Chapter 1523
Grace approached the edge of the pool, knelt, and touched the surface. The ripples moved outward, and with them came visions - flashes of herself in another time, another form, dancing naked in the rain, covered in ash and petals. She gasped and fell back, and Stella caught her, smiling.
"It’s truth," Stella whispered.
Jude moved closer, heart pounding. He looked down and saw not himself, but a version of himself painted in light, skin marked with golden lines, eyes glowing like Rose’s. He turned away, shaken.
Rose stepped up behind him, her hands sliding around his waist. "That’s what you can become."
"What if I don’t want to?" he asked, voice barely audible.
"Then you don’t. This isn’t conquest. It’s communion."
He turned to face her, and for the first time, he saw her not as Rose, not as the woman he’d loved, but as something beyond - her and more. She was still his Rose. But she was also something birthed from the island’s will, a vessel for the song.
"I want to understand it," he said.
She kissed him again - longer this time, deeper. The moment their mouths met, the chamber responded. The pool lit brighter. The air warmed. Behind them, the others began to move, slipping from their clothes with soft laughter and sighs, entering the water one by one.