Chapter 1156
They were changing faster.
Emma had been the last thread of resistance in that group, and now she was gone. Just like Layla. Just like Zoey. Just like Susan, Grace, Natalie, and Scarlet. And Rose... Rose was the beginning of all of it.
Sophie knelt beside him, a hand sliding up his arm. "We have to go. While they’re distracted."
He didn’t move. "And do what? Run to where? They’ll follow."
"We’re not running." Lucy’s voice came from behind a curtain of vines, low and urgent. "We’re searching. The spiral Rose led them to, it wasn’t just a ceremony. It was a gateway."
Jude turned to face her. "A gateway to what?"
Stella appeared beside Lucy, her eyes serious. "To the center of it. The real heart. Whatever part of her we didn’t burn out of Rose, it’s growing again. But maybe we can reach it before she completes whatever she’s doing."
Sophie nodded. "And maybe we can undo it."
They set out in the dark, torches kept low, moving as quietly as possible. They didn’t tell the others. Jude kissed Emma’s cheek before they left, pretending it was casual, normal. Her skin was too warm. Her smile too perfect. She kissed his lips in return and whispered, "Be safe."
He tried not to shiver.
The deeper they walked into the forest, the more the air changed. Not cold, dense. As if they were passing through layers of something too fine to see, but heavy enough to feel. The trees leaned slightly inward, and the ground beneath their feet began to shimmer faintly with patterns too intricate to be natural. Not watcherscript. Something else. Something older.