Chapter 1149
Sophie tightened her grip on his hand.
"Are we going in?" she asked.
He didn’t answer.
Because he already had one foot in the water.
The river swallowed his foot without resistance, like stepping into warmth instead of water. It didn’t splash or soak through his clothes. It just accepted him. The moment Jude moved deeper, the spiral stones pulsed again, faint and slow, like a heartbeat under the surface. Sophie was right behind him, her fingers laced tightly with his. Lucy followed, barefoot and shivering, her breath hitching as the current touched her ankles. Stella and Zoey hesitated at the edge, eyes flicking to the still, watching figures of Grace, Layla, Natalie, Scarlet, and Susan who now stood like silent guardians around the spiral, their faces tilted skyward in trance.
"We shouldn’t be doing this," Zoey whispered, but she didn’t move away.
Stella didn’t answer. She stepped forward and took Zoey’s hand. "But we have to."
Together, they stepped into the circle.
The moment all six of them entered, the water began to glow from within. It wasn’t blinding, it was soft and golden and old, like candlelight preserved under glass. The spiral opened, not downward but inward, as if peeling space itself. Jude felt something shift in his chest, not fear, not pain, just... change. The way dreams shift when you realize you’re dreaming, and suddenly nothing is as it seems but everything feels more real than ever.
Then the ground dropped away.
The water didn’t drag them.