Chapter 1613

They looked down - and saw themselves. Not just as they were now, but as they had been. Each reflection shifted - showing them across the arc of their journey. How they arrived. How they fell. How they loved. How they changed.

Jude knelt at the edge, and his reflection shifted into something he couldn't quite name. A being made of light and root. His face and not his face. His body but woven with vines, with flames, with petals. A god. A vessel. A seed.

Rose knelt beside him. "This is what we are now."

"No," Emma whispered behind them. "This is what we always were."

Then the water rippled.

A shape rose from the center - a platform, round and flat, made of clear crystal that glowed with threads of gold. It was a bed. Or an altar. Or both.

Jude turned.

Sophie met his eyes, then the others'.

"Another ritual?" she asked.

Rose nodded. "A final one."

"For now," Lucy added with a smile.