Chapter 1178
The walk was long, but they didn’t speak much. Words felt too small for what they’d just survived. Instead, they focused on each other-the steady rhythm of their breaths, the warmth of their hands linked together, the quiet strength of their bond. When Rose stumbled, Jude and Sophie were there to catch her. When fear flickered in her eyes, it was Lucy’s quiet presence, Zoey’s soft encouragement, Scarlet’s steady hand that kept her going.
By the time they reached the cliffs, the sun was high, casting the sea below in brilliant blue and silver. The wind whipped around them, cool and clean, carrying away some of the weight of the night. They found shelter in a hollow of rock, a place they’d camped before, where they could see the forest and the sea both, where nothing could approach without being seen.
They made a small fire, not for cooking, but for comfort. The flames danced in the breeze, their crackle a soothing counterpoint to the crash of waves below. Rose sat close to it, wrapped in Jude’s arms, Sophie on her other side, the rest gathered near. They shared what little food they had-fruit, nuts, a bit of dried fish-and drank from their water skins, their hunger secondary to the relief of simply being together.
As they rested, Rose spoke in halting words of what she’d felt, what she’d seen. Of the thing that had taken root in her, that had tried to use her voice, her face, her love to draw them all into the island’s trap. Of the moments when she’d almost given in, when the promise of peace, of surrender, had seemed so easy, so tempting.
"But I remembered you," she said, looking at Jude, at Sophie, at all of them. "Your faces. Your voices. I held on to that. It’s what kept me from falling all the way."
Jude kissed the top of her head, his arms tightening around her. "We’ll never let you fall. Not as long as we breathe."
Night fell again as they sat together, the stars bright above, the island’s darkness kept at bay for now by their fire, their love, their resolve. But beneath it all, Jude felt it-the truth that this was only the beginning. The island had tested them, and they had won a battle. But the war was far from over. And whatever waited beneath the earth, in the heart of the island’s magic, it would not rest until it had them all.
He met the gaze of each of his wives, saw the same truth reflected back at him. They would face it. They would fight it. And they would do it together.
Always together.