Chapter 1029

Mist curled vivid and low across the orchard before dawn, coiling around the saplings and braided ribbons like living breath. Jude awoke to the hush, heart drumming with something not quite fear, anticipation, perhaps. The watchers pulsed, faint blue halos drifting at tree-line and above the ring stones near the fig-glyph. His gaze fell onto Laurel, nestled between Grace and Sophie, eyelashes fluttered, breaths even. He rose quietly to spare her dreams, moving barefoot across dew-soft grass. The air smelled of earth and moss and promise. He knelt beside the central stone, pressing both hands into the cold, hard surface. His pulse matched the watcher's faint flicker, and he pressed eyes shut, listening.