Chapter 1196
The others stepped forward in quiet awe. Zoey’s lips parted in a soft curse, but her grin was wild, exhilarated. Scarlet slipped an arm around her waist and pressed into her side, whispering something that made Zoey chuckle even through the awe. Lucy crouched beside the cliff’s edge, studying the terrain below with a focused frown. Her blade was already in her hand again, a silent promise she’d protect them no matter what lay between them and that spire. Susan, Grace, Natalie, Stella, all moved slowly across the stone, their eyes on the misty colossus ahead. Emma didn’t speak, but she moved to flank Jude instinctively, watching him with that quiet look that always said more than words ever could.
"There’s no bridge," Jude said, voice rough with the wind and wonder. "No path. Not yet."
"There will be," Rose said, her voice low, thoughtful. "The spiral doesn’t show us everything. Only what we’re ready for."
"Then we wait?" Zoey asked, rocking back on her heels, hand brushing Scarlet’s.
"Maybe not," Sophie murmured. "Maybe we listen."
They did. The wind whispered and roared. The river below rushed like breath through an open chest. And the spiral hummed, low and deep and steady, vibrating through the stone beneath their feet.
And then, it changed.
The hum shifted, not louder but brighter, resonating through them in a new way, and beneath the terrace, there was a sound. A groan. A grinding. The deep thrum of stone moving. Jude took a step back instinctively, heart pounding, as a shape slowly began to emerge from the gorge wall.
A bridge.