Chapter 1217

The spiral in the sky widened with a sound like cracking stone wrapped in song - beautiful, but wrong, bone-deep and ancient. The wind howled louder, twisting around them in bursts, lifting sand and salt and broken memories into the air. Jude's arms wrapped around Susan as she stumbled, shielding her from the blast. Sophie had Lucy and Zoey pressed close, all of them ducked low in the sand, eyes squinting up against the storm above.

And Rose stood at its center, arms wide, her body glowing in pulses that matched the spiral's rhythm. Her dress snapped in the wind, her hair lifted like a halo. Behind her, the other women who had followed - the ones taken, changed - began to chant in low, synchronized voices, words none of them recognized, but which twisted in their ears with familiarity. Words they had spoken before, maybe in dreams. Maybe never.