Chapter 1553
Jude reached for Lucy again, and together they stood in the center as a crowd formed around them - people stripping off layers, crying, trembling, reaching. A man dropped to his knees and pressed his forehead to Jude’s thigh, murmuring something in a language neither of them knew. A girl no older than twenty pulled Lucy into a deep, aching kiss and sobbed against her neck.
The pulse began to spread.
The buildings shimmered.
Glass turned to light. Concrete softened. The air filled with something warm and sweet, like nectar and skin and safety.
They were making a second island.
Jude turned to Lucy, breath ragged. "It’s happening."
She kissed him, fierce and full of tears. "We need the others."
And through the shifting light, the veil opened again.
One by one, they stepped through.
Rose first, hair glowing like a wildfire, her mouth curved in triumph. Then Zoey, Grace, Emma, Sophie, Susan, Stella, Natalie, Scarlet, Layla, and Elara. Each one radiant. Each one bare. Each one a vessel of the island’s new rhythm.
The crowd didn’t scatter.