Chapter 1513
Grace’s voice drifted through the trees like a breeze wrapped in silk - soft, high, laced with sorrow and longing. It wasn’t the same melody as before. This was different. A new verse. A new tone. Her song carried weight, not darkness, but gravity. It pulled at Jude’s chest like a hand, invisible and warm, reaching deep into his center and tugging something loose.
He sat up slowly, the girls moving with him, their bodies still slick and warm from the moments before. Susan nestled against his shoulder, Lucy pressed a kiss to his collarbone, and Sophie’s hand trailed slowly along his thigh. But their eyes weren’t on him. They were turned toward the sound.
Grace was near.
Jude stood first. The moss under his feet felt warm, pulsing with each note of her voice. The vines untangled themselves slowly, giving way like obedient pets, parting to form a path. The girls followed silently, wrapping cloths around themselves, not from shame, but ritual. Each movement now felt like part of something greater, something unfolding with the rhythm of their breath and the island’s will.
They stepped through the trees and saw her.
Grace stood in the heart of a new clearing, barefoot, eyes closed, her arms raised like she was holding up the sky. The light bathed her from above in slanted golden beams, giving her hair a halo, her skin a blush. Around her, the trees bowed gently inward, their branches curled down as though listening.
She opened her eyes when they stepped into view, and for a moment, Jude thought she was crying. But no. They were tears - but not of sorrow. They glistened like joy too big for her body, overflowing down her cheeks.
"I felt you," she said softly. "All of you. Your hearts. Your... union."
Susan stepped forward, lips parted, voice trembling. "Grace, are you still with us?"