Chapter 1589

Jude looked around the circle - at twelve radiant, glowing women, all bound to him, to each other, to the island. They were beyond marriage, beyond tribe, beyond blood. They were one.

And the island pulsed with that unity.

After they finished eating, they wandered again. But not in search of answers this time. They walked hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, pressing lazy kisses to necks and mouths, fingers drifting over skin with absent intimacy. They wove through the golden undergrowth like lovers lost in a story that would never need an ending.

By midday, the heat had thickened. The air wrapped around them like a lover's embrace. The river called next.

It wasn't the same river they had known. This one had grown wide and clear, with smooth stones beneath the water and glowing lilies floating atop it like lanterns. The current was slow, warm. Tempting.

Without a word, they undressed.