Chapter 1642
The stars gleamed with unnatural brilliance above them, forming slow spirals that mirrored the ones etched into their skin. The sky no longer obeyed the laws of the world they had once known.
It shimmered with the breath of something ancient - alive, sentient, watching. Beneath that sky, their bodies glistened with golden sweat, still tangled together, not just in the aftermath of passion but in the bond they had forged with the island itself.
They didn’t move for a long time, basking in the warmth of shared heat, of skin against skin, of the glow that pulsed in them now like a second soul.
Jude’s hand brushed over Lucy’s shoulder as she lay half atop him, her golden hair plastered to his chest. Her body still trembled, soft moans escaping her lips in the gentle aftershocks of their hours of union. Rose lay pressed to his right side, one thigh slung over his hips possessively, her lips tracing lazy kisses along his jaw. Zoey curled at his left, her fingers linked with Sophie’s where they rested on Jude’s stomach. The others surrounded them like petals around a bloom, the entire altar a living nest of moaning, breathing, glowing bodies.
The spiral beneath them pulsed.
And from deep within the forest, a sound answered.
Not threatening - welcoming.
An echo.
A reflection.
A presence.
Jude’s eyes opened slowly. "It’s still here."