Chapter 1409

They lay together in the glowing grove, their skin cooling beneath the strange new sky, the still air thick with the scent of pleasure and pollen. Jude lay in the center, his head nestled between Lucy and Sophie, while the rest of the wives curled into him like petals folding around a stem. Their bodies ached in the best ways - used, worshiped, loved - and yet none of them were tired. If anything, the island's rhythm inside them was building again, the tempo rising like a drumbeat before another dance.

Three fruits now pulsed on the pedestal, each one a different hue - crimson, gold, and violet. Each one calling to something specific in them.

Jude sat up slowly, brushing a lock of Emma's hair behind her ear as she stirred against his thigh. "We should choose."

"They want us to," Rose said, her voice dreamy, her fingers lazily tracing spirals across Natalie's back. "That's what the mirror meant. The fruits are doors. We don't just follow anymore. We decide."