Chapter 1727

Jude had Lucy in one arm and Sophie in the other. Emma lay across his legs, her head against his thigh, humming softly as she drew lazy shapes on his skin. Zoey curled against his other side, kissing the slope of his ribs. Grace and Natalie pressed close together, giggling in whispers. Stella dozed on Scarlet's chest, their legs knotted together. Susan and Rose sat at the edge of the circle, watching the others, hands clasped in the moss.

Everything felt right.

Everything felt possible.

Just before sleep claimed him, Jude whispered, "This doesn't feel like the end of something."

"It's the beginning," Lucy said.

The next morning, the golden sky shifted to soft coral, and a breeze whispered through the camp that carried something new - music. Not song. Not rhythm. But tone. A single, sustained note that resonated in their bones, low and loving, like the forest was singing them awake.