Chapter 1623
Jude awoke in darkness - not the absence of light, but a velvet twilight that felt alive, thick with the hum of dreams.
The air was warm against his skin, scented with flowers that hadn’t existed the day before. He lay still for a moment, surrounded by the sleeping breaths of the women curled against him.
Rose’s arm draped across his chest, her fingers twitching in her sleep as if touching something even now in the dreamworld. Lucy’s leg was hooked over his hip, her skin still aglow with faint golden dust, her breath slow, even, sensual.
Around them, the nest pulsed with a soft light, holding them in its cradle like a secret the island refused to let go.
He shifted, trying not to wake them, and sat up. The glow from the moss beneath him brightened slightly in response. His skin shimmered faintly with every movement.
The change was still inside him. He didn’t need to see it to know it. He could feel it in his breath, in the way his pulse matched the rhythm of the forest.
He stepped from the nest, and the vines curled back respectfully to let him pass. The moss beneath his feet was warmer than before, and each step felt like walking on breath. The forest watched him, its golden canopy undisturbed by wind, but rustling anyway - like it was whispering just for him.
The others began to stir behind him, one by one, as if his leaving had sent a ripple through the bond they shared. Rose sat up, naked and radiant in the tree’s light, her eyes finding him instantly. "Couldn’t sleep?"
"Didn’t want to," Jude murmured. "Something’s pulling me."
Emma stood next, stretching, her body arching in a way that made the vines reach longingly toward her. "I feel it too."
Lucy yawned and rolled onto her stomach, watching them with a sleepy smile. "Like we’re supposed to follow something."