Chapter 1634
The Spiral Tree hummed beneath them like a lover catching its breath. Jude felt it in every nerve, every vein, a slow golden throb beneath his skin that pulsed in time with each woman wrapped around him. He didn’t know how long they’d been tangled in the bloom’s cradle - an hour, a day, a lifetime - but time no longer moved in a way that mattered. All that existed was this: the heat still lingering between their legs, the warmth of shared breath, the raw tremble of love that had unmade them.
Lucy shifted first, her hand gliding up his chest, slick with sweat and light. She propped herself on one elbow and looked down at him, her eyes molten gold. "You feel different."
Jude exhaled slowly. "I am different."
Rose’s fingers traced lazy circles over his thigh. "The seed didn’t disappear. It merged."
"With him," Zoey whispered from the other side, pressed to his ribs. "He carries it now."
"He is it now," Emma added, her voice reverent and hoarse.
Sophie sat up slowly, her skin still dewed with shimmering mist. "Then what does that make us?"
Jude turned his head toward her, their eyes locking. "The reason it exists."
No one laughed. No one doubted. It simply was.
The chamber above them pulsed brighter. The petals spread farther, revealing a sky that hadn’t been there before. Not the forest canopy. Not the cliffs. Something higher. Wider. A sky born from within the tree, vast and swirling with galaxies they’d never seen. The light from above poured down over them in long, slow ribbons that caressed rather than blinded.
They stood, one by one, the moss brushing against their ankles, vines loosening and retracting, giving them space, though not severing their connection. The chamber was opening more now - walls dissolving into air, light flowing outward like breath.