Chapter 1623

Jude awoke in darkness - not the absence of light, but a velvet twilight that felt alive, thick with the hum of dreams.

The air was warm against his skin, scented with flowers that hadn't existed the day before. He lay still for a moment, surrounded by the sleeping breaths of the women curled against him.

Rose's arm draped across his chest, her fingers twitching in her sleep as if touching something even now in the dreamworld. Lucy's leg was hooked over his hip, her skin still aglow with faint golden dust, her breath slow, even, sensual.

Around them, the nest pulsed with a soft light, holding them in its cradle like a secret the island refused to let go.

He shifted, trying not to wake them, and sat up. The glow from the moss beneath him brightened slightly in response. His skin shimmered faintly with every movement.