Chapter 1504
The silver-grass path wound deeper into a part of the island they had never seen, the air thicker, warmer, heady with the scent of wild orchids and wet stone. The light was strange here - neither day nor night, a perpetual twilight that shimmered through the foliage like gold dust caught in a dream. Jude walked at the center of them, surrounded on all sides by the women who had surrendered to something far larger than themselves. And yet none of them looked lost. They walked with purpose. With grace. With desire still humming in their veins like electricity that had no off switch.
The path widened into a clearing so circular it could only have been formed with intention. At its center stood a stone plinth, barely waist-high, smooth as riverglass and wet with dew that never dried. As they stepped into the circle, the trees behind them shivered - and closed. No going back.
"I feel..." Lucy whispered, but her voice trailed off.
"You feel it too," said Emma, brushing her fingers over Lucy’s bare shoulder. "Like it’s beneath our skin now."
"It is," Rose murmured, stepping toward the plinth. "It’s us."
Jude ran his palm over the stone surface. It was warm. Pulsing. A familiar vibration began deep in his chest, spreading outward like fingers under his skin, like every heartbeat was harmonizing with the forest’s own. When he looked up, he wasn’t surprised to find the women forming a slow circle around him, their bodies gleaming in the strange light, their expressions open, their eyes dark with wanting and knowing.
"This place..." Jude began, but Natalie cut him off.
"It’s another altar."
Grace nodded. "But not for sacrifice."
"For offering," Sophie finished. "An exchange."
"For what?" he asked, already knowing.