Chapter 1151
Outside, the others were beginning to stir.
Sophie was already up, stretching her arms over her head, then walking barefoot toward the river with Emma. Lucy and Stella lay in the grass nearby, whispering to each other, trading soft laughter and sleepy kisses. Zoey was sitting cross-legged at the edge of the camp, watching the trees with a cautious eye, but not tense, just thoughtful.
There was no sign of black roots. No sign of mist. No twisted smiles. The ones who’d been taken, Susan, Grace, Natalie, Scarlet, Layla, were different now. Quieter. As if part of them still remembered what it was like to be puppets, and they weren’t sure how to move freely yet. But they were trying.
And together, they were whole again.
By midday, the normal rhythms returned. The wives split into pairs and groups, gathering fruits, checking fish traps, searching the forest for fresh herbs. Jude went with Rose and Sophie to the river, and though the current was calm, none of them went too deep. They didn’t need to say why. The water shimmered with light, not darkness now, but it still carried memories.
Sophie knelt in the shallows, scooping cool water into her hands and letting it run over her arms.
"It feels... cleansed," she said.
Rose nodded. "We ended something."
Jude turned to her. "But did we begin something else?"
Rose met his eyes. "That’s up to us."
That night, the twelve wives gathered close around him again, not in fear or tension this time, but with a slow-burning intimacy that had returned like fire after rain. Grace curled against his side with her head on his chest. Layla leaned over to kiss his neck, her lips soft and playful. Natalie ran her fingers along his thigh as she whispered something in Scarlet’s ear that made the redhead giggle and blush.