Chapter 1336
It didn’t blind them.
It bathed them.
It coated their skin in soft silver and gold, a final blessing, a kiss from the island itself.
Rose collapsed beside him, gasping.
All of them lay in the sand, naked and warm and dazed, their limbs tangled, their hearts beating in time. The island hummed around them - pleased, sated, alive.
For the first time since arriving, Jude didn’t wonder what came next.
He didn’t have to.
They were home.
And the island was theirs.
The sky dimmed into twilight, a deep violet curtain that folded over the horizon, casting the newly born flower in a halo of starlight. The air turned cool and fragrant, the scent of fresh blooms and salt mingling with the musky heat of their bodies, still slick and tangled in the sand. Jude lay on his back, breath slow, arms cradling both Rose and Lucy, their heads resting on his chest. Around them, the others were curled into one another - Emma and Sophie with legs knotted like vines, Zoey draped across Natalie’s stomach, Stella holding Grace with a tenderness that went beyond words.
No one spoke for a long time. There was no need.