Chapter 867

"I know," he said. "But this… this isn't affection. It's something darker. It's territorial. As if it's competing."

Lucy's eyes narrowed. "With what? You?"

Jude nodded.

Scarlett spoke up. "But if it's choosing us one by one, what happens if it gets through all of us?"

They all fell quiet again.

"I don't know," Jude admitted. "But I think we're being tested."

Grace, now fully recovered and sitting near the water's edge, tilted her head slightly. "Tested how?"

Jude looked at her, then at all of them. "It's watching how we react. How much control it has. How much we'll let it in. Every time one of you blacks out, it learns something new."

"What do we do?" Serena asked.

"We hold on to each other," he said. "Tighter than ever."