as if in pain. At its roots, the earth was bare, no moss, no grass, only ash-colored soil that felt oddly soft beneath their feet, like old skin.
Jude stood at the edge of the clearing, staring up at it. Susan remained a few steps behind him, silent, the blue-glowing stone still clutched in her hand. Sophie was close enough that he could feel her breath on his arm, her tension bleeding into his bones.
"This is it," Susan said. "This is where she waits."
"Are you sure?" Sophie asked.
"I’ve seen it. In dreams. In the water. Every step has led here."
Jude stepped closer to the tree, his gaze climbing its impossible height. The bone-colored bark shimmered faintly as the sky darkened above them, clouds shifting like hands behind a curtain.
"She called herself Elyara," Sophie whispered. "That name, it wasn’t just a key. It was a door."
Jude placed his hand on the trunk. It felt warm, too warm. Throbbing, even. As if something beneath the bark was alive.
The moment he touched it, his vision blurred.
He saw flashes, Rose kneeling in the dark, vines wrapping around her body like lovers’ hands. Layla and Zoey submerged in black water, their mouths open, whispering ancient syllables that made his stomach twist. Lucy dancing naked in a ring of fire, her eyes empty and smiling. Emma screaming beneath the watcherscript altar.
And then,