Chapter 1646

Sophie stepped forward, naked and proud, her spiral glowing faintly over her sternum. "I've waited. I've questioned. I've loved carefully. But I know now. I want this."

She knelt beside the seed and pressed her palm to it.

The light flared.

It surged into her hand, up her arm, down her chest and into her belly. She gasped, her back arching, her breath catching in her throat. Jude rushed to her, catching her just as she wavered. She collapsed into his arms, trembling, golden light bleeding from her skin in slow pulses.

"I can feel it," she whispered. "It's alive."

The second seed had vanished.

Not shattered like the first. Not left behind.

Absorbed.

Sophie glowed from within now.

Rose's eyes shimmered. "She's carrying it."

Lucy pressed her cheek to Jude's shoulder. "She's pregnant?"

"No," Spira said gently. She is chosen. Not pregnant. Not yet. This is not flesh. This is spirit.