Chapter 1266

Stella's lips trembled. "Rose?"

No one answered.

Layla woke next. She sat up suddenly, coughing, her hands clawing at her throat. Natalie grabbed her and held her close, murmuring something in her ear. Grace finally spoke too, her voice hoarse. "I remember being in the water. The dark. I thought I was drowning."

"You were," Jude said. "In something deeper than water."

The clearing was filling with noise again. Confusion. Tears. Questions. The once-synchronized seven were now scattered, broken back into individuals, each struggling to remember what was real. The unity, the humming, the whispers - it was fading. And in its place was grief.

They lost Rose.

No one said it. But everyone felt it.

It wasn't just that she had vanished. It was the way she had gone - like smoke. No body. No final word. Only the echo of her voice in their bones, in the humming that still itched at the edges of their minds.