Chapter 1501

The wind shifted as the sun disappeared behind the canopy, casting deep purple shadows across the moss-covered ground. They moved together now - Jude and his twelve wives - not as individuals but as a unit, bound not just by touch and trust, but by something older. Something sacred. The forest no longer frightened them. It pulsed with familiarity, like veins through a living body, and they were its heartbeat.

Scarlet walked beside Jude, her hand in his, her body still glowing faintly where they'd joined moments before. She didn't speak - none of them did - but the silence between them was thick with meaning, a thread of tension and desire that hummed beneath their skin.

Sophie was the one who broke it. "There's something ahead. I can feel it in my teeth."

Emma glanced over. "In your teeth?"

"It buzzes. Like static, but internal. Like the air's not just around us anymore - it's in us."

Zoey nodded. "The island's singing louder."