Chapter 1652

The fruit was warm in his hand, pulsing with a soft inner glow, like a tiny heart beating beneath its luminous skin. It felt alive - like it was watching him, sensing him, knowing him. Jude stared at it for a long moment, his breath shallow, the hush around them complete. The wind didn't stir. The stars above seemed to pause their eternal drift. The women watched him in stillness, not from hesitation, but reverence. Twelve hearts beating in time with his. One breath held between all of them.

Then Jude raised the fruit to his lips.