Chapter 1351
Rose sat up beside them, her long hair sweeping over her shoulders like silk. "It wasn’t just for us," she said quietly. "It was for what comes next."
A hush spread through the group, even the wind pausing around them.
Zoey stood slowly, wrapping a sheer length of fabric around her hips as she approached the flower. The petals responded, turning slightly in her direction. "Do you think it’s a seed of her? Of the island?"
"No," Stella said from behind Jude. "It’s a seed of us. "
Jude rose too. The moss was soft beneath his feet, cool and damp, a reminder that everything here had been shaped by touch. By desire. By union. He stepped toward the flower and knelt beside it, palm hovering above its glow. "Then do we plant more?"
Scarlet joined him, fingers brushing his. "We don’t plant. We share. "
The moment she said it, a ripple ran through the ground. Light flared faintly from beneath the moss in every direction, tracing paths, veins, networks too large to see all at once. Like the island was alive not in one place - but entirely, beneath every tree and rock and river.
"They’re roots," Sophie said.
"No," Rose whispered. "They’re veins. She’s alive. She’s aware. "
Suddenly, the island didn’t feel like home anymore. It felt like someone.
The pulse beneath them grew stronger - not threatening, but undeniable. Jude stood slowly, his hands opening as if in offering. "Then what does she want?"