Chapter 1338

On the fourth morning, the air held a kind of electricity - subtle, invisible, but undeniable. Jude felt it first as a tightening in his chest, not panic, but pressure, like the moment before thunder cracks the sky. The others noticed it too. Lucy stirred against him in their woven nest and blinked up, her pupils widening as if she sensed it in the light.

"The island's waking up again," she whispered, her voice husky from sleep and kissing.

Jude kissed her bare shoulder, then rose, glancing around the clearing. The central bloom had grown in the night - taller now, its petals trembling slightly as though catching signals from deep beneath the earth. A second fruit shimmered at its core, fuller and more luminous than the first.

Zoey stood nearby, arms crossed over her chest, her skin kissed by sunlight and streaked with dried salt and pleasure. "It's calling us again."