Chapter 1410

When Jude came again, it was inside Lucy, her name on his lips, her nails digging into his shoulders as she came with him. Zoey curled into them, her skin hot to the touch, her body glowing.

The chamber began to cool.

The stone pulsed once more, and the lava dimmed.

They lay in a tangled heap of bodies and limbs, their skin flushed, their hearts beating in one rhythm.

Zoey kissed Jude's shoulder and whispered, "That was the first gate."

He looked at her. "There are still two more."

"And we'll walk them," Rose said. "Together."

As they dressed - or tried to - they found that the clothes they'd arrived in no longer clung the same. They slid off, shifted, melted into the moss. The island didn't want them clothed anymore. It had no shame, and neither did they.

They returned to the grove as the mirror shimmered again.

The gold fruit pulsed now.

And Stella was already walking toward it.